2 Timothy 3:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For other things he sees the reasons and finds examples in the Scriptures. Not to investigate everything and not to seek knowledge of everything is a clear sign of knowledge.

If you wish, I will prove this by an example. Let us imagine a river, or rather several rivers. I say this not hypothetically, for rivers are truly like this.

Not all rivers are equal in depth. Some are shallow, while others are deep, so that one who does not know them may drown in them. In some there are whirlpools, and in others there are none.

Therefore the man who does not wish to test every river without exception acts well. His unwillingness to investigate every depth is no small sign of knowledge.

But those who wish to test every part of a river are precisely the ones who do not know the nature of rivers. They often perish, daring to venture into the deep with the same confidence with which they crossed shallow rivers.

So also with regard to God. Whoever wishes to know everything and dares to investigate everything especially does not know what God is.

Moreover, rivers are for the most part safe, and there are few vortices and whirlpools in them. But in God the greater part is hidden, and it is impossible to investigate His works.

What, then, makes you drown yourself? Know only this: God orders all things, He provides for all, we are free, God does some things and permits others, and He wills nothing evil.

Not everything happens by His will. Some things also happen by ours, namely, all evil comes only from us, while every good comes both from us and from His help.

Nothing is hidden from Him. Thus He acts in all things. Knowing this, consider what is good, what is evil, and what is indifferent. Virtue is good. Vice is evil.

Riches, poverty, life, and death are indifferent. Having learned this, you will at the same time understand that the righteous suffer in order to receive crowns, and sinners in order to receive punishment for sins.

However, not all sinners receive punishment here, lest some cease to believe in the resurrection. Likewise, not all the righteous suffer, so that you may know that vice is not worthy of praise, but virtue is.

Here are the rules and laws. Apply whatever you wish to them, and you will not remain in perplexity.

Among grammarians there is the number six thousand, under which everything is brought. Everything can be defined and resolved by this rule of six thousand, and everything turns around this number. Those who have studied grammar know this.

So also here, whoever knows these rules, which I will again briefly repeat, will never be scandalized. What are these rules? They are the following.

Virtue is good. Vice is evil. Illnesses, poverty, plots against us, slanders, and the like are indifferent.

The righteous suffer here. If some of them prosper, it is so that virtue may not seem fearful. The wicked rejoice here in order to receive punishment there.

If some of them are punished here also, it is so that evil may not seem good and their deeds unpunished. If not all are punished, it is so that faith in the day of resurrection may not be lost.

Among the good there are people who do evil deeds, for which they give account here. Likewise among the evil there are people who do good deeds, for which they receive recompense here, so that they may suffer punishment there.

The works of God are for the most part incomprehensible. There is a great difference between us and God, but what that difference is cannot be said.

If we reason in this way, nothing will trouble us. If we constantly listen to the Scriptures, we will find many examples of this.

"Which are able," he says, "to make you wise for salvation." In the Scriptures it is set forth what must be done and what must not be done.

Hear precisely what the blessed Apostle says elsewhere: "You are a guide to the blind, a light for those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants" (Rom 2:19-20).

Do you see that the Law is a light for those in darkness? If the Law that presents the letter that kills is light, what is the Law in which there is the Life-giving Spirit?

If the Old Testament is light, what is the New, in which so much has been revealed? It differs from the Old as if someone were to open heaven for men who had seen nothing above the earth, and show them everything in it.

From it we have learned of Gehenna, of the Kingdom of Heaven, and of the judgment. Let us not believe absurdities, such as all the predictions of sorcerers.

But how, you say, does what they say come to pass? It comes to pass because you believe, if indeed it comes to pass. The sorcerer gains possession of you, becomes master of your life, and disposes of it as he wishes.

Tell me, if some leader of robbers takes into his hands and under his power a king's son who has fled to him and loved the wilderness and the life there, can this leader tell him whether he will die or live?

He certainly can. Why? Not because he foresees the future, but because both things are in his power. He can destroy or save the son who has made him his master.

He can destroy him if he wishes, and he can release him if he wishes, because the captive is in his power. If he says, you will be rich or poor, both are in his power.

So also in the world, the greater part of people have handed themselves over into the hands of the devil.

On the other hand, these deceivers are helped greatly when a man becomes accustomed to believe them. For no one pays attention to predictions that fail, but only to those that succeed.

If they have any power of foresight, bring them to me, a believer. I say this not to exalt myself. There is no worth in boasting that I do not believe them.

I am full of many sins. But before them I will not humble myself, and by the grace of God I laugh at them all.

Bring a sorcerer to me. If he has any power of foreknowledge, let him say what will happen to me, what will befall me tomorrow.

But he will not say it, because I am under the authority of the King, and the sorcerer has no authority or power over me. I am far from his snares and ravines. I serve the King.

But, you say, such-and-such a man stole, and a sorcerer identified him. This is not always true, and for the most part it is ridiculous and false.

They know nothing. If they knew anything, it would be better for them to speak about their own affairs: how many idol offerings were stolen, and how much gold was lost.

Why did they not foretell this to their priests? Therefore they know nothing. Even for money they could not foretell when their idol temples would burn, and many of them would perish along with them.

Why, then, do they not care for their own salvation? If they have predicted anything, it was only a matter of chance.

Our prophets do not err. They do not speak one thing truly and another falsely, but everything truly. This is foreknowledge.

Cease, then, I exhort you, from your madness, if you believe in Christ. If you do not believe, why do you disgrace yourselves, and why do you deceive yourselves?

"How long will you limp on both knees?" (3 Kgs 18:21). Why do you go to a sorcerer? Why do you ask him?

As soon as you have come, as soon as you have begun to ask, you have already made yourself his slave, because you ask as one who believes in him.

No, you say, I ask not because I believe that he speaks truth, but to test him. But to test whether he speaks truth belongs to one who is not certain that he lies, but is still in doubt.

Why, then, do you ask what will happen? If they said, this will happen, do this and avoid that, then, although such idol worship still should not be allowed, it would not be so mad.

But if they undertake to predict the future, the one who listens gains nothing except needless sorrow. The prediction does not come to pass, yet he has already experienced sorrow and already tormented himself.

If it were useful to know the future, God would not have hidden this from us as though through envy. He does not envy, for He has told us what is in heaven.

"I have told you," He says, "everything that I heard from My Father." And again: "I no longer call you servants, but friends. You are My friends" (Jn 15:14-15).

Why, then, did He not reveal the future to us? Because He wants us not to be concerned about it at all.

He did not act this way from envy. To the ancients He gave foretellings, for example about the donkey and certain other matters (1 Sam 9), because they were like children.

But He freed us from concern about foreknowing the unknown, wishing us not to be concerned about it in the least. Instead, what has been revealed to us? What the ancients did not know.

Everything revealed to them is small. But we know that we shall rise, that we shall be immortal and incorruptible, and that our life will have no end.

We know that everything present will pass away, that we "shall be caught up in the clouds" (1 Thess 4:17), that the wicked will receive punishment, and many other things besides. And all this is not false.

Is it not far better to know such truths than to know that a lost donkey will be found? Suppose you found and took the donkey. What profit is there from that?

Can you not lose it again in some other way? If it does not go away from you, then you yourself, at death, will leave it.

But what I have spoken of we can possess always, if we wish to possess it. Let us therefore strive for this. Let us seek the goods that are permanent and unchanging.

Let us not listen to sorcerers, diviners, and fortune-tellers, but to God, who clearly knows all things and has knowledge of everything. Then we too shall know everything that needs to be known, and shall be counted worthy of all good things.

Divine knowledge is not like this. It makes one wise for salvation. What salvation? Salvation not through works, not through words, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

For the sacred Scriptures lead a man to believe in Christ, Who accomplishes salvation for him.

“Which are able to make you wise for salvation,” that is, to make you wise for salvation, to teach you how to find salvation. For Greek writings made one wise for something else.

“Through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” That is, through faith in Christ, which is closely joined to the Scriptures mentioned.

Thus, the Apostle says, even if I, your teacher, am no longer present, these Scriptures, joined with faith, will be fully sufficient for your salvation.

Knowing, therefore, that he had learned from such a teacher, Timothy was thereby confirmed in the truth of the teachings he had also learned from him.

From earliest infancy he had been taught the sacred Scriptures by his grandmother and mother (2 Tim 1:5). These were the Scriptures of the Old Testament. When well understood by him, they confirmed him in what he had learned from Paul.

Notice first Paul’s humble-mindedness. He did not say, “knowing that you learned from me, called from above, illumined by God, and an Apostle.” He said only, “knowing from whom you learned them.”

Notice second that the Old Testament guides to salvation through faith in Christ. Without this faith, the thoughts contained in it remain hidden.

The same Paul confirms this elsewhere, saying: “For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because it is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Cor 3:14-16).

We learn the dogmas of spiritual wisdom not in the books of the wise of this age, but in the prophetic and apostolic books. We acquire practice in it in the school of the Holy Spirit.

Through His holy word He makes the hearts of His faithful wise. Therefore, Christians, if we wish to find spiritual wisdom, we must diligently meditate day and night on the word of God and fervently pray to God, the Giver of wisdom.

If someone knew nothing of Christ, then no matter how much he read the Old Testament books, he would still remain ignorant of salvation. He would have that veil over his eyes which is removed by Christ (2 Cor 3:14).

The following verse must be understood in accordance with this.

According to Theodoret’s explanation, the Apostle speaks as though saying: “Firmly keep the teaching whose truth you learned by experience. For he expressed this by the word: you were assured. Timothy was an eyewitness of apostolic miracles and himself performed many such miracles.

At the same time the Apostle points to the authority of the Teacher, thereby making the teaching firmer.” Saint Timothy had been taught by the very man who wrote, Saint Paul.

Yet the force of encouragement does not flow from this alone. It flows chiefly from Him by Whom Saint Paul himself had been taught, and Who had always so visibly sheltered his teaching.

That teaching came down from heaven and gives salvation to the world.

In the Apostle’s word we hear farewell reminders: until now I have taught you. Now it lies before you to seek understanding in Scripture.

Guided by bright faith in the Lord, you can behold in it everything needed for salvation. Scripture by itself, without faith, is covered with a veil.

But through faith in Christ the Lord, this veil has been removed for you. Scripture can make you wise for salvation in every respect (Bishop Theophan).

From childhood Saint Timothy knew and held one truth, the truth revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures. Through these same Scriptures, with the help of God’s grace and the apostolic full armor of the gifts of the Spirit of God, Saint Paul drew him to faith in the Lord the Savior. This was not something new for him. It was the same thing he had read in Scripture, though he had not understood precisely of whom and of what the Prophets spoke.

The Apostle gave him this understanding by removing for him the veil that usually lies over the Old Testament. From that time, the same Scripture became not the same for Saint Timothy in understanding. It shone for him with another, better, and more perfect light.

Yet this addition of knowledge did not tear him away from the Scriptures. He still treated them reverently and obediently learned from them, seeing in them all the New Testament dispensation of salvation prefigured.

Having reminded him of his enlightenment by faith, Saint Paul now points also to the source from which the persuasion toward faith had been drawn. Saint Timothy had to feel himself enclosed, as it were, within an uncrossable circle. His mind could nowhere receive an attempt toward any view different from those he had held until then.

“You,” he says, “have studied the Holy Scriptures from an early age. You were brought up on them. Therefore your faith must be firm, and nothing should harm it. Its root lies deep and has been strengthened over a long time. Therefore nothing can tear it out” (Saint Chrysostom).

Yet all this was already present in Saint Timothy. Is it possible to suppose any wavering in him, the beloved disciple of Saint Paul and his successor? Why, then, such reminders? In the Apostle’s word one hears a farewell speech (cf. Saint Chrysostom): until now I have taught you. Now it lies before you to seek instruction in Scripture. Guided by bright faith in the Lord, you can behold in it everything needed for salvation.

This Scripture, by itself without faith, is covered with a veil. Yet by faith in Christ the Lord, this veil has been removed for you. Scripture can instruct you in every way unto salvation.

Ambrosiaster writes: “Knowledge of the Old Testament brings much benefit. In it the Person of Christ the Savior is depicted, and His Incarnation is proclaimed for the redemption of the human race. Therefore the Apostle teaches Saint Timothy to advance in this knowledge, for this ancient thing is the strength and support of the new.”

Saint John of Damascus says the same: “By Holy Scripture he means the Law and the Prophets, which could raise him to Wisdom, that is, to Christ. For in Him is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.”

Blessed Theophylact draws this lesson from here: “External knowledge makes a man wise in deceiving others with plausible sophisms. From this comes the destruction of the soul. But divine knowledge is not like this. It makes one wise unto salvation.”

Saint Chrysostom sets this forth more broadly, chiefly in relation to ordering life according to God. “In the Scriptures it is set forth what one must do and what one must not do. They are light for those in darkness. Whoever knows the Scriptures as one ought is scandalized by nothing that happens. He endures everything courageously. Some things he accepts by faith and attributes to God’s incomprehensible divine economy. For other things he sees reasons and finds examples in the Scriptures.

“Almost everything in God is hidden, and it is impossible to investigate His works. Know only this: God orders all things. He provides for all. We are free. God performs some things and permits others. He wills nothing evil. Not everything happens according to His will. Some things happen according to ours. All evil is from us alone. All good is both from us and from His help. Nothing is hidden from Him. Thus He acts in all things.

“Knowing this, look at what is good, what is evil, and what is indifferent. Virtue is good. Vice is evil. Indifferent things are wealth, poverty, illnesses, life, death, plots against us, slanders, and the like. Having learned this, you will also understand that the righteous suffer here. If some of them prosper, it is so that virtue may not seem dreadful.

“The wicked rejoice here in order to receive punishment there. If some of them are punished even here, it is so that evil may not seem good and their deeds unpunished. If not all are punished, it is so that faith in the day of resurrection may not be lost.

“Among the good there are people who commit evil deeds, for which they give account here, that is, they are punished. Likewise, among the evil there are people who do good deeds, for which they receive recompense here, so that they may suffer full punishment there for the bad.

“God’s works are for the most part incomprehensible. There is a great difference between us and God, but exactly what it is cannot be said. If we reason in this way, nothing will disturb us. We shall reason this way if we constantly listen to Scripture, for there we shall find many examples and instructive teachings for everything said.”

By these two propositions everything has been said that sufficed to encourage firm holding and keeping of the confession in oneself and others. Yet Saint Paul considered it necessary to attach to the latter proposition, concerning divine Scripture, a general definition for all times and for all people of the benefit of occupying oneself with reading Scripture when striving for spiritual progress.

One should not, however, lose sight of this: if Scripture is such for all, then still more is it such for the pastor, when he duly fulfills the duty laid upon him.