In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. — By “those that oppose themselves,” St. Paul alludes scarcely so much to those leading teachers of false doctrine as to those led away by them. In Titus 3:10 we read how these pronounced heretics — no doubt the teachers and leaders of the school — were, after a first and second admonition, to be shunned, were to be left to themselves. These, however, were evidently to be dealt with in a different manner. Their treatment was to be a gentle one. Nothing is here said respecting a first and second admonition only; no hint is given that these are to be shunned. They are clearly not the same as those referred to in Titus 3:10, or above in 2 Timothy 2:21 of this chapter, where, again, separation is definitely urged.
If God peradventure will give them repentance. — The Greek original here also carries out what was said in the Note on the last clause, and may be rendered literally, if perchance at any time God might grant to them... This suggests a hope at least that at some time or other God’s grace would work in these “opposing” members of the congregation a change. The “repentance” here signifies an abandonment on the part of those erring Christians of that wrong course on which they had entered, and a return to the true Church of God and to the full knowledge of the gospel truth.