📖 Biblical Definition
Paul's warning to Timothy: Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim 2:22). The Greek neoterikas epithumias (youthful desires, cravings) extends well beyond the modern reduction of lust to sexual desire alone. The surrounding verses make clear that Paul has in view the cluster of immature, ungoverned desires that mark the young man before sanctification matures him: sexual sin, certainly; but also disputatiousness (vv. 23-24), attention-craving, status-seeking, the impulse to win-the-argument over building-the-brother, the appetite for the spectacular over the steady. The command is to flee — not negotiate with, not slowly discipline, but actively run away from. Joseph fleeing Potiphar's wife (Gen 39) is the canonical pattern: the godly man does not assess the situation; he leaves it. The positive replacement is specific — righteousness, faith, charity, peace — pursued in the company of those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Cluster of immature ungoverned desires.
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The plural Greek term Paul uses (neōterikai epithymiai) for the cluster of youth-typical desires — not sexual lust alone but also disputatiousness, attention-craving, status-seeking — that the young Timothy is to flee, pursuing instead righteousness, faith, love, and peace with pure-hearted believers.
📖 Key Scripture
2 Timothy 2:22 — "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart."
1 John 2:16 — "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."
Titus 2:6 — "Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Read narrowly as sexual sin; missing Paul's broader cluster including pride and contentiousness.
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Paul's plural — 'youthful lusts' — is wider than sex. It includes the young man's tendency to argue, to crave attention, to chase status. The young pastor must flee them all and pursue the four-fold positive: righteousness, faith, love, peace. Read 2 Timothy 2:22 widely.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek neōterikos — youthful.
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['Greek', 'G3512', 'neōterikos', 'youthful']
['Greek', 'G1939', 'epithymia', 'lust, desire']
Usage
"Flee youthful lusts; pursue four-fold righteousness."
"The cluster is wider than sex."