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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. ~ 2 Timothy 2:22
We come back to the 2 Timothy 2 which began with a command to be strong in the grace of God. When we are becoming stronger in God's grace we will be more and more defined by those things which are most dear to the heart of God.
In our text today, the Apostle Paul commands Timothy to "Flee the evil desire of youth." The first word of this verse, "Flee," is the word from which we get our English word fugitive. The believer in the Lord Jesus should be a fugitive from all that is contrary to what God has said is good in His word.
These evil desires begin in our youth, not because they end there. These are those desires which were activated when we became adults. Paul reminds us to run from these powerful lusts and we are to keep on running. These desires could be an inordinate craving for money, a craving for power, a never ending desire for material things, jealousy, envy, or pride. The idea is these desires were birthed in the domain of darkness and we do not want to embrace them or we will experience some measure of destruction.
Notice the choice is up to us, but, according to this verse, the separation from evil, the cleansing, precedes our pursuit. It is never the other way around. Everybody wants to be used of God, but we cannot be used of God for good purposes unless we are willing to say "No" first. We have to reject the philosophies of the one who is urging us to live for self. We cannot go on living like we had before and expect God to use us.
In the next part of this verse, the Apostle Paul writes, "Pursue." This imperative pictures one who is chasing, running, or continuing to seek. The picture the Apostle is painting here is the pursuit of one who long's for another. And, we are to pursue four specific things: righteousness, faith, love and peace.
Note the ratio here between the way of God and the way of the enemy: it's a four to one ratio. Given that we were born into sin and we are waging this war on enemy turf, it is much easier to go the way of the enemy than it is the way of the Lord.
The incredible thing about these four things is that every one of them is presented in the Scriptures as a gift from God. Though God wants to give them to us, we will not get them unless we pursue them. We have to go after them, they just do not fall into our laps. Receiving these things must be the result of our deliberate choice that continues daily. Our pursuit of these is essentially our pursuit of God for He is these and, of course, more.
The word the Apostle uses for "righteousness" means that which God has defined as right. This is obedience to God's word, His definition of things. There are times when we are called upon to choose between what we know to be wrong and what we know to be right. When we choose what God has said is right, we choose faith in Him and His word. When we choose contrary to what God has said is right, we choose unbelief in Him.
We’re not only pursuing righteousness we are also pursuing faith. This word is better translated faithfulness which speaks of our loyalty to God.
Many believers struggle with little faith, most often this is due to their lack of being in God's word which is what He uses to awaken and feed our faith. In Romans 10:17 we read, "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
The more we avail ourselves to God's voice, the more of His word we will know. Then, we will be positioned to have an awakened faith, a faith that recognizes that it is foolish to not obey God. When we do not have time for the Scriptures, we will not hear His voice which is what creates faith in us.
In addition, we must deliberately choose love, agapē, the love of choice, the love that works in the realm of the selfless, the love that works sacrificially. Love towards God is the idea. We want to be faithful to the one we love. This will equip us to love others in the way we want to be loved.
Then, we have to deliberately seek peace, undisturbed tranquility. When we run toward righteousness and we run toward faithfulness or loyalty and we run toward the love of God and the consequent love for others, we are running toward a life of peace. Obedience, faithfulness, love, and peace are four marks of holiness.
We often are exposed to the choice of how we are going to react toward someone who, perhaps, has irritated us, who has done something that makes us upset or angry. Our flesh tells us to get revenge. But, if we want to be used of God, we cannot give in to the flesh. Instead, we deliberately take the high road of humility and give a soft answer that will turn away wrath. Sometimes we must initiate reconciliation. If somebody is angry at us, although we are not to blame, we just cannot keep that within and let it fester, creating frustration in our hearts. According to the Scriptures, we have to go to that person and address the issue with reconciliation as our goal.
Finally, notice what the Apostle writes at the end of the verse, “along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
We must be careful to be hanging out with those who are being given God's heart. Of all those who call on the Lord, the ones whose hearts are truly pure are the ones who run from those youthful evil desires and run after God. In order to be effective for God's kingdom, we must defeat sin on the inside of us. We must hang with people who are being given His heart.
I remind you of the beatitudes which describes the process of a changed heart. We begin with poverty of spirit, then we go to mourning, then we go to meekness, giving up control to God. Then we go to hungering and thirsting for righteousness, which leads to being merciful. After all of that, we come to being pure in heart. It is not that we are perfect or sinless. No, it means we are gaining the heart of the Lord Jesus for others. Are you there yet?
