Finally, the Lord’s servant must be correcting his opponents with gentleness. For correct see 1 Tim 1.20, where the passive verb is translated “learn.” For gentleness see 1 Tim 6.11; a possible translation model is “He (or, They) must be humble when correcting people who oppose him (or, them).” Opponents translates the participle form of a verb that appears only here. Depending on how one takes the participle, it can be rendered either as “those who are opposing” (hence opponents) or “those who are adversely affected, opposed” (the victims of the opponents). While both are possible, it seems that the primary focus here is on the opponents who are identified with the false teachers. These people should be corrected and disciplined, but always in a spirit of gentleness and humility.

Paul’s hope in all this is that God will grant that the opponents will repent, although he is not at all sure this will happen, as shown by the use of perhaps, which translates a word that indicates lack of certainty in something. God may perhaps grant that they will repent is literally “perchance (or, maybe) God will give to them repentance”; the meaning of the expression is captured in Good News Translation, “it may be that God will give them the opportunity to repent.” That they will repent and come to know the truth is literally “repentance into (or, for) knowledge of truth,” which may mean that repentance leads into the knowledge of the truth, or that the purpose of repentance is for them to know the truth (compare New Jerusalem Bible “God may give them a change of mind so that they recognize the truth,” New American Bible, Revised “repentance that leads to knowledge of the truth,” Revised English Bible “God grant them a change of heart and lead them to recognize the truth”).

“Repentance” is literally a change of mind but actually refers to a change both in thought and behavior as a result of some religious experience. Here repentance means the giving up of teachings and doctrines that are contrary to the gospel, together with a corresponding change in behavior. This word may be variously translated as “turn one’s back on sinning,” “turn back to God,” or “change one’s way of living.” In certain languages idiomatic expressions will be used for repent; for example, “turn one’s heart completely over” (Thai).

For know the truth see “knowledge of the truth” in 1 Tim 2.4.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .