Materials
Conflict
and Community in the 1st and 21st Century
Foolish And Stupid Arguments
II Timothy 2:14-26
by Dale Pauls and R. Todd Bouldin
I. INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW
A. What was the most stupid argument you have ever witnessed or been part of?
1. Who was in it?
2. What was it about?
3. Where did it happen?
4. How did it start?
5. How did it end?
B. How did you know it was stupid?
1. No one learned anything
2. It didn’t go anywhere
3. No one was willing to admit they were wrong
4. The issue wasn’t the real issue
C. Read II Timothy 2:14-26 and especially v. 8.
II. CONTEXT OF I AND II TIMOTHY
A. Paul writes to his younger associate Timothy about various matters concerning his leadership of the church. I Timothy 1: 2 “My true son in the faith.”
B. Paul, assuming he is the author, is probably later in his life (mid-60s). The church is more developed and begins to take on more institutional structures. Earlier in his life Paul was bombastic, capable of hurling anathemas, stormy and passionate. In these Pastoral Epistles, we see a much more reflective, gentle Paul. We get the sense that the earlier Paul might have enjoyed a good argument, but in II Timothy 2:23, he writes, “Have nothing to do with foolish and stupid arguments.”
C. So what might these people have been arguing about?
1. I Timothy 1:3-6
a. False doctrines (v. 3)
b. Myths and genealogies (v. 4)
c. Meaningless talk (v. 6)
2. I Timothy 4:7
a. Godless myths and old womanish tales
3. I Timothy 6:20
a. Godless chatter
b. The opposing of ideas of what is falsely called knowledge (gnosis)
4. Our text today:
a. Quarreling about words (14)
b. Godless chatter (16)
c. Foolish and stupid arguments
5. II Tim. 3:6-7
a. “Weak willed women” (v. 6) – old wives tales
b. “Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” (v. 7)
6. Titus 3:9-11. Foolish controversies, genealogies, arguments, quarrels about law. Warn a divisive person once, and then a second time, and after that have nothing to do with him.
In Summary:
a. There is a specific heresy in Ephesus, and women are somehow the focus of this heresy. It also is the context for the instruction in I Tim. 2:11-15 for a woman not to have authority in the church.
b. Catherine Kroeger and Mickelsen are helpful here. There existed a form of Jewish Gnosticism (“knowledge – false called”) focusing on maternal primacy of the Ephesian cult of Artemis and Diana (Acts 19), the Mother Goddess, the male-rejecting Amazons and the female priestesses. It was a fusion of the Egyptian goddess Isis and Eve so that Eve creates Adam (genealogies), and Eve has the gnosis (Paul: Adam was not deceived but the woman).
c. It was a specific heresy but with some common traits: meaningless talk, godless chatter and myths, quarreling about words, contradictory ideas of knowledge.
III. THE LEADERSHIP OF TIMOTHY
What is Timothy called to pursue?
A. Righteousness
B. Faith
C. Love
D. Peace (v. 22)
E. Kindness (v. 24)
F. Gentleness (v. 25)
“The Lord’s servant must not quarrel but instead be kind to everyone.”
What is Timothy called to avoid?
A. Quarreling about words (v. 14) -- ruins those who listen
B. Godless chatter (v.16) – talk that has nothing to do with God
C. Evil desires of youth (v. 22)
D. Foolish and stupid arguments (v. 23)
E. Resentment (v. 25)
So how do you decide when arguments are foolish and stupid?
A. I Timothy 1:3-7
1. Endless speculations and myths
2. Things that promote controversy
3. Meaningless talk (Pointless, irrelevant, nothing to do with life)
4. Conducted by folks who want to teach but don’t know what they are talking about
B. II Timothy 6:4
1. Fueled by an unhealthy interest in arguments with the result of envy, malicious talk, evil suspicions, constant friction.
THE TEST: I Timothy 1:4B
DOES MY TALK PROMOTE MORE TRUST OR MORE CONTROVERSY?
The goal of such conversations should always be love (v. 5) that comes from a pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith.
Faith precedes love – Love grows where there is trust. It cannot grow where there is not. The decision to trust gives us the power to love.
Bottomline: Does this teaching, thinking, comment, discussion, attitude, action, conversation, or interpretation promote TRUST?
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