Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.
II Timothy 2: 22 (NLT)
Scripture: II Timothy 2: 22-26
There are times that we need to stand when Satan is tempting us. Other times, we need to run. This devotion looks at the advice Paul gave Timothy when he told him to run.
Cliff Notes
- We should pray for strength to stand, but we are going to have to make a decision about what we are going to do with the temptation.
- If we are supposed to flee from sin, we need to fill up the void with good.
- We are supposed to follow righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace.
In his second letter to Timothy, Paul gave his “son” some interesting advice. He told him to run.
Let's Put It into Context
In First Timothy, Timothy was a young man. Now in Second Timothy, he wasn’t. He was probably in the prime of his life, but he wasn’t the youngster that he had been. Still, Satan does tempt us no matter what season of life in which we find ourselves.
Paul told Timothy that following Jesus was going to take work. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Tim. 2: 15 NKJV). Diligence will take hearing His Word, reading it, studying it, meditating on it, and memorizing it. All through that, we need to be in prayer, asking God to provide the meaning.
To read Has God Provided Everything We Need?, click the button below.
We have to be diligent in watching for how Satan tries to lead us down the wrong path. We have to nip it in the bud, not let sin bloom fully.
Flee
In the verses immediately prior to verse 22, Paul is talking about the opportunities to sin being present in our lives. He doesn’t tell Timothy to pray for strength to stand.
Paul tells Timothy to flat out run. Flee. Get out if Dodge.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Praying is a good thing. But we talked once about putting feet to our prayers. There comes a point when we have to act.
To read When Does God Want Us to Stop Praying?, click the button below.
We should pray for strength to stand, but we are going to have to make a decision about what we are going to do with the temptation. Remember, free will. Sometimes, we need to flee.
Paul’s advice was to divorce ourselves from situations that “… stimulates youthful lusts …” (II Tim. 2: 22 NLT). We shouldn’t give it an opportunity to get its tentacles in us.
Back in Timothy’s day, “lust” meant something different than what we automatically think. It was a general desire for evil, which may or may not have been sexual. One term we would probably use today would be forbidden obsession.
Another term might be indulgence. We allow ourselves to enjoy something that we know doesn’t follow a life of righteousness. It is more of a guilty pleasure.
Whatever term we use, the outcome is generally choosing the sin over the righteous. We don’t want to do that. We want to choose righteousness.
Follow
So, if we are supposed to flee from sin, we need to fill up the void with good. That not only keeps us from evil, but it also brings us into fellowship with like believers.
Paul lists what we are supposed to follow. We are supposed to follow righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace.
Righteous Living
In my research, I found I had been looking at righteousness wrong. I had seen it as a character trait of God. When I looked it up in the Holman Bible Dictionary, it said righteousness was more like the outcome of when God fulfilled His covenants and relationships.
Let’s take a look at some verses and see if we can clear things up.
Second Chronicles 12: 6 says, “Then the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, ‘The LORD is right in doing this to us!’” (NLT). It was a choice, not a trait.
Jeremiah 9: 24 says, “If any want to boast, they should boast that they know and understand me, because my love is constant, and I do what is just and right. These are the things that please me. I, the LORD, have spoken.” (GNT). He always does good and never does evil. Again, these are actions.
You may be asking, “Yes, but what about post-Jesus?”
Matthew 3: 15 says, “But Jesus answering said to him [John the Baptist], “Permit it [John baptizing Jesus] at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Romans 4: 5 says, “But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners” (NLT).
First Peter 2: 24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (ESV).
James 2: 23 says, “And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God” (NLT).
These verses read like righteousness is a code. I am not really sure that is the right word, but I hope you get what I am trying to get across. It is when our hearts and lives follow God’s laws by choosing to do what is right.
We need to follow God. We have Jesus whom we can follow as an example. We see this example played out all through the scriptures. It should be our goal to imitate Jesus.
Faithfulness
A good definition of faith is Hebrews 11: 1: “Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see” (CEV).
We need to follow God in faith. We will never totally understand His ways. We don’t need to understand everything. We need to come to the point where we say, “Okay, God. What I don’t understand, I will just accept.”
Love
When we follow our lusts, we are usually acting in self-centered ways. Instead, God calls us to love. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love” (Gal. 5: 6 ESV).
We can’t look at love from the worldview. We shouldn’t see where it comes and goes. We shouldn’t see where it has failed us in the past.
Instead, we need to see God as Love (I Jn. 4: 8). We need to see that “… God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (ESV). That is the love we need to latch on to and follow.
Peace
Oh, man. Satan knows how to wreck our peace! He knows how to up our anxiety levels.
Instead, we have to follow peace. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4: 6-7 NKJV). We have to let the Prince of Peace flood our souls with that peace as we focus on Him.
Making the Connections
We may not like to run. We may see that as failing. It isn’t.
There are times, though, when we need to run. Spiritual warfare is real. “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6: 12 NLT). There is no way we are going to win.
God, however, has already won. He has defeated Satan. He is stronger because He is all-powerful.
How Do We Apply This?
We have to admit that we are sinners, believe that Jesus is our Redeemer, and confess God as our Sovereign Lord.
If you have not admitted that your relationship is not right with God,
have not asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior,
and have not confessed your sins,
please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
Then we apply this by striving to follow God’s laws. We want to give up everything that leads us away from sin.
If the “lusts of youth” are defined as pride, idleness, pleasure, wantonness, believers need to really determine how these are presenting themselves in our lives. This careful evaluation should help us to see what changes we need to make.
It may boil down to self-control. We may just have to remove ourselves from situations. We may need to recognize our weaknesses that Satan exploits and get out of Dodge.
Second Timothy 2: 22 is an interesting verse. I know we just scratched the surface of it. We have to know what battles we have to fight and when we need to just get out and preserve our relationship with our Father.
Father. Life can be so hard at times. It seems like Satan is throwing everything he has at us. Give us the wisdom to know when we need to stand and when we need to run. Lord, we know You will fight for us. Thank You so much for that! We know that we would never be able to win the battle on our own. Keep us safely in the palm of Your hand. Amen.
What do you think?
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