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is not possible to make distinction between the evil doctrine taught and the teacher, we
cannot repudiate the doctrine and retain fellowship with the teacher, and so the apostle
says:
"If a man therefore purge himself from these."
The "purging" is personal and thorough. It is personal, the apostle does not say that
we have to attempt to purge another, we have to purge ourselves. The word occurs in
only one other place, namely in I Cor. 5: 7:
"Purge out therefore the old leaven."
and Timothy having been brought up with a Jewish mother and grandmother, would
remember very vividly the scrupulous care with which every crumb of leaven and bread
was sought and put out at the Passover season, and the change of figure here would not
prevent him from sensing the same application. He would also remember the exhortation
of the prophet:
"Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the
midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord" (Isa. 52: 11).
and would find no difficulty in transferring the thought of cleanliness from those that
bore the vessels, to the vessels themselves. This attitude towards iniquity and evil
doctrine, the apostle sums up in the one word "sanctified". This word can mean that state
of holiness which is the glorious destiny of the redeemed (Eph. 5: 26); or it may mean
some special "setting apart" as "the blood of the covenant wherewith He was sanctified"
(Heb. 10: 29), for Christ Who was "holy" was not made "holy" by the shedding of His
Own blood. This wider meaning is seen in I Tim. 4: 5, where, speaking of the question
of food, the apostle says:
"It is sanctified by the word of God and prayer."
So in II Tim. 2: 21 the sanctification there uppermost is the idea of separation or
setting apart for any particular purpose; in this instance, set apart particularly for the
Master's use. We must not ignore, however, that hegiasmenon and hetoimasmenon are
perfect participles, and should be rendered "having been sanctified" and "having been
prepared". This would lead us to see that, the "purging of self", the "shunning" and the
"avoiding" that was enjoined upon Timothy, was but the "perfecting of holiness", the
carrying of one's sanctification to its logical conclusion. This one can see most clearly
set out in II Cor. 6: 14 and 7: 1, where the separation of the believer there enjoined is
said to be but the taking of holiness to its logical conclusion ("perfecting" does not mean
"improving" but "finishing" or taking anything to its "goal").
These believers had been prepared unto every good work, as we can see in Eph. 2: 10,
where the words "before ordained" are the translation of proetoimasen, this is the one
side of the seal, "The Lord knoweth them that are His". They are exhorted to act
according to this high calling, and the response that is expected in II Tim. 2: 20, 21 is in
harmony with the other side of the seal "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ