2 Timothy 2:23 · World English Bible
2 Timothy 2:23 Meaning But Refuse Foolish and Ignorant Questionings
But refuse foolish and ignorant questionings, knowing that they generate strife.
What does 2 Timothy 2:23 mean?
Refusing a foolish question is a decision made before it is asked, never in the middle of it. A question hands the mind an assignment, and some assignments can only be completed by producing an opponent.
From the Self-Help reading below.
2 Timothy 2:23 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
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Refusing a foolish question is a decision made before it is asked, never in the middle of it.
A question hands the mind an assignment, and some assignments can only be completed by producing an opponent. Take up one designed to settle who is cleverer and attention goes after ammunition, the body follows into heat, and backing out starts to feel like defeat long before anything worth defending has been said.
Refusal has to be decided in advance, since by the time the bait is in the air it is already working on state, and nobody negotiates well from there. A person who has settled beforehand which questions he will not take up keeps his energy pointed at what he is building, and the people around him stop bracing for a fight. Answer them all and years disappear into arguments that produced nothing except the feeling of having been right.
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Live 2 Timothy 2:23 today
- Open the app where you most often get pulled into it and pick your line in advance: you are not replying to that topic, not today, not in the comments, not in a quote post. Write the rule down somewhere you will see it.
- When the group chat turns into the same argument again, say something warm and true that is not a position, ask about the person, or just let it pass. You can stay in the room without picking up the rope.
- When someone baits you in a meeting or over email and your chest goes hot, wait one full breath and ask what the real decision is. Answer that and nothing else, in two sentences.
Which argument have you been having for years, and what has it ever built?
The same truth in other traditions
Tao Te Ching
The one who knows does not argue, and the one who argues does not know, because winning the exchange and seeing clearly are two different activities. The quiet person keeps their strength for the work.
Stoicism · Epictetus
He told his students to stay silent for the most part, and when they must speak, to say little, because being drawn into a dispute about nothing costs peace you cannot buy back. Decide beforehand what you will not discuss.
Buddhism
The Buddha set some questions aside unanswered, not because he could not answer, but because answering them led nowhere and bred only contention. Some arrows are better pulled out than studied.
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