Flee the evil desires of youth
2 Timothy 2:22-23 - Paul’s words are a call to remove ourselves from the temptations of sin and to focus instead on the teachings of Jesus.
Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.
“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.”
2 Timothy 2:22-23 NIV
In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he’s giving advice to the young pastor and encouraging him to be strong in the face of temptation and persecution. These two verses are filled with exhortation from an older man who has seen it all (literally, having seen the Lord on the road to Damascus) to a young man who has yet to go through many of the trials Paul has endured.
If only I could have heard and understood the first verse when I was a young man! Evil desires were quite plentiful in college and early adulthood. David Guzik describes these “youthful lusts” (NLT and NASB) on Enduring Word:
Flee also youthful lusts: This is the first aspect of cleansing that Paul mentioned to Timothy. Youthful lusts describe the sort of desires and temptations that are especially prominent when someone is an adolescent or young adult. Sexual temptation, illicit pleasure of the flesh, and a longing for fame and glory often mark one’s youth.
Paul is telling Timothy to not even think about these temptations, but to literally and figuratively run away from them. For so many young (and older) people, it’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking they can test themselves against a sin — “I’ll see if I can stand up to this one” — when the end result is often falling into sin.
Not being able to turn completely away from the evil desires and lusts of youth can have a lasting effect. Once again from Enduring Word:
ii. If you cannot flee also youthful lusts, there is a real limit to how much God can use you, a limit to how useful to the Master you will be. You can’t really say “yes” to God until you can say “no” to some other things.
This verse and Guzik’s commentary reminded me of a sad situation at a church we attended years ago. There was a young and popular pastor who didn’t “flee the evil desires” and had an affair with a woman from the church. Once this fact was uncovered (he was at another church by this time), he was expelled from the ministry.
What can help a young man (or woman) to flee evil desires? Running after the good things in the eyes of God — “pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart”. Not only should the young be pursuing these positive attributes by emulating Jesus, but they should also seek these attributes in their personal relationships as well.
This is why pursuing Christian fellowship is so critical to the young! It’s so easy to fall into sinful behavior and habits when friends have no moral anchor to keep them from doing everything that “feels good” and “looks good” to the world.
In verse 23, Paul changes the focus of his advice to Timothy. He tells the young man to not “have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.” I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I was a teenager and young adult, I knew everything. That made getting into “foolish and stupid arguments” quite easy…
Even at 68 years of age, I still find myself getting angry with contrary opinions. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit tempers that anger now and tells me to just walk away instead of saying or writing something inflammatory. Just yesterday I deleted an account on another social media network because I was tempted so often to get into arguments with total strangers. It was a relief to finally rid myself of that temptation!
Of course, social media wasn’t a thing in the day of Paul and Timothy — then, it was all about face-to-face personal relationships with others. In the ancient Greek and Roman societies, debates and philosophical discussions were common. In the early church, there were bound to be discussions that would degrade into arguments. Paul is telling Timothy to not take part in any disputes that would not benefit the body of Christ.
Paul knew that it was crucial to maintain unity and peace within the church. Today we see so much division in Christianity brought on by a mistaken notion that the church needs to conform to the world socially and politically. Perhaps if all Christians would focus on promoting love and understanding through the application of the teachings of Christ rather than trying to be politically correct, we’d move closer to the ideal of the coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:3 encourages followers of Christ to “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.” Paul’s words are a call to remove ourselves from the temptations of sin and to focus instead on the teachings of Jesus.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help us to flee from desires that lead us away from You, and guide us instead to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Surround us with those who seek You with pure hearts, so that we may support and encourage one another in our walk with You. Teach us to avoid argument and dissension, and instead uplift each other in our pursuit of holiness and truth. AMEN.
I wish I would have read this yesterday! For the first time, I engaged with social media- losing battle! I should have just walked away. Lesson learned!!