2 Timothy 2:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“Rightly handling the word of truth.” The Apostle said this well, because many misuse and distort the word of truth, adding to it much that is wrong.

He did not say, “directing,” but “rightly handling.” That is, separate what is wrong, and repel and cut off everything of that sort with great force.

As if following a taut line, cut away with the spiritual sword everything excessive and alien to the preaching.

Many either take away from it or add to it, but you lead it along the straight path. Or, since the Apostle did not say “rightly directing,” he indicated something else.

As one cuts away excess growths on skin and leather, he says, so cut away from the preaching whatever is alien to it, and destroy it with the sword.

“The preacher must be blameless. Can a preacher make others do what he himself does not do? To rule rightly the word of truth means to spread the truth with all sincerity and uprightness.

“He must not distort it through his own ignorance or from cowardly fear of the consequences. The same also means spreading the truth wisely.” So it is said in one of the newer commentaries, published in Kiev in 1894.

The ancient interpreters, however, paid attention to the Greek text. The words “rightly ruling” are expressed there as “rightly cutting.” They therefore draw attention to the precision of the cut, or the correctness of the furrow.

“He exhorts,” says Saint John Chrysostom, “‘Separate what is wrong, and repel and cut off everything of that sort with great force. As if following a taut line, cut away with the spiritual sword everything excessive and alien to the Gospel.’”

“We praise farmers who cut straight furrows,” says blessed Theodoret. “So too the teacher is worthy of praise when he follows the rule of the divine sayings.”

Bishop Theophan sees here the image of cutting and distributing bread. “As a steward is appointed in a house to distribute grain and other necessities to everyone in the right measure, so the pastor of the Church is appointed to distribute to all the pure bread of the word of God.

“When the faithful are filled with it, they will naturally feel aversion for everything external, excessive, and still more for what is wrong.”

He himself must avoid empty disputes with heretics. From impious words, the latter will quickly pass to impious deeds. Their teaching will spread more and more, as cancer spreads through the fatty parts of the human body.

“But,” the Apostle adds for Timothy’s consolation, “the firm foundation of God,” that is, the Church, which forms the foundation of salvation for the whole world, “stands” unshaken despite every effort of heretics to shake it.

It bears an inscription that gives complete assurance of the strength of the whole building. One side of the inscription points to the highest consolation of believers: the nearness to them of God Himself.

The other side points to their holy calling. By virtue of it, they themselves must avoid everything that can harm the firmness of the Church.

From the Apostle’s words, Timothy could clearly see that unrighteousness and evil had already crept into the Church of God. Thinking of this, he naturally had to ask why the Apostle did not command him to remove this evil from the Church immediately.

As if answering this question, the Apostle says that in so large a society as the Church, great differences among its members must necessarily exist.

Some Christians are like gold and silver vessels, held in honor and appointed for honorable use. Others are like fragile wooden and earthen vessels, which are not highly valued and cannot serve long in a house.

Thus, on one side, the Apostle points to the necessity of tolerating evil men in the Church. On the other, he points out that these men will not always remain in the Church.

They will be cast out in time, when their unfitness is clearly revealed. The good vessels, or Christians in general, must keep away from these poor vessels, so as not to be defiled by contact with them.

“Be diligent to present yourself approved,” δοκιμον, that is, an adept, a master of your work, and a wise one. This must be not only in appearance, but according to the inner worth of your action. “Before God,” who sees everything as it is in essence, and not according to appearance.

Or “before God” suggests the thought: He chose you and entrusted to you the ministry of the word of the Gospel. Therefore show yourself a wise fulfiller of God’s will. Justify His election and His hope in you.

“A worker who need not be ashamed,” ανεπαισχυντον, means both blameless and unashamed. Of skillful workers in ordinary speech people say: they will not bring reproach on their own hand. Thus, he says, conduct the matter so that you have no occasion to be ashamed of it before God, before men, or before your own conscience.

Act in the Gospel and in pastoral ministry according to the full breadth of the consciousness of how one ought to act. Do not turn aside in the least from the demands of this consciousness. Do not diminish or shorten them by substituting something else. In the present place this “something else” is giving oneself to disputes instead of setting forth the pure truth.

The Apostle speaks as if to say: do not disgrace yourself with these disputes. Ambrosiaster says that he is “calling those who give themselves to disputes shameful people.” “Unashamed” also means not being ashamed of the work one has taken up and performs. This meaning also applies here.

The preaching was humble, concerning Christ Jesus crucified. There were many who taught otherwise. Being ashamed of this, they devised brilliant arguments. Yet instead of giving grandeur and brightness to the Gospel, they only distorted it and took away all its power.

For this reason the temptation could come to enter into dispute with them, in order to remove the imagined shame of the Gospel’s extreme simplicity. The Apostle says: do not be ashamed, whatever they may say. Do your own work as you ought, and do not listen to them.

“As a worker, a farmer who knows his work, labors without being ashamed of anything, plowing and plowing, sowing and sowing, so must the worker of the Gospel act. Do not be ashamed in the least to do everything that belongs to the Gospel, even if for this you must undergo not only being shamed, but slavery, or suffer something else” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Rightly dividing the word of truth,” ορθοτομουντα, means rightly cutting and cutting away, and also rightly cutting up, as when one distributes bread. All these meanings are fitting here. “Rightly cutting”: as in our ordinary speech one says of someone that he cuts the truth straight, so you too, he says, cut the truth straight. Speak only the word of truth, pure and unmixed.

Do not give yourself to side considerations of your own, which do not give firmness to truth, but only weaken it. Likewise, do not be tempted to diminish its force because in its pure form it may prove too much for the mind of some respected person. Cut straight: God said and commanded thus and thus, and do not busy yourself beyond this.

“We praise farmers who cut straight furrows. So too the teacher who follows the rule of the divine words is worthy of praise” (Blessed Theodoret).

“Rightly dividing” can also be understood in the sense of rightly cutting away, cutting away every arbitrary admixture to the truth. By what? By the same cutting of truth. Saint Chrysostom says: “The Apostle did not say απευθυνοντα, directing rightly, but ορθοτομουντα, cutting rightly away. He said this well, for many misuse and distort the word of truth by adding much that is not right.

“He teaches by this: separate what is not right. Repel and cut away everything of that sort with great force. As if along a stretched line, cut away with the spiritual sword everything superfluous and foreign to the Gospel.”

“Cut away, as with a sword, superfluous and false teachings,” says Blessed Theophylact, “as if they were excess growths on the skin.” Oecumenius adds: “Lead minds on the straight path, or toward what is right. By the grace of the Holy Spirit.” This too is done without disputes, but by the same decisive cutting of truth: so it is said, so it is commanded, and there is nothing more to argue.

The last meaning also fits: rightly cutting up the bread of the word of truth, so as to distribute it abundantly to the faithful. In this way they are fed with truth, and aversion to everything foreign and superfluous to it is established in them.

As a steward is appointed in a house to distribute grain and other necessities to all in right measure, so the pastor of the Church is appointed to distribute to all the pure bread of the word of God’s truth. You have been appointed for this, says the Apostle. Distribute the right word of God in the right measure, and by distributing it, feed the souls of the faithful.

Having been satisfied with it, they will naturally feel aversion for everything alien, superfluous, and still more for what is not right. As our forefathers also said: no one who has tasted the sweet will desire the bitter.