"And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” 2 Timothy 2:24-26
What stands out to me in the above verses is the tone and disposition God desires His servants to have.
God does not want His servants to be quarrelsome. The word quarrel means to engage in a fight, to argue, be combative. God does not want us to be belligerent bullies who abrasively force people over to our way of seeing things. Earlier, in 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul had instructed Timothy to “fight the good fight of the faith.” How do we reconcile not quarrelling with fighting the good fight? The answer is in our attitude and what battles we chose to engage in. The fight we are to engage in is the “good fight” of love, standing for the truth in humility and gentleness, following Christ for ourselves as we lovingly help others find Him. Yet some just like a good fight. Some fight without caring if they lose the person.
In contrast to being quarrelsome, God instructs His people to be kind to everyone, gracious, gentle, and to genuinely desire what is best for others. This is how the Lord treats us and He desires these same character qualities to be evident in us, creatures created in His image (Genesis 1:27).
There is a lot of fighting and bickering in this world, and yes, sometimes it is in our own hearts too. It can be easy to let our passions get the best of us and before we know it, we are carelessly acting outside of character as God’s children. Here are a couple suggestions from this passage that can help as we pray through it:
First, remember how God wants you to act. This passage says explicitly that God does not want us to be an argumentative people with a combative attitude who get caught up in silly debates that drive people away. He does want us to be gentle, understanding, kind to all, exceedingly gracious, genuinely wanting the best for all, even difficult people.
Second, remember that we are in the midst of a spiritual battle. The enemy is at work in the unseen world. He holds people captive and blinds their eyes. They do not have the capacity to see the truth in this state. Let’s hope and pray that those who oppose Jesus and His ways would escape the trap of the devil and be set free from doing his destructive will (John 10:10) so they can instead do the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).
We are called to fight the good fight, but how we fight it matters. God is infinitely strong and capable and does not need combative reinforcement. God desires His servants to have a certain character and attitude that reflects our Master well. May God help us to live for Him in this world in a way that reflects the good, kind, true, loving, and gracious God that He is.