Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Timothy 2:24

"And the Lord`s servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing," — 2 Timothy 2:24 (ASV)

And the servant of the Lord must not strive.—Although these directions and commandments always belong to God’s servants of every degree and calling, some of them, as we should expect from the nature of the Epistle, particularly apply to Timothy and those like him who are especially devoted to the ministry of the Word. And so here, St. Paul urges that everything likely to cause strife, resentment, or heated arguments is especially out of place in the life of a servant of that Lord who fulfilled to the letter the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the Messiah: “He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets” .

But be gentle to all men.—Quiet and kind, not only to those belonging to the brotherhood of Christ, but, as is expressly mentioned, to all. It is noteworthy how, in these Pastoral Epistles—which contain, so to speak, the last general directions to believers in Jesus regarding life as well as doctrine from perhaps the greatest of the inspired teachers—so many careful suggestions are given for the guidance of Christians in all their relations with the great non-Christian world. Conciliation may be termed the keynote of these directions.

St. Paul would impress upon Timothy and his successors the great truth that it was the Master’s will that the unnumbered peoples who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death should learn, by slow though sure degrees, how lovely and desirable it was to be a Christian. They should eventually come to see clearly that Christ was, after all, the only lover and real friend of man.

Apt to teach, patient.—The Greek word is better translated by the forbearing of the margin than by “patient.” Patient of wrong, however, best gives the full force of the original. This is what the servant of God should really aim at being: the teacher rather than the controversialist—rather the patient endurer of wrong than the one who incites dissensions and wordy disputes.