This charge I commit to you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which led the way to you, that by them you may wage the good warfare;

 That is all the more likely because it is Paul's hope that they will be, not obliterated and destroyed, but disciplined out of their evil ways. To him, as it ought to be to us, punishment was never mere vindictive vengeance but always remedial discipline, never meant simply to hurt but always to cure. 