Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive to his will.and they may recover themselves out of the devil’s snare, having been taken captive by him to do his will.And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will.
5 sermons cite this verse
… that are not believers yet. 2 Timothy 2.26, so they'll come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap for they're being held captive by him to do whatever he wants. So when I'm merciful, I see behind the mask, I see behind the facade, and I see the person, and I find myself caring about them. Now this is a radical thing for Jesus to say. Remember, Rome was effectively in control of a good part of the world at this time, including Judea. So this is a Roman culture, and Romans did not value mercy. In fact, Romans looked with disdain on mercy. A Roman philosopher of the day said, quote, mercy was the disease of the soul, end quote. They saw mercy as a sign of weakness. The Romans glorified justice, courage, discipline, and power, and they did not value human life. When a child was born, at this time in Roman culture, the father had the right of patria protestus. Patria protestus. Which simply meant that if he wanted the newborn child to live, he held his thumb up. …
Don't forget, Jesus was called the friend of sinners. 2 Timothy 2.26 says, pray that they'll come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap, for they've been held captive by him to do whatever he wants. Don't forget, you used to be one of them. How were you reached? By someone yelling at you? By someone hating you? No, I'm sure it was the love of God that got through to you, right? Someone show God's love. Satan is the enemy. Sinners are not the enemy. They're under his control and we're praying that they'll be set free. You know it's interesting that phrase that Paul uses there for people being held captive. It means they're caught alive. Caught alive. The only other time that phrase is used in the New Testament is when Jesus says, follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men. Or a better translation would be, follow me and you will catch men alive. So here's the choice. They can either be caught alive by the devil, if you will, or caught alive by Christ through our evangelistic efforts. Bringing me to my second point, Paul was culturally relevant. He was culturally relevant. …
… God. You say, where do you find that in the Bible? I thought that was something I did. No, it's a gift from God, the ability to be able to repent. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 25 and 26, Paul says, if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their sense and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. If you are held captive by Satan right now, the only chance for your eternal salvation is for God to give you the gift of repentance. Listen to me. It's a gift, but it's a gift that will not last forever. Today, today before it is too late, is the day of salvation. It's exciting to realize that at this very moment, men and women around the world are making decisions to move forward in their relationship with God. The book of Revelation continues to inspire readers to do just that. …
… correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth and come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. Satan wants to keep you dead in your sins and your trespasses, but God wants you to have a brand new life, to be conveyed from the power of darkness into the power of light, and to have the newness of life, to become a new creation in Christ so that you could know what real life is all about. You know, sometimes I think we do a poor job as Christians of explaining the benefits of being a Christian. It's not just, I know where I'm going when I die. It's also having the assurance while I live. It's also knowing while I live that I have a relationship with the loving God of the universe, that as his child, I'm loved. That is like the greatest thing. Is there anything greater than knowing that you're loved? No, nothing, nothing, right? Because if you thought nobody loved you, would you continue to want to live? Or at least it would be very difficult, right? If you thought nobody loved you. Point number three under the untouchables. Untouchable because we have an understanding. First John 5 20. …
… because it only occurs in one other place. In all of the New Testament, in 2 Timothy 2.26, the same word for catch men alive occurs. Speaking of an unbeliever, it says that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive, caught alive by him at his will. so I bring that up to illustrate to you this point that there's only two places where this verb is used are when the Lord said you and I we as Christians can catch men alive for the kingdom or the devil can catch men alive anyone in here like fishing a few of you okay anyone in here good at fishing okay good we got some confident anglers in the house all the people who love fishing you all know this you have to use different bait depending on what kind of fish you want to catch we're all called to fish in the sea of life but there's different kinds of bait available I hate to break it to you but you're not going to go to Cabo San Lucas and catch a marlin with a worm you're also not going to go to the San Juan and catch a big brown trout with a squid lure. You got to choose and you got to pick your lure, pick your bait based on the fish that you want to catch. And you need to know something. Satan is a really good fisherman. …