TEACHING YOUR TIMOTHY
2 Timothy 3:10-15

Teaching Your Timothy
Danny Murphy George Goldman

Teaching Your Timothy
How many will be faithful servants
of God because of the time you
took last week?

Teaching Your Timothy
• Basil Overton: “I love what I‟m doing, because I don‟t
know what I‟m doing.”

Teaching Your Timothy
• Basil Overton: “I love what I‟m doing, because I don‟t
know what I‟m doing.” His point: We do not know the
lives we may be impacting because of our work.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Basil Overton: “I love what I‟m doing, because I don‟t
know what I‟m doing.” His point: We do not know the
lives we may be impacting because of our work.
• Dennis Jones: “Gentlemen, we are changing the
population of heaven.”

Teaching Your Timothy
• Basil Overton: “I love what I‟m doing, because I don‟t
know what I‟m doing.” His point: We do not know the
lives we may be impacting because of our work.
• Dennis Jones: “Gentlemen, we are changing the
population of heaven.” You hard work is “changing the
population of heaven.”

Teaching Your Timothy
This morning’s text deals with the
positive influence of proper
teaching.

Teaching Your Timothy
2 Timothy 3:10-15

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy was apparently still in Ephesus when Paul
wrote 2 Timothy to him.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy was apparently still in Ephesus when Paul
wrote 2 Timothy to him.
• False teaching was a problem in Ephesus.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy was apparently still in Ephesus when Paul
wrote 2 Timothy to him.
• False teaching was a problem in Ephesus.
• “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain
at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to
teach any different doctrine” (1 Tm 1:3, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy was apparently still in Ephesus when Paul
wrote 2 Timothy to him.
• False teaching was a problem in Ephesus.
• 1 Tm 1:3.
• “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid
the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely
called „knowledge,‟ for by professing it some have swerved
from the faith” (1 Tm 6:20-21, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• The context of this morning‟s text is also false teaching.

Teaching Your Timothy
• The context of this morning‟s text is also false teaching.
• “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these
men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and
disqualified regarding the faith” (3:8, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• The context of this morning‟s text is also false teaching.
• “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these
men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and
disqualified regarding the faith” (3:8, ESV).
• Then, Paul contrasts the behavior of the false teachers
with the expected behavior of Timothy.

Teaching Your Timothy
• The context of this morning‟s text is also false teaching.
• “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these
men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and
disqualified regarding the faith” (3:8, ESV).
• Then, Paul contrasts the behavior of the false teachers
with the expected behavior of Timothy.
• “You, however, have followed my teaching....” (v 10, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• The context of this morning‟s text is also false teaching.
• “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these
men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and
disqualified regarding the faith” (3:8, ESV).
• Then, Paul contrasts the behavior of the false teachers
with the expected behavior of Timothy.
• “You, however, have followed my teaching....” (v 10, ESV).
• The false teachers lived one way, but Paul expected Timothy
to live another way.

Teaching Your Timothy
• In pointing out the way he expected Timothy to live,
Paul points back to Timothy‟s teaching.

Teaching Your Timothy
• In pointing out the way he expected Timothy to live,
Paul points back to Timothy‟s teaching.
• This morning, we wish to examine what Timothy was
taught, how he was taught, & the purpose for which he
was taught.

Teaching Your Timothy
• In pointing out the way he expected Timothy to live,
Paul points back to Timothy‟s teaching.
• This morning, we wish to examine what Timothy was
taught, how he was taught, & the purpose for which he
was taught.
• Our aim is to understand the work of teaching.

Teaching Your Timothy
Teaching’s Pattern
vv 10-11

Teaching Your Timothy
• “You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct,
my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my
steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that
happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—
which persecutions I endures; yet from them all the
Lord rescued me” (vv 10-11, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy had an example in Paul.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy had an example in Paul.
• “You have followed….”

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy had an example in Paul.
• “You have followed….”
• The Greek term “followed” is a technical term for the
relation of a disciple to his teacher.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy had an example in Paul.
• “You have followed….”
• The Greek term “followed” is a technical term for the
relation of a disciple to his teacher.
• In Jewish society, pupils would gather around a teacher,
not just to gain “book learning,” but to learn how to live.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Notice that among the attributes Timothy gained from
Paul, “my teaching” is mentioned first.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Notice that among the attributes Timothy gained from
Paul, “my teaching” is mentioned first.
• Paul did, indeed, teach Timothy the truth of God.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Notice that among the attributes Timothy gained from
Paul, “my teaching” is mentioned first.
• Paul did, indeed, teach Timothy the truth of God.
• Timothy accompanied Paul on missionary journeys.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Notice that among the attributes Timothy gained from
Paul, “my teaching” is mentioned first.
• Paul did, indeed, teach Timothy the truth of God.
• Timothy accompanied Paul on missionary journeys.
• “Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and
circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places,
for they all knew that his father was a Greek” (Acts 16:3, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• Notice that among the attributes Timothy gained from
Paul, “my teaching” is mentioned first.
• Paul did, indeed, teach Timothy the truth of God.
• Timothy accompanied Paul on missionary journeys.
• “Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and
circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places,
for they all knew that his father was a Greek” (Acts 16:3, ESV).
• Timothy would have learned much as he heard Paul preach on
those journeys.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Notice that among the attributes Timothy gained from
Paul, “my teaching” is mentioned first.
• Paul did, indeed, teach Timothy the truth of God.
• Timothy accompanied Paul on missionary journeys.
• Timothy was present when Paul wrote some of his Epistles.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Notice that among the attributes Timothy gained from
Paul, “my teaching” is mentioned first.
• Paul did, indeed, teach Timothy the truth of God.
• Timothy accompanied Paul on missionary journeys.
• Timothy was present when Paul wrote some of his Epistles:
E.g., “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and
Timothy our brother” (2 Cor 1:1, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• Notice that among the attributes Timothy gained from
Paul, “my teaching” is mentioned first.
• Paul did, indeed, teach Timothy the truth of God.
• But, Paul‟s teaching was not divorced from his character.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Notice that among the attributes Timothy gained from
Paul, “my teaching” is mentioned first.
• Paul did, indeed, teach Timothy the truth of God.
• But, Paul‟s teaching was not divorced from his character.
• Paul immediately follows “my teaching” up with traits such
as “conduct,” “faith,” “patience,” & “love.”

Teaching Your Timothy
• Notice that among the attributes Timothy gained from
Paul, “my teaching” is mentioned first.
• Paul did, indeed, teach Timothy the truth of God.
• But, Paul‟s teaching was not divorced from his character.
• Paul immediately follows “my teaching” up with traits such
as “conduct,” “faith,” “patience,” & “love.”
• Paul did not live by the maxim: “Do as I say but not as I do”!

Teaching Your Timothy
• We must understand that what we teach matters
greatly, but how we live also matters greatly.

Teaching Your Timothy
• We must understand that what we teach matters
greatly, but how we live also matters greatly.
• “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses‟ seat, so
practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what
they do. For they preach, but do not practice” (Mt 23:2-3,
ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• We must understand that what we teach matters
greatly, but how we live also matters greatly.
• “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses‟ seat, so
practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what
they do. For they preach, but do not practice” (Mt 23:2-3,
ESV).
• We must never allow such words to be said of us!

Teaching Your Timothy
• Mario Cuomo: “I talk and talk and talk, and I haven‟t
taught people in fifty years what my father taught by
example in one week.”

Teaching Your Timothy
What are we teaching by our
example?

Teaching Your Timothy
Teaching’s Prevention
vv 12-13

Teaching Your Timothy
• “Evil people and impostors will go on from bad to
worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you,
continue in what you have learned and have firmly
believed, knowing from whom you learned it” (vv 12-13,
ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• Evil individuals will grow worse, both “deceiving” &
“being deceived.”

Teaching Your Timothy
• Evil individuals will grow worse, both “deceiving” &
“being deceived.”
• Deception has been Satan‟s ploy since time began.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Evil individuals will grow worse, both “deceiving” &
“being deceived.”
• Deception has been Satan‟s ploy since time began.
• When Satan “lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he
is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• Evil individuals will grow worse, both “deceiving” &
“being deceived.”
• Deception has been Satan‟s ploy since time began.
• When Satan “lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he
is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44, ESV).
• “Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor
11:14, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
No wonder Satan deceives!

Teaching Your Timothy
No wonder Satan deceives!
If he told the truth, who would
follow?

Teaching Your Timothy
• Because of Satan, people have been deceived since time
began.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Because of Satan, people have been deceived since time
began.
• “The woman was deceived and became a transgressor”
(1 Tm 2:14, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• Because of Satan, people have been deceived since time
began.
• “The woman was deceived and became a transgressor”
(1 Tm 2:14, ESV).
• All Satan had to do to convince Eve to sin was tell her she
would be like God—and leave out the curse of sin.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Because of Satan, people have been deceived since time
began.
• “The woman was deceived and became a transgressor”
(1 Tm 2:14, ESV).
• All Satan had to do to convince Eve to sin was tell her she
would be like God—and leave out the curse of sin.
• Man has struggled with sin ever since that single deception.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Because of Satan, people have been deceived since time
began.
• “The woman was deceived and became a transgressor”
(1 Tm 2:14, ESV).
• But, in this text, Paul speaks of the deception of error.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Because of Satan, people have been deceived since time
began.
• “The woman was deceived and became a transgressor”
(1 Tm 2:14, ESV).
• But, in this text, Paul speaks of the deception of error.
• How many people are LOST because they have listened to a
teacher who did Satan‟s bidding?

Teaching Your Timothy
• Because of Satan, people have been deceived since time
began.
• “The woman was deceived and became a transgressor”
(1 Tm 2:14, ESV).
• But, in this text, Paul speaks of the deception of error.
• How many people are LOST because they have listened to a
teacher who did Satan‟s bidding?
• How many people will be shocked to find themselves in
HELL because they were deceived by error?

Teaching Your Timothy
• The teaching Timothy had received would prevent his
going into error.

Teaching Your Timothy
• The teaching Timothy had received would prevent his
going into error.
• “But as for you, continue in what you have learned . . . .”

Teaching Your Timothy
• The teaching Timothy had received would prevent his
going into error.
• “But as for you, continue in what you have learned . . . .”
• The remedy for error is simple: “Know the TRUTH.”

Teaching Your Timothy
As you worked at VBS, you
continually wrote God’s prescription
for error.

Teaching Your Timothy
As you worked at VBS, you
continually wrote God’s prescription
for error.
The Truth

Teaching Your Timothy
Teaching’s Perseverance
v 14

Teaching Your Timothy
• “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and
have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned
it” (v 14, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy had to “continue” in what he had learned.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy had to “continue” in what he had learned.
• Greek term is “abide.”

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy had to “continue” in what he had learned.
• Greek term is “abide.” The term is in the present tense:
“Continually abide.”

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy had to “continue” in what he had learned.
• Greek term is “abide.” The term is in the present tense:
“Continually abide.”
• The truth Timothy had learned & believed would be of
little value if he stopped using & believing it.

Teaching Your Timothy
• The Gospel is not to be learned & then discarded.

Teaching Your Timothy
• The Gospel is not to be learned & then discarded.
• “If you don‟t use it, you lose it.”

Teaching Your Timothy
• The Gospel is not to be learned & then discarded.
• “If you don‟t use it, you lose it.”
• We must use & not lose the Gospel!

Teaching Your Timothy
• We must continue in the Gospel to keep away from
error.

Teaching Your Timothy
• We must continue in the Gospel to keep away from
error.
• “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask
whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (Jn 15:7,
ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• We must continue in the Gospel to keep away from
error.
• “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask
whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (Jn 15:7,
ESV).
• “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If
what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then
you too will abide in the Son and in the Father” (1 Jn
2:24, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• How many have we seen know & firmly believe the
Gospel only to wander from it because they did not
“continue in what [they] have learned and have firmly
believed”?

Teaching Your Timothy
• How many have we seen know & firmly believe the
Gospel only to wander from it because they did not
“continue in what [they] have learned and have firmly
believed”?
• How many have been caught up in a sin they once
considered “unthinkable”?

Teaching Your Timothy
• How many have we seen know & firmly believe the
Gospel only to wander from it because they did not
“continue in what [they] have learned and have firmly
believed”?
• How many have been caught up in a sin they once
considered “unthinkable”?
• How many once faithful Christians have “made shipwreck
of their faith” (1 Tm 1:19, ESV) because they did not
continue in the Gospel & accepted error?

Teaching Your Timothy
Teaching’s Purpose
v 15

Teaching Your Timothy
• “From childhood you have been acquainted with the
sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (v 15, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• In Jewish Palestine at the time of Paul, Jewish boys
were instructed in the Scriptures beginning at the age of
5.

Teaching Your Timothy
• This instructions in “the sacred writings” was
commanded in the Old Testament.

Teaching Your Timothy
• This instructions in “the sacred writings” was
commanded in the Old Testament.
• “You shall teach [my commandments] to your children,
talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and
when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down,
and when you rise” (Deut 11:19, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• This instructions in “the sacred writings” was
commanded in the Old Testament.
• Deut 11:19.
• “He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law
in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to
their children, that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their
children, so that they should set their hope in God and
not forget the works of God, but keep his
commandments” (Ps 78:5-7, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy had a faithful mother & grandmother who
carried out that instruction diligently.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Timothy had a faithful mother & grandmother who
carried out that instruction diligently.
• “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt
first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice
and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Tm 1:5,
ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• In Paul‟s day, Jewish boys were so well educated in the
Scriptures that even pagans were amazed.

Teaching Your Timothy
• In Paul‟s day, Jewish boys were so well educated in the
Scriptures that even pagans were amazed.
• Could the same thing be said of us?

Teaching Your Timothy
• According to our text, the purpose of this education was
to make one “wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus.”

Teaching Your Timothy
• According to our text, the purpose of this education was
to make one “wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus.”
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
witness to Jesus, the “Source” of salvation.

Teaching Your Timothy
• According to our text, the purpose of this education was
to make one “wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus.”
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
witness to Jesus, the “Source” of salvation: “You search
the Scriptures because you think that in them you have
eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (Jn
5:39, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• According to our text, the purpose of this education was
to make one “wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus.”
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
witness to Jesus, the “Source” of salvation: (Jn 5:39).
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
are the “imperishable seed” by which one is born again.

Teaching Your Timothy
• According to our text, the purpose of this education was
to make one “wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus.”
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
witness to Jesus, the “Source” of salvation: (Jn 5:39).
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
are the “imperishable seed” by which one is born again:
“You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of
imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God
. . . . And this word is the good news that was preached to
you” (1 Pt 1:23, 25, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
• According to our text, the purpose of this education was
to make one “wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus.”
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
witness to Jesus, the “Source” of salvation: (Jn 5:39).
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
are the “imperishable seed” by which one is born again: (1
Pt 1:23, 25).
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
provide God‟s way to have salvation.

Teaching Your Timothy
• According to our text, the purpose of this education was
to make one “wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus.”
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
witness to Jesus, the “Source” of salvation: (Jn 5:39).
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
are the “imperishable seed” by which one is born again: (1
Pt 1:23, 25).
• The Scriptures make one “wise for salvation” in that they
provide God‟s way to have salvation: At Pentecost, “those
who received his word [i.e., the preaching of Peter] were
baptized” (Acts 2:41, ESV).

Teaching Your Timothy
You may never know all the good
you did this past week by sowing
the Word of God!

Teaching Your Timothy
• Some have said that teachers “touch the future.”

Teaching Your Timothy
• Some have said that teachers “touch the future.”
• When you teach the Word of God, you do NOT touch the
future.

Teaching Your Timothy
• Some have said that teachers “touch the future.”
• When you teach the Word of God, you do NOT touch the
future.
• You touch ETERNITY!

Teaching Your Timothy
“My dishes went unwashed today;
And I didn‟t even make the bed;
I taught a class about Christ‟s way
At Vacation Bible School instead.
“That my housework was left undone;
That I didn‟t even sweep the stairs,
In twenty years there‟ll be not one
Who remembers—or even cares.

Teaching Your Timothy
“But, in future years, the whole wide world
May look, and see, and know,
That I have helped some boy or girl
Toward a more Christ-like life to grow.”

Teaching Your Timothy
Oh, the good that is done by
teaching the Gospel of Jesus!

Teaching Your Timothy
Do you labor in teaching the Word
of God?

Teaching Your Timothy
Has that Word, sown in your heart,
made you wise for salvation?

Teaching Your Timothy
Has that Word, sown in your heart,
made you wise for salvation?
Are you ready to act on that
wisdom this very morning?