<p>2:24 <em>And the Lord's servant must not quarrel but be gentle towards all, eager to teach, patient of ills and wrongs</em>- As noted on :23, a minister / teacher will be eager to teach, and not simply present a mass of questions to an illiterate, newly baptized audience which will only destabilize. This was the style of the Judaizers. Such presentation of questions was not teaching, being didactic, as the term means. The new converts needed a didactic approach, instructing them, rather than destabilizing them with endless questions and provoking quarrels. The Judaist false teachers were apparently not gentle, nor patient with disagreement. This dogmatism is somehow attractive to some audiences; Catholic and Orthodox priests were at least in the past renowned for their aggressive attitude to their flock. And many like it that way- to be made to feel unworthy and weak, because that is how they feel themselves, and to trust that a firm leadership might somehow lead them to salvation at the end of the day; although they have no firm hope in salvation for that would demand too much of them in mental and secular life. This attitude was prevalent in Judaism and amongst the false teachers. 2 Cor. 11:20 suggests the false teachers beloved of the Corinthians demanded money from them and even hit them on the face.</p><p>All teaching must be after the pattern of the Lord Jesus, who taught &quot;as His manner was&quot;, i.e. He was &quot;eager to teach&quot;. When Paul wrote that &ldquo;the servant of the Lord must not strive&rdquo; in his preaching ministry (2 Tim. 2:24 AV), he was alluding back to how the servant song described the Lord Jesus in His preaching as not striving or lifting up His voice in proud argument (Is. 42:2 cp. Mt. 12:19). And Paul goes on: &ldquo;...but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing...&rdquo;. This is all a pen picture of the Lord&rsquo;s witness to men in Galilee. And yet it is applied to <em>us</em>. &ldquo;Apt to teach&rdquo; is surely an allusion to the way in which the Lord taught the people &ldquo;as he was wont&rdquo; (Mk. 10:1). So it&rsquo;s not just that we should witness because the Lord, in whom we are, was the &ldquo;faithful and true witness&rdquo; (Rev. 1:5; 3:14); because we are in Him, we must witness <em>as He did</em>, with something of that same ineffable mixture of candour, meekness and Divine earnestness for man&rsquo;s salvation</p><p>Paul makes a series of allusions to Moses, which climax in an invitation to pray like Moses for the salvation of others:&nbsp;</p><div align=center><table border=0 cellspacing=12 cellpadding=0>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p><strong>2   Tim. 2:24,25</strong></p>            </td>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p><strong>Moses</strong></p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>&ldquo;the servant of the Lord</p>            </td>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>A very common title of Moses</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>must not strive</p>            </td>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>As Israel did with him (Num. 26:9)</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>but be gentle unto all</p>            </td>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>The spirit of Moses</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>apt to teach</p>            </td>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>As was Moses (Ex. 18:20; 24:12; Dt. 4:1,5,14; 6:1; 31:22)</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>patient</p>            </td>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>As was Moses</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>in meekness</p>            </td>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>Moses was the meekest man (Num. 12:3)</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>instructing those that oppose themselves</p>            </td>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>at the time of Aaron and Miriam&rsquo;s self-opposing rebellion</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>if God <em>peradventure</em> will give them   repentance i.e. forgiveness&rdquo;</p>            </td>            <td width=353 valign=top>            <p>&ldquo;<em>Peradventure</em> I shall make an atonement for your   sin&rdquo; (Ex. 32:30)- and he prayed 40 days and nights for it.</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table></div><p>And note too: 2:19 = Num. 16:5,26; 2:20 = Num. 12:7; 2:21 = Num. 16:37; 2:22 = Num. 12:2; 16:3; 2:26 = Num. 16:33. This is quite something. The height of Moses&rsquo; devotion for His people, the passion of his praying, shadowing as it did the matchless intercession and self-giving of the Lord, really is our example. It isn&rsquo;t just a height to be admired. It means that we will not half-heartedly ask our God to &lsquo;be with&rsquo; brother x and sister y and the brethren in country z, as we lie half asleep in bed. This is a call to sustained, on our knees prayer and devotion to the salvation of others. For the Judaists, an appeal to be like Moses, to emulate him in teaching, was blasphemous; for they considered Moses at such a level that he could never be imitated. Yet Paul urges timid Timothy and all teachers to realistically be Moses to our audience.</p>