Christian Use of the Old Testament.
We stop at the last epistle of Paul to Timothy with something of the same interest with which one pauses at the last hamlet of the cultivated valley when there is nothing but moor beyond. It is the end, or all but the end, of our real knowledge of primitive Christianity; there we take our last distinct look around; further, the mist hangs thick, and few and distorted are the objects that we can discern in the midst of it.
I. But this last distinct view is overcast with gloom. "In the last days perilous times shall come." Then there follows a picture of what men would be, who in word and form were Christians, but indeed led the lives of the worst heathens. But the Apostle relies that Timothy would in his own generation struggle against this evil, because he had from a child been familiar with that revelation of God which is profitable for the teaching of truth and for the removing of error, for correcting all that was amiss, and fostering every seed of good in us, for the perfecting of God's servants in all good works. This is St. Paul's testimony to the importance of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, when as yet the truths of Christ's Gospel were known more by the hearing of the Apostle's teaching than by the teaching of their written words.
II. The predominant characteristic of the Old Testament is awe. In it we see one thing above all others insisted on, the worship of God and the keeping of His law. God is everywhere exalted; whilst the wisdom, the glory, the power, and the pretended righteousness of man, are all humbled in the dust together. Is not this the very impression which we need, in order to go with true and wholesome feelings to the cross of Christ? The Old Testament makes us understand that as the law of faith exalts most highly the law of works, so the law of works, on the other hand, is no less the highest and only true exaltation of the law of faith in Christ Jesus.
T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. vi., p. 245.
References: 2 Timothy 3:1-16. Expositor,1st series, vol. x., p. 365. 2 Timothy 3:4. G. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxii., p. 36. 2 Timothy 3:4-17. H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. i., p. 154; Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 193. 2 Timothy 3:5. Homilist,vol. v., p. 131; J. S. Pearsall, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 193; J. H. Hitchens, Ibid.,vol. xxvi., p. 284; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 28; vol. iii., p. 11. 2 Timothy 3:10-17. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi.,p. 148. 2 Timothy 3:13. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ix., p. 103. 2 Timothy 3:14. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 80. 2 Timothy 3:14; 2 Timothy 3:15. Ibid.,vol. ii., p. 1.