Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Timothy · About this commentary
Correcting Opponents with Gentleness
2 Timothy 2:24-26
24 The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be gentle toward all, able to teach, patient, · WEB
The manner prescribed toward opponents is gentleness, and the reason given is that repentance is God's to grant.
The Lord's servant must not quarrel. Given a chapter about gangrenous teaching and overthrown faith, the instruction is striking — and the qualities listed are all unaggressive: gentle toward all, able to teach, patient, correcting opponents in gentleness.
The reasoning is in verse 25, and it is theological rather than tactical. Perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth. Repentance is God's gift to give, which removes the servant's temptation to extract it by force. Nobody argues a person into something only God can grant, and a man who understands that will not shout.
The word perhaps keeps the honesty of it. No outcome is promised, and the gentleness is not a technique that works.
Verse 26 describes what recovery would be: that they may come to their senses out of the devil's snare, having been taken captive by him to do his will. The picture is of people trapped rather than merely mistaken, which explains the gentleness better than anything else in the paragraph. A man in a snare is not an enemy to be defeated but a captive to be got out.
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