have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. [2 timothy 2:23]
there is one thought and one question God keeps leading me to as i read over this verse.
thought: timothy must have been waist deep in “ignorant controversies” because paul addresses this issue multiple times with timothy in both his letters to timothy. in some backwards way, this is encouraging. it seems every generation of believers have struggled in this area and strangely enough, i am encouraged by that. we are not uniquely crazy! i am probably encouraged because it also awakens my heart to a key point in spiritual warfare: the enemy is constantly trying to take our eyes off the main issue. he is constantly attempting to take us away from eternal gospel issues and fix our eyes on issues that are temporal, not gospel related, and just don’t matter.
question: what is God revealing about himself with this command? practically, getting involved in “ignorant controversies”, takes our eyes off eternal gospel issues. but, what is God revealing about his glory? what is God declaring about his majesty when he tells us to avoid quarreling over things that don’t matter?
spend the next few minutes waiting on the LORD.
how do you wait? ask him what is he revealing about himself? look at the key words he is against in this command: foolish, ignorant controversies, quarrels. what is in God’s holiness, God’s character, God’s glory – that is hates these things? read over the verse, ask, plead with God to reveal himself.
as he does, write it down and then worship him. he is glorious! and even in this command he is revealing his glory to you and i. o, son, daughter of the LORD, worship him, worship him! worship him now!
one thing i have asked of the LORD … to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD. [psalm 27:4]
~ john ryan