Accurately Handling the Word of Truth
2 Timothy 2:14-15 · JD McCulley · Sep 20, 2026
2 Timothy, No. 20
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/920261658145643

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright. We're in 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 14. So, pull up all your notes and get ready to crack down on the Greek. Can somebody read 2 Timothy 2.14 for us? Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God, not to wrangle about words which is useless, and lead to the ruin of the truth. Last week we looked at just four things real quick as a review of verse 14 here. Paul is saying keep on reminding.

Put the truth back under someone so it holds them up again. And that's really key here. And you think about your relationships with your friends and your family, your neighbors. Put the truth back under someone so it holds them up again. And that verb is present tense. Hold them up.

And this isn't like an email reminder or some kind of Apple reminder. This is a post-it note that sits right on the front of your mirror and it reminds you to keep on holding them up. And this charges to teachers. Now it applies to you too, whether you teach or not. You think about your friends, you think about your fellow players, your fellow buddies.

How does this verse relate to how you hold someone up? Now, again, this is to a teacher, and Mike drew a really important point last week around this, that Timothy functions like Titus, appointing and overseeing. So this is something that we see throughout Paul's ministry. He's constantly reminding both Titus and Timothy and young men, young people to hold others up when they go to share the word. And it's always in the presence of God. That's what we talked about last week. It's not God coming to stand in Timothy's room, it's Timothy is positionally where the Lord is. And so when you hold someone up, you're standing in the position where the Lord Jesus is.

And that's where the responsibility is handed to Timothy here. So in question 11, which is not what we're going to look at today, but we talked about the word fight. It was the word logos plus the battle, right? So the word battle. And we said that Timothy guards the deposit that Paul had made in him. Sound doctrine, remember? Hold these things. Hold on to sound doctrine.

And we stopped on a question last week, where is the line for you? That was the question that I presented to you guys as a class. And so, when we say where is the line for you, when do you stop having a word battle with a fellow believer or an unbeliever? Where's that line?

So, verse 14, the second half of that, which, and I'll just, you know, do not wrangle about, I'll just read verse 14 again, and thank you so much for reading it. Remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words.

That's what we dealt with last week. This is the second part that we didn't get to. Which is useless. and leads to the ruin of the hearers." That's what's really interesting about the second part of this verse. So, Paul doesn't just leave the word fight as a matter of, like, just that. He actually puts math to it. And he says that there's two results. And the second part of that verse is really interesting.

So question 12, what is the result of Christians wrangling about words? This is Q.U. You're up. What is the result of Christians wrangling about words? We're told not to go into that. We talked about that last week. But what's the result? I think there's been a lot of church splits because of that. A lot of times, well, I'm going to go this way and if you don't like it, you know, I'll go somewhere else.

I think in the verse it says it, to no profit. No profit. What does that word mean? Break that down. You've got your... What does no profit mean? without defining it with no profit. Mathematically it's zero to no benefit. Mathematically it's zero to no benefit. We could say it's useless, right? So the phrase is literally toward nothing fit for use. Zero yield. all that heat about a discussion and nothing is profitable. Nothing is built.

When we think about a relationship, and especially as Timothy is teaching, as a teacher you always want something to be profitable. You always want your hearers to walk away with something that, I've learned about a person. the Lord Jesus. I've learned something maybe about myself. But here Paul's saying, don't get caught up in these useless conversations and wrangling about words. And I think about how much in the Christian realm we get so bent out of shape over words. And to Wayne's point, churches have split over this wrangling about words.

So, and Courtney, you mentioned something in Titus 3.9 last week. I mean, it's the same apostle, Paul, giving it to Titus, and it's the same verdict.

And Titus 3.9 says, avoid foolish controversies and genealogies. I'm a Cancer, I don't know what you are, but if you aren't a Cancer, then... I always wondered why June was a Cancer. Anyway, avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

Yeah, Mike. I have a personal example of that. The very first time I ever came to Holly Hills was like 1980. 1980. Yeah. I just want to call that out. Donna and I are sitting downstairs in a Sunday school, and the whole room is full of maybe 40 people. Are you on mic? Yeah, it's on. 40 people, and Merriman wasn't teaching, it was a couple of other guys. One guy was teaching, another guy was questioning.

And they get in a word dispute on a Greek tense. Of course, I don't know anything about Greek, and I'm thinking... And they're going on and on, and I look over at the guy sitting next to me who's causing the trouble. I look over at his Bible. It's just Greek. I sit down. We're in the wrong church. Well, there's some of us in this class that could probably take that Greek Bible and settle that dispute. However, When we get into word fights, Paul is, why does he bring this up? Why is this so important for Timothy to pass this on to a younger man who is looking to continue to teach the church that he's involved with there?

And this idea of it's unprofitable and worthless. I think that's a spiritual, maturity, don't you think, that he's speaking to? It's like, just because you may know and may be able to slay the dragon, so to speak, there comes a point where the Spirit of God calms your heart and says, this is unprofitable.

You're not building, you're tearing down. Well, I think the root of it too is in love. In love. When you start getting angry and defensive and the love aspect goes away. So I think when you get to the point of pounding the table or whatever, I don't think you're doing it in love. And, you know, you're actually doing harm. That's what, it's fit for nothing is what Paul is telling Timothy.

And the word is where we get our English word, catastrophe. And here's what's interesting. That word, catastrophe, in the Greek, It means to turn over and to turn under. So it's like as the soil is with a plow. You take hard soil and you plow it over. And what does it become? Soft, turned over, turned under, thrown over.

And that's the idea behind this word catastrophe, our English term. In the Greek Old Testament, it's used of the destruction or overthrow of men and of cities. And so Macaulay says that the word ruin is literally turn upside down, transliterated into English catastrophe. This points to the disastrous results of engaging in word battles. Catastrophe.

So stick with this plow concept for a minute because it's really the picture that's attached to this word. A plow, it turns up ground and it was settled and it was packed and it was holding weight and then all of a sudden it gets rolled over and it gets loosened up and that's exactly the picture of a word fight. what a word fight does to the listener.

Now that's where we need to focus on, is that in this particular case, the soil is the listener. And it was packed. Doesn't mean it was right, but it was settled. And you go in and you just drill right straight through it and turn it all up, plow it under. And maybe that's a brand new believer who's just barely got his footing. And that happens a lot, doesn't it? And it ruins the hearers. Notice that. That's really important. The ones listening. That's what it says here. You just plow it under. Turn it over. And that's a sting. So, this is to teachers.

Now, I think it applies to all of us. You know, we can go in, you know, for example, my son could hear sound doctrine at home, go off to the church that he's involved with in his youth group, my daughter in the same situation, both my daughters, even in a marriage, you could just plow it out. So this is applicable for all of us as when we learn the truth, just as Timothy was being taught from Paul, we can take that truth and we can just turn it upside down for another believer. I think of a teacher who might be wanting interaction from his audience. He starts to wrangle about these words, you know, and people are wanting to answer questions.

I disagree with that. Are not going to want to say anything anymore. Right? I've seen that before where it's like, well, I don't want to say anything because whatever I say, he's going to shoot down. Right? And it's going to be unprofitable for everybody because everybody's just going to. Yeah, not see anything good in it at all, not going to want to say anything or even learn from what the teacher has to say. Have you ever been in a class where you feel like you can't speak because you're going to get shot down? Yeah.

Sometimes rightly dividing the word of truth requires correction. But how that correction is delivered? I think constrained by what Paul is telling Timothy here. Because there's damage that can be done. And that's what he's talking to Timothy about here.

Mike, last week you said that the charges to teachers, the appointed men, so this is math on the man who is delivering the message to his listeners. The hearers are the flock. Watching the men who are supposed to be feeding them fight over a term, just like the story you said that you had when you first got here in 1980. Yeah, I think early on in the chapter, he's instructed Timothy to pay attention to the sound words that Timothy has heard Paul teach, and not to vary, or move away from that, or debate them, or add to them, or edit them in any way. Keep sound doctrine. the way I've taught you. I think there's a warning here, but be prepared for those who are going to want to argue your position for the sake of argument. The term, axe to grind, comes to mind. Sometimes there are folks that have an axe to grind.

Paul is saying, Timothy, be careful about that, because here's the thing. You've got young believers in your midst, If you engage in this word wrangling, it's not profitable for them because you're literally demolishing them. You're tearing them down. Because they're sitting there watching two grown men, so to speak, in the scripture, biblically, maturity, maybe, argue over a thing, and it just tears a young believer down. It knocks the building over. A word fight takes everything and just knocks down young believers and those in your midst.

I was just thinking, it's also a little arrogant in the sense that it's trying to take away the role of the Holy Spirit. as the convictor and the teacher in that person's life as well. And that's an interesting thought. So, you know, you can speak the truth, but ultimately it's the Spirit that has to work that in. And so, who are we to think that we can have the kind of impact that the Spirit should? Arrogant speech that convinces a person when the Holy Spirit is the convincer.

Yeah, Mike told me that he said, and I'm talking about Doyle here, he said, we use the Socratic method in this class. I was like, okay, cool. I mean, we just ask questions and stuff. He's like, yeah, and we let the Holy Spirit do the work. I was like, well, what about my preparation? What am I supposed to, I have a PowerPoint. How is the Holy Spirit supposed to do the convincing if I've already got it on a PowerPoint?

2 Timothy 2.15. Let's move on to the next verse.

Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. Accurately handling the word of truth. Just to compare that from the NASB to the King James, King James says, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So there's accurately handling the Word of Truth, there's rightly dividing the Word of Truth. I think most of the time we use the King James Version of rightly dividing the truth, and I like that. But this is a study and a rightly dividing.

So, questions 13 and 16, that we'll get to sometime down the road, are really about these things. Question 13, what does the word be diligent mean to the modern day Christian? Be diligent. It's a command, it's an imperative. What do you do with it? What does the word diligent mean? That's my best version of it. Yeah, that's right. It means to make haste. We don't use that word haste. To exert oneself. Okay, we're getting a little closer. To be eager and earnest about something. What are you passionate about? What are you earnest about? What are you eager about? I mean, is it TikTok? You know, is it... Is it Fox News? Wherever you get your news, I don't know.

What are you earnest about? What are you diligent about? Are you diligent about your job? Well, certainly those things are important. But here, we're asking, what does the word be diligent mean to the Christian in this context? We just read verse 15. So think about that. Show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Approved. I think that if we were to put it in athletic terms, so to speak, it's like, get after that. Get on it. That's the thing. Focus. Get on that.

Your notes might say that this word is to make haste, to exert oneself, endeavor, give diligence. There are some interesting examples of its use in the papyri. Moulton and Milligan, two theologians who I'm not aware of, but they say, make haste, be eager, give diligence with the further idea of effort. And Paul writes to Timothy, do your best, make haste, give diligence, hurry on, be eager to show yourself approved unto God. And what is diligence for? Is it just a Just like, oh, I've got to get game day ready. I've got to turn on my favorite playlist and really dial in so that Texas Tech can win. And they did, by the way.

I think one of the things he's talking about here is how important the word of God is to a believer. Increasingly, I think, as a believer goes along and grows, that the Word of God becomes more important to him, her. And because you begin to realize, well, that's where truth is. That is, you know, you find out that the Lord Jesus said, I am the truth.

Through that process, this relationship of intimacy with the Lord Jesus begins to come together slowly. And you live in a world that's chaotic. But Timothy is being told, you know, if you're a diligent student of the Word of God, you will Well, he uses the word presented here, which is an incredible word, because it's like we're all going to be presented in the Holy of Holies to the Lord. A workman doesn't need to be ashamed, in other words. fit out to be presented.

But the place you find out about that is in His Word. Okay, so that's... I'm going to take what you just said there. The way you find out about that is in His Word. So, the object of diligence is the Word of God. And, mind you, that's a person. But it is also the written word. That's how we learn about the person. We have to be taught how to be diligent.

And diligence is a motive. Where does that motive come from? I'm just going to be diligent today. Where do you get diligence from? When you spend time with him, you grow in that diligence. And Paul's reminding Timothy, stay here. This is where you need to stay. This is your base of operations. Because if you vary from that, we know that the sin nature will take its base of operations with us. That's Romans, right? Romans 8. Lots of different verses throughout the book of Romans. The sin nature would love to take a base of operations.

He's saying stay focused on handling the Word of God diligently. And this, you know, this might sound like try harder. Guys, just get out there, pull up, you know, the bootstraps and like muck through it, stay diligent. But this is, the diligence is aimed at handling the Word of God. It's not in trying, it's not, Paul's not telling Timothy to try to improve his flesh. This isn't self-effort. Why? Go back to verse 11. What does verse 11 say? Someone read it.

It's a trustworthy statement for, or if since you died with him, you shall also live with him. What does that mean to what we just talked about? If you died with Him, you will live with Him. So, is this diligence, is it related to improving your flesh? No way. Because, verse 11, you died, and now you live with new life. You're a new creature. Diligence is in the new creation. So question 14. What kind of results do this test show? I wanted to add one thing to your last question.

God gave us his word, and he will, through the spirit, give you the motivation to spend a little time, at least initially, in the word, just to see what it says. And I think the more that you do that, the more that you're attracted to it, because you have the life in you that is attracted to it. It isn't the flesh having to be very disciplined to do it. It's something you find out that you really like doing, because you're finding out information, but you're also at the same time even might be unaware. that there's this relationship starting and building, and you like to spend the time, and you find out that, well, I spent time with the Lord today in His Word. You know, people like you that study realize there are days that you can be studying for an hour or two and wonder where the time went. And, you know, you think, well, You don't even think about fulfilling these admonitions.

It's just, gee, this is really cool. I was thinking about what you're saying there. You start curious, and then it becomes a hunger, and then it becomes a craving. Yeah. Yeah, it does. And all centered around a person. Yeah, I want to know more about the Lord. And who does that? The Holy Spirit.

I also think, going back to the diligence, to me the thing about diligence is it's a focus and a desire. It's a desire to accomplish something. You know, I say I'm diligent to, whatever, do my work. To me it's a focus with a desire to accomplish a goal. And here I think the diligence is a desire to present yourself approved to God, which is the focus on the Lord. Approved. Approved. You know, that's our focus, to be approved. What is approved is to be conformed to the image of Christ. That's how we're... Well, if you... What's required to be approved? There has to be an examination. How does that work? I also want to touch it.

It's the Holy Spirit, but this is also us. I mean, it is the Holy Spirit working through it, but it's us, you know, working. He's not saying just lay back and the Holy Spirit will make this happen on you. He says you be diligent, you be focused, you be desire to be approved of God. And it's the Holy Spirit doing it, but we're a part of that in that we have that diligence, that desire to do that. This is the great word, dokimas, which is... Thokimas. As you remember, we've studied dokimas and prosmas.

Yeah, tested and found genuine, right? It was used a metal that was put to fire. That's where that word comes from. When we think about coins in those times, that metal was put to fire in order to form it and then it was tested by the money changers or whoever did that. It was approved after examination. That's the idea, is that they would put it to fire, they would form it, and then they would look at it and say, yes, this is met.

Like, let's move this one forward. And so Paul uses that word here, and I think that this is one of the only places in the New Testament that it exists. It's compared in the epistles of Dockymos and Parasmos. Parasmos is testing for failure. Dockymos is testing for approval.

Yeah, your lesson notes here has approved as We'll use the pronunciation documents because that's just what we're going to go with. And this is the verbal form means to put to the test for the purpose of approving and finding that the person or thing meets the specifications laid down to put one's approval upon that person or thing. A workman approved is a workman, and here's where it gets personal. A workman approved is a workman who has been put to the test. and meeting the specifications, and has won the approval of the one who has subjected him to the test. Yeah, Mike.

You know, the other thought I had, I wish I'd have thought about it when I was putting the questions together. Kristen's always asked the Lord, well, what do you want me to do? What do you want from me? What do you want me to do? I want to be, I mean, I'll do whatever you want me, what do you want me to do? I want to, I want to, uh, You know be an evangelist or all that or I'm gonna do these other tasks This is the task right here This is where the answer to what is where the examination happened. This is it right here For every believer stay diligent in the Word of God.

Yeah Well, yeah, and we definitely have a part in this because the diligence is also in Hebrews 4 where we're to be diligent to enter his rest and And so it's not a body at rest stays at rest kind of an idea. It's no, we're spudazzo, we're being diligent, we're making haste to enter his rest. Stay there. So stay in his rest, but it does take effort. So there is a part of us who has to get up off the couch. We're at time. So what we'll do is we'll pick up with question 15. You've added more questions to these lessons, Dwight. Well, it used to take three weeks. I must be diligent. All right. Let's see. OK. Let's pray.

Father, how we thank you that The reality is that in the new nature, it is a rest and a joy to spend time in your word, and that being diligent is not something that we need to trust over to the flesh or allow the flesh to engage in. counter our desires in the new nature. And so, Father, we thank you that you've taken care of that. We've been crucified, and it's no longer we who live, but it is your Son who lives through us. And so, we're thankful for the truths of what you had Paul share with Timothy here, and I pray that we would take them and just be mindful of how your word encourages our hearts to live this life that we have now. And it's your name we pray. Amen.