ACC ~ 2 Timothy 2 v14

DON’T PLAY TO THE STANDS. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: You must not “make your phylacteries broad” in eagerness for empty repute. The Christian Knower is satisfied with finding an audience of one. STROMATA 1.10.49.

KEEP IT BASIC. PELAGIUS: Do not manipulate Scripture testimonies. This kind of argument does not edify but does damage to one’s hearers, who come to think that a certain sharpness and subtlety of mind is everything. Or: Don’t try to win with words but with deeds. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

SUBSTANCE RATHER THAN VERBIAGE. AUGUSTINE: A good teacher chooses a good life in such a way that he does not also neglect good repute but provides “what may be good not only before God but also before men” insofar as he is able by fearing God and caring for men. In his speech itself he should prefer to please more with the meanings expressed than with the words used to speak them. Nor should he think that anything may be said better than that which is said truthfully. Nor should the teacher serve the words but the words the teacher. ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 4.28.61.

2 Tim