Text -- 2 Timothy 1:14 (NET)

1:14 Protect that good thing entrusted to you, through the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: 2Ti 1:14

That good thing which was committed unto thee ( tēn kalēn parathēkēn ).

Simply, "the good deposit."

Robertson: 2Ti 1:14

Guard ( phulaxon ).

As in 1Ti 6:20. God has also made an investment in Timothy (cf. 2Ti 1:12). Timothy must not let that fail.

Robertson: 2Ti 1:14

Which dwelleth in us ( tou enoikountos en hēmin ).

It is only through the Holy Spirit that Timothy or any of us can guard God’ s deposit with us.

Vincent: 2Ti 1:14

That good thing which was committed ( τὴν καλὴν παραθήκην )

That fair, honorable trust, good and beautiful in itself, and honorable to him who receives it. The phrase N.T.o . See on 2Ti 1:12. Comp. the good warfare , 1Ti 1:18; teaching , 1Ti 4:6; fight , 1Ti 6:12; confession , 1Ti 6:12.

Wesley: 2Ti 1:14

This wholesome doctrine.

JFB: 2Ti 1:14

Translate as Greek, "That goodly deposit keep through the Holy Ghost," namely, "the sound words which I have committed to thee" (2Ti 1:13; 2Ti 2:2).

JFB: 2Ti 1:14

In all believers, not merely in you and me. The indwelling Spirit enables us to keep from the robbers of the soul the deposit of His word committed to us by God.

Clarke: 2Ti 1:14

That good thing - The everlasting Gospel, keep by the Holy Ghost; for without a continual spiritual energy man can do nothing. This indwelling Spirit will make them effectual to thy own salvation, and enable thee to preach them to the salvation of the souls of others.

Calvin: 2Ti 1:14

14.Keep the excellent thing committed to thee This exhortation is more extensive than the preceding. He exhorts Timothy to consider what God has given to him, and to bestow care and application in proportion to the high value of that which has been committed; for, when the thing is of little value, we are not wont to call any one to so strict an account.

By “that which hath been committed,” I understand him to mean both the honor of the ministry and all the gifts with which Timothy was endued. Some limit it to the ministry alone; but I think that it denotes chiefly the qualifications for the ministry, that is, all the gifts of the Spirit, in which he excelled. The word “committed” is employed also for another reason, to remind Timothy that he must, one day, render an account; for we ought to administer faithfully what God has committed to us.

Τὸ Καλόν ¹⁴⁹ denotes that which is of high or singular value; and, therefore, Erasmus has happily translated it ( egregium ) “excellent,” for the sake of denoting its rare worth. I have followed that version. But what is the method of keeping it? It is this. We must beware lest we lose by our indolence what God has bestowed upon us, or lest it be taken away, because we have been ungrateful or have abused it; for there are many who reject the grace of God, and many who, after having received it, deprive themselves of it altogether. Yet because the difficulty of keeping it is beyond our strength, he therefore adds, —

By the Holy Spirit As if he had said, “I do ask from thee more than thou canst, for what thou hast not from thyself the Spirit of God will supply to thee.” Hence it follows, that we must not judge of the strength of men from the commandments of God; because, as he commands by words, so he likewise engraves his words on our hearts, and, by communicating strength, causes that his command shall not be in vain.

Who dwelleth in us ¹⁵⁰ By this he means, that the assistance of the Holy Spirit is present to believers, provided that they do not reject it when it is offered to them.

TSK: 2Ti 1:14

good : 2Ti 2:2; Luk 16:11; Rom 3:2; 1Co 9:17; 2Co 5:19, 2Co 5:20; Gal 2:7; Col 4:11; 1Ti 1:11, 1Ti 6:20

by the : Rom 8:13; Eph 5:18; 1Th 5:19; 1Pe 1:22

which dwelleth : Joh 14:17; Rom 8:11; 1Co 3:16, 1Co 6:19; 2Co 5:16; Eph 2:22

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: 2Ti 1:14

That good thing which was committed unto thee; - see the notes at 1Ti 6:20. The reference here in the phrase, "that good thing committed to thee,"is to the sound Christian doctrine with which he had been intrusted, and which he was required to transmit to others.

Keep by the Holy Ghost - By the aid of the Holy Spirit. One of the best methods of preserving the knowledge and the love of truth is to cherish the influences of the Holy Spirit.

Poole: 2Ti 1:14

That good thing which was committed unto thee keep: this is expounded by 1Ti 6:20 ; he means the doctrine of the gospel, or his office in the publication of it; Be faithful in the ministerial work.

By the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us to which purpose beg the assistance and operation of the Holy Spirit, which dwelleth both in all believers, and more particularly assisteth the ministers of the gospel. We can neither keep our minds sound in the faith, as to the doctrine of it, nor our souls steady in the exercises of faith or love, without the assistance of the Holy Spirit; which yet the Lord giveth to them that ask him, and it abides in them who do not vex, quench, grieve, or resist it.

Haydock: 2Ti 1:14

Keep the good (doctrine) deposited or committed[7] in trust to thee. This is different, though the word be the same, from what he spoke of, ver. 12. There he mentioned what he had committed and deposited in the hands of God, here he speaks of what God hath committed, and deposited in the hands of Timothy, after it was delivered to him by St. Paul and the other preachers of the gospel: that is, he speaks of the care Timothy must take to preserve the same sound doctrine, and to teach it to others. See 1 Timothy vi. 20. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Bonum depositum custodi; Greek: ten kalen parakatatheken phulaxon.

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Gill: 2Ti 1:14

That good thing which was committed to thee,.... By which he means either his ministerial work and office, which is a good work, the dispensation of which was committed to him, and which it became him so to observe, as that the ministry might not be blamed; or else the good and excellent gifts of the Spirit, which qualified him for the discharge of that work, and which were not to be neglected, but to be stirred up, exercised, and improved, lest they should be lost, or took away; or rather the Gospel, which was committed to his trust, to preach: and this may be called a good thing, from the author of it, who is good, whence it is named the Gospel of God, and the Gospel of Christ; and from the matter of it, it consists of good things come by Christ, the High priest, and which it publishes, such as peace, pardon, righteousness, and eternal salvation by him; and from the end and use of it, it being both for the glory of God, the magnifying the riches of his grace, and the exaltation of Christ; and also is the power of God in regeneration and sanctification unto salvation to everyone that believes. And it being said to be "committed to" Timothy, denotes the excellency of it; that it is a treasure, as indeed it is a rich one, it contains the riches of grace, even the unsearchable riches of Christ, is more valuable than thousands of gold and silver: and that it is a trust, and requires faithfulness in ministers, who are the stewards of it; and that it is to be accounted for. Wherefore great care should be had in dispensing and keeping it:

keep by the Holy Ghost. It should be kept pure and incorrupt, free from all the adulterations and mixtures of men; and safe and sound, that it be not snatched away from the churches by false teachers. And whereas the apostle knew, that neither Timothy, nor any other, were sufficient of themselves, for these things, he directs to the keeping of it by the Holy Ghost; who makes men overseers of churches, bestows gifts upon them, to fit them for their work, and leads them into all the truths of the Gospel; and under his influence and teachings, and by the assistance of his grace, are they enabled to discharge their trust, abide by the Gospel, and persevere in the ministration of it to the end.

Which dwelleth in us; in all believers, who are the temples of the Holy Ghost; and in all the churches, which are built up by him, an habitation for God; and in all the ministers of the word, to direct, instruct, support, and uphold them; and who dwells with them, and continues in them, and that for ever, Joh 14:16.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Ti 1:14

¹ sn That good thing (Grk “the good deposit”) refers to the truth of the gospel committed to Timothy (cf. 1 Tim 6:20).

Geneva Bible: 2Ti 1:14

^{( 9 )} That good thing which was committed unto thee keep ^{( 10 )} by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

^{( 9 )} An amplification, taken from the dignity of so great a benefit committed to the ministers.

^{( 10 )} The taking away of an objection. It is a hard thing to do it, but the Spirit of God is mighty, who has inwardly endued us with his power.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: 2Ti 1:1-18

1 Paul's love to Timothy, and the unfeigned faith which was in Timothy himself, his mother, and grandmother.

6 He is exhorted to stir up the gift of God which was in him;

8 to be stedfast and patient in persecution;

13 and to persist in the form and truth of that doctrine which he had learned of him.

15 Phygellus and Hermogenes, and such like, are noted, and Onesiphorus is highly commended.

Maclaren: 2Ti 1:14

God's Stewards

That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.'--2 Tim. 1:14.

THE Apostle has just been expressing his confidence for himself that' God is able to keep that which I have committed' unto him against that day.' Here, with intentional parallelism, he repeats the leading ideas and key-words of that great confidence, but in a wholly different counection. Whether we suppose that the rendering of our version in the twelfth verse is correct or no, there still remains the intentional parallelism between the two verses. In discoursing upon that twelfth verse, I gave reasons for adhering to the translation of our version and regarding the parallel as double. There are two committals. God commits something to us; we commit something to God. But whether that be so or no, there are, at all events, two keepings. God keeps, and we have to keep. And if, on the other hand, in both verses the Apostle speaks of a charge committed to men by God, then the contrasted parallel between the two keepings remains and is even increased, because then it is the same thing which God keeps and which we keep. So the whole connection between man's faithfulness and God's protection is suggested here. The true Christian life in its entirety may either be regarded as God's work or the believer's. We keep ourselves when we let God keep us, and God keeps us by making us able to keep ourselves.

I. Note Then, First, Our Charge.

The Apostle is evidently thinking mainly of the gospel message which was entrusted to Himself and to Timothy. That is shown by the whole context. The previous verse is, Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.' And the same connection appears in the First Epistle to Timothy, where the same exhortation is repeated: Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, which some professing have erred concerning the faith.' The same idea of the gospel as the deposit committed to the trust of Christian men lies in other words of the first epistle, where the Apostle speaks of the gospel of the glory of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.' And it crops up in other expressions of his, such as that he was put in trust of the gospeL' It also underlies the very common representation of himself and his colleagues as being stewards of the mysteries of God.' But all these expressions describe no prerogative of an apostle, or of a teaching office or order in the Church, but declare the solemn responsibility laid by the great gift bestowed upon all Christian men. Whosoever has accepted the message of salvation for himself is, ipso facto, put in charge of that message for carrying it to others. The trust which I place in the gospel makes the gospel a trust which is committed to me. And every believer, howsoever imperfect may be his grasp of the truth, howsoever narrow may be the sphere of his agency, has given into his hands this great charge, that the Word of God is committed to his trust.

You Christian people are responsible in this connection for two things, for the preservation of the truth and for the diffusion of the truth.

You are responsible for its preservation. Some of us, in a special manner, have it given to us in charge to oppose prevailing tendencies which rob the gospel of its glory and of its power, to try to preach it to men, whether they will hear or forbear, in its simplicity and its unwelcomeness, as well as in its sweetness and its graciousness. But for most of us, the responsibility for the preservation of the truth lies mainly in another direction, and we are bound to keep it for the food of our own souls, and to see that the atmosphere in which we live, and the prevailing tendencies around us, the worldliness, the selfishness, the absorption in the things seen to the exclusion of the things that are unseen and eternal, do not rob us of the treasure which we say that we value. See to it that you keep it as what you profess that it is, the anchor of your hope and the guide of all your lives, binding it upon the palms of your hands that all your work may be sanctified; writing it between your eyes that all your thoughts may be enlightened; and inscribing it on the posts of your doors and your gates that, whensoever you go forth to work, you may go out under its guidance, and when you come back to rest and solitude, you may bear it with you for your meditation and refreshment. The charge that is given to us is the preservation of God's Word, and the gospel which we have received we have received with this written upon it, Hold fast that which thou hast; let no man take thy crown.'

And then, further, all of us Christian people are responsible for the diffusion of that Word. It is given to us that we may spread it, and this is no exclusive prerogative of an apostolic class, or of an order of ministers or clergy in God's Church, but every Christian man and woman who has the Word is thereby bound to tell the Word faithfully.

And then, subordinately and connected with this, I may put another thought, that the reputation and character of our Master are committed to us to keep. People take their notions of Jesus Christ a great deal more from you than from the Bible, and the Christian Church is the true scripture which most men know best. The written revelation is often negatived, or at all events neutralised, by the representation which we Christians make of Christ. He has given into our hands His reputation, as if He said: Live so that men may know what sort of a Christ I am; and so set forth the spirit of life that was in Me that men may be led to believe that there is something in the truths and principles which make men like you.'

But there is a wider application legitimately to be given to the words of my text, on which I touch for a moment. The great trust which is committed to us all is ourselves; and in connection therewith we are responsible for two things--first, for the development of character; and second, for the exercise of capacity.

We are responsible for the development of character. We have to cut off and suppress, or, at least, to subordinate and regulate, a great deal within us in order that the true self may rise into sovereign majesty and power. We have to cultivate shy graces, unwelcome duties, sides of our character which are not naturally prominent. The faults that we have are not to be cured simply by the repression of them, but by the cultivation of their opposites. All this is given to us to do, and nobody can do it for us. We are stewards of many things, but the most precious gift of which we are stewards is this awful nature of ours, with possibilities that tower heaven-high, and evils that go down to the depths of hell, shut up within the narrow room of our hearts. The man who has himself put into his own hands can never want a field for diligent cultivation. And we are responsible for the use of capacities. God gives these to us that we may by exercise strengthen them. And so, brother, as a man, your natural self is your charge; as a Christian, the word which brings your better self, is that which is committed to you to keep.

II. Now, Secondly, Notice Our Keeping Of Our Charge.

The word rendered here to keep' rather means to guard' than to keep in the sense of preserving, Keeping' is the consequence of the guarding' which my text enjoins. We may get a picture which may help us to understand the drift of the apostolic exhortation, if I remind you of two of the uses of the word in its non-metaphorical sense in Scripture. It is the expression employed to describe the occupation of the shepherds on the upland slopes of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. They were keeping watch over their flocks by night.' That is how you have to watch yourselves and the word that is committed to your care. Again, it is the word employed to describe the vigilant watchfulness of the sentry outside the prison gates where the apostles lay immured; or of the four quaternions of soldiers that had to take charge of Peter when he was chained to them. And that is how we have to watch, as the shepherd over his flock, as the sentry over the prison house, or as the guard over some treasure. So Christian men and women have to live, exercising all the care needful to prevent the stealing away some of the flock, the escape of some of the prisoners, the filching from them of some of their treasure. Let me expand the apostolic exhortation into two of three precepts.

Cultivate the sense of stewardship. It is a very hard thing for us to keep fresh the feeling that all which we are and have is given to us, and that not for ourselves, but for God. The beginning of evil is the weakening of that sense of responsibility, and the dawning of the dream that we are our own. The prodigal son's downfall began with saying, Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.

And the next step came naturally after that: He gathered all together and went away into a far country.' And the next step came just as naturally after that: He wasted his substance in riotous living.'

If sense of stewardship and responsibility is weakened within us, the mainspring of all good is weakened within us, and we shall become self-willed, self-indulgent, self-asserting, God-forgetting. If we think that the talent or the pound is ours, we shall spend it for our own purposes, and that is waste.'

And is it not a sad commentary on the tendency of human nature to forget stewardship, and to lose the impression of responsibility, that that very word talents,' which is borrowed from Christ's parable, is used in common speech without the slightest sense that it suggests anything about stewardship, faithfulness, or reckoning? Let us, then, take care to cultivate the sense of responsibility.

Again, let us exercise unslumbering vigilance. A great political thinker says, The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.' The price of keeping the treasure that God has given us is the same. There are old legends of fabulous riches hid away in some rocky cave amongst the mountains, guarded by mythological creatures, of whom it is said that their eyes have no lids. They cannot shut them, and they never sleep. And that is what Christians need to be, with lidless, wide-opened, vigilant eyes; watching ever against the evils that are ever around us, and the robbers who are ever seeking to drag the precious deposit from our hands. Live to watch, and watch that you may live.

Then, again, familiarise yourselves with the truth which you have in charge. I am not half so much afraid that intellectual doubts and the formulated, conscious disbelief of this generation will affect Christian people, as I am afraid of the unconscious drift sweeping them away before they know. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has a solemn figure in regard of this matter. He says: Let us take the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should drift past them.' And that is exactly what befalls Christian men and women who do not continually renew their familiarity with God's Word and the gospel to which they trust. Before they know where they are, the silent-flowing, swift stream has swept them down, and the truths to which they fancied they were anchored are almost invisible on the far horizon. For one man who loses his Christianity by yielding to the arguments of the other side there are ten who lose it by evaporation. As thy servant was busy here and there,' was the lame excuse of the man in the Old Testament for letting his prisoner run away, he was gone!' And God knows how he has gone and where he went.

That is true about a great many who are professing Christian people. The Word has slipped out of their hands, and they do not know how, nor exactly when it escaped from their slack fingers. If you will put plucked flowers into a glass without any water you cannot but expect them to wither; and if you will refrain from refreshing your belief and your trust by familiarity with the truths of the gospel, and by meditating upon these, you cannot wonder that they should shrivel up and lose their sweetness for you. Keep that word hid in your hearts that you sin not against Him and it.

And then, further, exercise your gifts. The very worst way to keep the talent is to keep it in a napkin. The man who buried it in the earth, and then dug it up and presented it to his lord, did not know how much weight it had lost by rust and decay while it was hidden away. For though gold does not rust, the gold of the talent that we possess does; and the sure way to make our gifts dwindle is that we neglect to use them. It seems an odd way to keep corn, to fling it broadcast out of a basket over the fields, but there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.' Live your faith; let what you believe be the guide of your practice; increase your grasp upon it by meditation and by prayer, use your capacities, exercise your faculties, and they will grow, and you will be strong.

III. Lastly, Note Our Ally In Our Keeping Of Our Charge.

Through the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.' Then all is to be done, not in our own strength, but in the strength of the great indwelling Guest and Helper. So, then, there arise two thoughts from this.

The one is that we keep ourselves best when we give ourselves to God to keep us. The Apostle has just been doing that for himself, and he now would exhort Timothy to do the same. Our faith brings this great Ally into the field. If we commit to God what God has committed to us, then, as the patriarch, upon his dangerous and doubtful path, beheld in the heavens above him the camp of the angels hovering over his little camp, so, if we commit the keeping of ourselves and of all our responsibility in connection with God's work, to Him, we too may be sure that the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him,' and that He will keep us. Then there will be a fourth in the furnace like unto the Son of Man, and no fire shall consume anything but the bonds of those who, in the very fire, trust themselves to the strong hands of God. We best keep ourselves when we give ourselves to God to keep.

But another thought here is that God keeps us by enabling us to keep ourselves. Through the Holy Spirit that dwelleth in us'--so His protection is no mere outward wall of defence around us, nor any change of circumstances which may avert danger, but it is the putting within us of a divine life-principle which shall mould our thoughts, regulate our desires, reinforce our weakness, and be in us a power that shall preserve us from all evil God fights for us, not in the sense of fighting instead of us, but in the sense of fighting by our sides when we fight. A faith which says, God will take care of me,' and does not take care of itself, is no faith, but either hypocrisy or self-deceived presumption. Faith will intensify effort instead of leading to shirk it; and the more we trust Him, the more we should ourselves work. We keep ourselves when God keeps us; God keeps us when we keep ourselves. Both things are true, and therefore our fitting temper is the double one of self-distrusting confidence and of earnest diligence.

Dear brother, we travel on a dangerous road. We never can tell from behind what rock a gun barrel may be levelled at us, or where the highwayman may swoop down upon us to rob us of our treasure. That is no country to travel through carelessly, in loose order, with our gun upon another horse away at the back of the caravan, and we ourselves straying hither and thither gathering flowers, or seeking easy places to walk in; but it is a land in which we must be unslumberingly vigilant, and screw ourselves up to all effort. And it is a country in which we shall certainly be robbed unless we commit ourselves unto Him who alone is able to keep us from falling.

Still let me guard the holy fire,And still stir up Thy gift in me.'

If we say, in life and in death, Father! into Thy hands I commit my spirit,' then we may be humbly, but not idly confident that, the old promise will be fulfilled to us: The Lord will keep thee ever more.'

MHCC: 2Ti 1:6-14

God has not given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, of courage and resolution, to meet difficulties and dangers; the spirit of love to him, which will carry us through opposition. And the spirit of a sound mind, quietness of mind. The Holy Spirit is not the author of a timid or cowardly disposition, or of slavish fears. We are likely to bear afflictions well, when we have strength and power from God to enable us to bear them. As is usual with Paul, when he mentions Christ and his redemption, he enlarges upon them; so full was he of that which is all our salvation, and ought to be all our desire. The call of the gospel is a holy call, making holy. Salvation is of free grace. This is said to be given us before the world began, that is, in the purpose of God from all eternity; in Christ Jesus, for all the gifts that come from God to sinful man, come in and through Christ Jesus alone. And as there is so clear a prospect of eternal happiness by faith in Him, who is the Resurrection and the Life, let us give more diligence in making his salvation sure to our souls. Those who cleave to the gospel, need not be ashamed, the cause will bear them out; but those who oppose it, shall be ashamed. The apostle had trusted his life, his soul, and eternal interests, to the Lord Jesus. No one else could deliver and secure his soul through the trials of life and death. There is a day coming, when our souls will be inquired after. Thou hadst a soul committed to thee; how was it employed? in the service of sin, or in the service of Christ? The hope of the lowest real Christian rests on the same foundation as that of the great apostle. He also has learned the value and the danger of his soul; he also has believed in Christ; and the change wrought in his soul, convinces the believer that the Lord Jesus will keep him to his heavenly kingdom. Paul exhorts Timothy to hold fast the Holy Scriptures, the substance of solid gospel truth in them. It is not enough to assent to the sound words, but we must love them. The Christian doctrine is a trust committed to us; it is of unspeakable value in itself, and will be of unspeakable advantage to us. It is committed to us, to be preserved pure and entire, yet we must not think to keep it by our own strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us; and it will not be gained by those who trust in their own hearts, and lean to their own understandings.

Matthew Henry: 2Ti 1:6-14

Here is an exhortation and excitation of Timothy to his duty (2Ti 1:6): I put thee in remembrance. The best men need remembrancers; what we know we should be reminded of. 2Pe 3:1, I write this, to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.

I. He exhorts him to stir up the gift of God that was in him. Stir it up as fire under the embers. It is meant of all the gifts and graces the God had given him, to qualify him for the work of an evangelist, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the extraordinary gifts that were conferred by the imposition of the apostle's hands. These he must stir up; he must exercise them and so increase them: use gifts and have gifts. To him that hath shall be given, Mat 25:29. He must take all opportunities to use these gifts, and so stir them up, for that is the best way of increasing them. Whether the gift of God in Timothy was ordinary or extraordinary (though I incline to the latter), he must stir it up, otherwise it would decay. Further, you see that this gift was in him by the putting on of the apostle's hands, which I take to be distinct from his ordination, for that was performed by the hands of the presbytery, 1Ti 4:14. It is probable that Timothy had the Holy Ghost, in his extraordinary gifts and graces, conferred on him by the laying on of the apostle's hands (for I reckon that none but the apostles had the power of giving the Holy Ghost), and afterwards, being thus richly furnished for the work of the ministry, was ordained by the presbytery. Observe, 1. The great hindrance of usefulness in the increase of our gifts is slavish fear. Paul therefore warns Timothy against this: God hath not given us the spirit of fear, 2Ti 1:7. It was through base fear that the evil servant buried his talent, and did not trade with it, Mat 25:25. Now God hath therefore armed us against the spirit of fear, by often bidding us fear not. "Fear not the face of man; fear not the dangers you may meet with in the way of your duty."God hath delivered us from the spirit of fear, and hath given us the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. The spirit of power, or of courage and resolution to encounter difficulties and dangers; - the spirit of love to God, which will carry us through the opposition we may meet with, as Jacob made nothing of the hard service he was to endure for Rachel: the spirit of love to God will set us above the fear of man, and all the hurt that a man can do us; - and the spirit of a sound mind, or quietness of mind, a peaceable enjoyment of ourselves, for we are oftentimes discouraged in our way and work by the creatures o our own fancy and imagination, which a sober, solid, thinking mind would obviate, and would easily answer. 2. The spirit God gives to his ministers is not a fearful, but a courageous spirit; it is a spirit of power, for they speak in his name who has all power, both in heaven and earth; and it is a spirit of love, for love to God and the souls of men must inflame ministers in all their service; and it is a spirit of a sound mind, for they speak the words of truth and soberness.

II. He exhorts him to count upon afflictions, and get ready for them: " Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. Be not thou ashamed of the gospel, of the testimony thou hast borne to it."Observe,

1. The gospel of Christ is what we have none of us reason to be ashamed of. We must not be ashamed of those who are suffering for the gospel of Christ. Timothy must not be ashamed of good old Paul, though he was now in bonds. As he must not himself be afraid of suffering, so he must not be afraid of owning those who were sufferers for the cause of Christ. (1.) The gospel is the testimony of our Lord; in and by this he bears testimony of himself to us, and by professing our adherence to it we bear testimony of him and for him. (2.) Paul was the Lord's prisoner, his prisoner, Eph 4:1. For his sake he was bound with a chain. (3.) We have no reason to be ashamed either of the testimony of our Lord or of his prisoners; if we are ashamed of either now, Christ will be ashamed of us hereafter. " But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God, that is, expect afflictions for the gospel's sake, prepare for them, count upon them, be willing to take thy lot with the suffering saints in this world. Be partaker of the afflictions of the gospel; "or, as it may be read, Do thou suffer with the gospel; "not only sympathize with those who suffer for it, but be ready to suffer with them and suffer like them."If at any time the gospel be in distress, he who hopes for life and salvation by it will be content to suffer with it. Observe, [1.] Then we are likely to bear afflictions as well, when we fetch strength and power from God to enable us to bear them: Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God. [2.] All Christians, but especially ministers, must expect afflictions and persecutions for the sake of the gospel. [3.] These shall be proportioned, according to the power of God (1Co 10:13) resting upon us.

2. Mentioning God and the gospel, he takes notice what great things God has done for us by the gospel, 2Ti 1:9, 2Ti 1:10. To encourage him to suffer, he urges two considerations: -

(1.) The nature of that gospel which he was called to suffer for, and the glorious and gracious designs and purposes of it. It is usual with Paul, when he mentions Christ, and the gospel of Christ, to digress from his subject, and enlarge upon them; so full was he of that which is all our salvation, and ought to be all our desire. Observe, [1.] The gospel aims at our salvation: He has saved us, and we must not think much to suffer for that which we hope to be saved by. He has begun to save us, and will complete it in due time; for God calls those things that are not (that are not yet completed) as though they were (Rom 4:17); therefore he says, who has saved us. [2.] It is designed for our sanctification: And called us with a holy calling, called us to holiness. Christianity is a calling, a holy calling; it is the calling wherewith we are called, the calling to which we are called, to labour in it. Observe, All who shall be saved hereafter are sanctified now. Wherever the call of the gospel is an effectual call, it is found to be a holy call, making those holy who are effectually called. [3.] The origin of it is the free grace and eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus. If we had merited it, it had been hard to suffer for it; but our salvation by it is of free grace, and not according to our works, and therefore we must not think much to suffer for it. This grace is said to be given us before the world began, that is, in the purpose and designs of God from all eternity; in Christ Jesus, for all the gifts that come from God to sinful man come in and through Christ Jesus. [4.] The gospel is the manifestation of this purpose and grace: By the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who had lain in the bosom of the Father from eternity, and was perfectly apprised of all his gracious purposes. By his appearing this gracious purpose was made manifest to us. Did Jesus Christ suffer for it, and shall we think much to suffer for it? [5.] By the gospel of Christ death is abolished: He has abolished death, not only weakened it, but taken it out of the way, has broken the power of death over us; by taking away sin he has abolished death (for the sting of death is sin, 1Co 15:56), in altering the property of it, and breaking the power of it. Death now of an enemy has become a friend; it is the gate by which we pass out of a troublesome, vexatious, sinful world, into a world of perfect peace and purity; and the power thereof is broken, for death does not triumph over those who believe the gospel, but they triumph over it. O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory? 1Co 15:55. [6.] He has brought life and immortality to light by the gospel; he has shown us another world more clearly than it was before discovered under any former dispensation, and the happiness of that world, the certain recompence of our obedience by faith: we all with open face, as in a glass, behold the glory of God. He has brought it to light, not only set it before us, but offered it to us, by the gospel. Let us value the gospel more than ever, as it is that whereby life and immortality are brought to light, for herein it has the pre-eminence above all former discoveries; so that it is the gospel of life and immortality, as it discovers them to us, and directs us in the ready way that leads thereto, as well as proposes the most weighty motives to excite our endeavours in seeking after glory, honour, and immortality.

(2.) Consider the example of blessed Paul, 2Ti 1:11, 2Ti 1:12. He was appointed to preach the gospel, and particularly appointed to teach the Gentiles. He though it a cause worth suffering for, and why should not Timothy think so too? No man needs to be afraid nor ashamed to suffer for the cause of the gospel: I am not ashamed, says Paul, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Observe, [1.] Good men often suffer many things for the best cause in the world: For which cause I suffer these things; that is, "for my preaching, and adhering to the gospel."[2.] They need not be ashamed, the cause will bear them out; but those who oppose it shall be clothed with shame. [3.] Those who trust in Christ know whom they have trusted. The apostle speaks with a holy triumph and exultation, as much as to say, "I stand on firm ground. I know I have lodged the great trust in the hands of the best trustee." And am persuaded, etc. What must we commit to Christ? The salvation of our souls, and their preservation to the heavenly kingdom; and what we so commit to him he will keep. There is a day coming when our souls will be enquired after: "Man! Woman! thou hadst a soul committed to thee, what hast thou done with it? To whom it was offered, to God or Satan? How was it employed, in the service of sin or in the service of Christ?"There is a day coming, and it will be a very solemn and awful day, when we must give an account of our stewardship (Luk 16:2), give an account of our souls: now, if by an active obedient faith we commit it to Jesus Christ, we may be sure he is able to keep it, and it shall be forthcoming to our comfort in that day.

III. He exhorts him to hold fast the form of sound words, 2Ti 1:13. 1. " Have a form of sound words"(so it may be read), "a short form, a catechism, an abstract of the first principles of religion, according to the scriptures, a scheme of sound words, a brief summary of the Christian faith, in a proper method, drawn out by thyself from the holy scriptures for thy own use;"or, rather, by the form of sound words I understand the holy scriptures themselves. 2. "Having it, hold it fast, remember it, retain it, adhere to it. Adhere to it in opposition to all heresies and false doctrine, which corrupt the Christian faith. Hold that fast which thou hast heard of me. "Paul was divinely inspired. It is good to adhere to those forms of sound words which we have in the scriptures; for these, we are sure, were divinely inspired. That is sound speech, which cannot be condemned, Tit 2:8. But how must it be held fast? In faith and love; that is, we must assent to it as a faithful saying, and bid it welcome as worthy of all acceptation. Hold it fast in a good heart, this is the ark of the covenant, in which the tables both of law and gospel are most safely and profitably deposited, Psa 119:11. Faith and love must go together; it is not enough to believe the sound words, and to give an assent to them, but we must love them, believe their truth and love their goodness, and we must propagate the form of sound words in love; speaking the truth in love, Eph 4:15. Faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; it must be Christian faith and love, faith and love fastening upon Jesus Christ, in and by whom God speaks to us and we to him. Timothy, as a minister, must hold fast the form of sound words, for the benefit of others. Of healing words, so it may read; there is healing virtue in the word of God; he sent his word, and healed them. To the same purport is that (2Ti 1:14), That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in us. That good thing was the form of sound words, the Christian doctrine, which was committed to Timothy in his baptism and education as he was a Christian, and in his ordination as he was a minister. Observe, (1.) The Christian doctrine is a trust committed to us. It is committed to Christians in general, but to ministers in particular. It is a good thing, of unspeakable value in itself, and which will be of unspeakable advantage to us; it is a good thing indeed, it is an inestimable jewel, for it discovers to us the unsearchable riches of Christ, Eph 3:8. It is committed to us to be preserved pure and entire, and to be transmitted to those who shall come after us, and we must keep it, and not contribute any thing to the corrupting of its purity, the weakening of its power, or the diminishing of its perfection: Keep it by the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in us. Observe, Even those who are ever so well taught cannot keep what they have learned, any more than they could at first learn it, without the assistance of the Holy Spirit. We must not think to keep it by our own strength, but keep it by the Holy Ghost. (2.) The Holy Ghost dwells in all good ministers and Christians; they are his temples, and he enables them to keep the gospel pure and uncorrupt; and yet they must use their best endeavours to keep this good thing, for the assistance and indwelling of the Holy Ghost do not exclude men's endeavours, but they very well consist together.

Barclay: 2Ti 1:12-14

This passage uses a very vivid Greek word in a most suggestive double way. Paul talks of that which he has entrusted to God; and he urges Timothy to safeguard the trust God has reposed in him. In both cases the word is paratheke (3866), which means a deposit committed to someone's trust. A man might deposit something with a friend to be kept for his children or his loved ones; he might deposit his valuables in a temple for safe keeping, for the temples were the banks of the ancient world. In each case the thing deposited was a paratheke (3866). In the ancient world there was no more sacred duty than the safe-guarding of such a deposit and the returning of it when in due time it was claimed.

There was a famous Greek story which told just how sacred such a trust was (Herodotus 6: 89; Juvenal: Satires, 13: 199-208). The Spartans were famous for their strict honour and honesty. A certain man of Miletus came to a certain Glaucus of Sparta. He said that he had heard such great reports of the honesty of the Spartans that he had turned half his possessions into money and wished to deposit that money with Glaucus, until he or his heirs should claim it again. Certain symbols were given and received which would identify the rightful claimant when he should make his claim. The years passed on; the man of Miletus died; his sons came to Sparta to see Glaucus, produced the identifying tallies and asked for the return of the deposited money. But Glaucus claimed that he had no memory of ever receiving it. The sons from Miletus went sorrowfully away; but Glaucus went to the famous oracle at Delphi to see whether he should admit the trust or, as Greek law entitled him to do, should swear that he knew nothing about it. The oracle answered:

"Best for the present it were, O Glaucus, to do as thou

wishest,

Swearing an oath to prevail, and so to make prize of the

money.

Swear then--death is the lot even of those who never swear

falsely.

Yet hath the Oath-god a son who is nameless, footless and

handless;

Mighty in strength he approaches to vengeance, and whelms in

destruction

All who belong to the race, or the house of the man who is

perjured.

But oath-keeping men leave behind them a flourishing offspring."

Glaucus understood; the oracle was telling him that if he wished for momentary profit, he should deny the trust, but such a denial would inevitably bring eternal loss. He besought the oracle to pardon his question; but the answer was that to have tempted the god was as bad as to have done the deed. He sent for the sons of the man of Miletus and restored the money. Herodotus goes on: "Glaucus at this present time has not a single descendant; nor is there any family known as his; root and branch has he been removed from Sparta. It is a good thing therefore, when a pledge has been left with one, not even in thought to doubt about restoring it." To the Greeks a paratheke (3866) was completely sacred.

Paul says that he has made his deposit with God. He means that he has entrusted both his work and his life to him. It might seem that he had been cut off in mid-career; that he should end as a criminal in a Roman jail might seem the undoing of all his work. But he had sowed his seed and preached his gospel, and the result he left in the hands of God. Paul had entrusted his life to God; and he was sure that in life and in death he was safe. Why was he so sure? Because he knew whom he had believed in. We must always remember that Paul does not say that he knew what he had believed. His certainty did not come from the intellectual knowledge of a creed or a theology; it came from a personal knowledge of God. He knew God personally and intimately; he knew what he was like in love and in power; and to Paul it was inconceivable that he should fail him. If we have worked honestly and done the best that we can, we can leave the result to God, however meager that work may seem to us. With him in this or any other world life is safe, for nothing can separate us from his love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Barclay: 2Ti 1:12-14

But there is another side to this matter of trust; there is another paratheke (3866). Paul urges Timothy to safeguard and keep inviolate the trust God has reposed in him. Not only do we put our trust in God; he also puts his trust in us. The idea of God's dependence on men is never far from New Testament thought. When God wants something done, he has to find a man to do it. If he wants a child taught, a message brought, a sermon preached, a wanderer found, a sorrowing one comforted, a sick one healed, he has to find some instrument to do his work.

The trust that God had particularly reposed in Timothy was the oversight and the edification of the Church. If Timothy was truly to discharge that trust, he had to do certain things.

(i) He had to hold fast to the pattern of health-giving words. That is to say, he had to see to it that Christian belief was maintained in all its purity and that false and misleading ideas were not allowed to enter in. That is not to say that in the Christian Church there must be no new thought and no development in doctrine and belief; but it does mean to say that there are certain great Christian verities which must always be preserved intact. And it may well be that the one Christian truth which must for ever stand is summed up in the creed of the early Church, "Jesus Christ is Lord" (Phi 2:11). Any theology which seeks to remove Christ from the topmost niche or take from him his unique place in the scheme of revelation and salvation is necessarily wrong. The Christian Church must ever be restating its faith--but the faith restated must be faith in Christ.

(ii) He must never slacken in faith. Faith here has two ideas at its heart. (a) It has the idea of fidelity. The Christian leader must be for ever true and loyal to Jesus Christ. He must never be ashamed to show whose he is and whom he serves. Fidelity is the oldest and the most essential virtue in the world. (b) But faith also has in it the idea of hope. The Christian must never lose his confidence in God; he must never despair. As A. H. Clough wrote:

"Say not, 'The struggle naught availeth;

The labour and the wounds are vain;

The enemy faints not, nor faileth,

And as things have been they remain.'

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,

Seem here no painful inch to gain,

Far back, through creeks and inlets making,

Comes silent, flooding in, the main."

There must be no pessimism, either for himself or for the world, in the heart of the Christian.

(iii) He must never slacken in love. To love men is to see them as God sees them. It is to refuse ever to do anything but seek their highest good. It is to meet bitterness with forgiveness; it is to meet hatred with love; it is to meet indifference with a flaming passion which cannot be quenched. Christian love insistently seeks to love men as God loves them and as he has first loved us.

Constable: 2Ti 1:8-14

B. Charges to remain loyal 1:8-14

Paul gave his young protégé exhortations to encourage him further to remain faithful to the Lord.

Constable: 2Ti 1:13-14

2. Exhortation to guard the gospel 1:13-14

1:13 Timothy felt temptation to modify his message as well as to stop preaching it. Paul urged him, therefore, to continue to preach the same message he had heard from Paul and to do so with trust in God and love for people that Jesus Christ would supply.

"With his usual skillful way with words, Paul is saying in effect that as God has guarded the deposit of his life (and will guard Timothy's) so also Timothy must guard the deposit of the faithful account of the gospel that God has entrusted to him."¹⁷

1:14 He should guard God's revelation that God had entrusted to him as a minister of the gospel. The indwelling Holy Spirit (as well as the Son, v. 13) would enable him to do so.

"The appeal has come full circle. It began with God's Spirit and his power and it has ended with the Spirit's enabling power."¹⁸

College: 2Ti 1:1-18

2 TIMOTHY 1

Paul writes 2 Timothy from prison awaiting his likely death. His goal is to give Timothy the encouragement and stamina to withstand the hardships he is bound to face.

I. SALUTATION (1:1-2)

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

² To Timothy, my dear son:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul's salutation in 2 Timothy is very much like 1 Tim 1:1-2. The minor differences are, however, of some significance.

1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus

In a letter so personal it seems a bit unusual for Paul to introduce himself as "an apostle." In 1 Tim 1:1 Paul needed to lend authority to the Ephesian Christians both for his letter and for Timothy and his ministry. Here, as Fee has suggested, although Paul may simply be acting out of habit, it is more likely that Paul's use of this self-designation reflects the urgent appeal for Timothy's loyalty to Paul and his message.

by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

In 2 Timothy Paul attributes his apostleship to "the will of God," a phrase which is parallel to "the command of God" in 1 Tim 1:1. Paul's apostleship and the suffering which accompanies it are all "by the will of God." With the next modifier Paul indicates that his apostleship is "according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus," a positive affirmation that does not occur in 1 Tim 1:1. For Paul, eternal life in the present and in the future resides in Christ Jesus.

1:2 To Timothy, my dear son:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

In 2 Tim 1:2 Paul addresses Timothy as "my dear" (ajgaphtw/' , agapçtô , "beloved") "son" (cf. 1 Cor 4:17) in contrast to "my true son in the faith" in 1 Tim 1:2. The note of intimacy adds an important emphasis to Paul's call for Timothy to endure suffering in 2 Timothy. His emphasis on his relationship to Timothy as legitimate in 1 Timothy gave authority to Timothy and his words.

Paul's words of greeting - "grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord" - match 1 Tim 1:2.

II. THANKSGIVING (1:3-5)

³ I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. ⁴ Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. ⁵ I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

Paul normally follows the greeting in his letters with an expression of thanksgiving (cf. 1 Cor 1:4-9; Phil 1:3-11 for examples of extended sections of thanksgiving). The only exceptions to this pattern are found in 1 Timothy, Titus, and Galatians.

1:3 I thank God,

In this verse Paul does not specify the exact nature of his thanksgiving to God. Is it for God's gift of his ministry? Is it for "the promise of life in Christ Jesus" (v. 1)? Or is it for the "sincere faith" of Timothy?

whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience,

Paul connects his service to God with that of his "forefathers." He sees continuity in the faith of believers throughout the ages. For Paul there is a clear connection between Judaism and Christianity. Paul's service is "with a clear conscience" (see discussion at 1 Tim 1:5).

as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.

Although the KJV renders the word "constantly" (literally "without ceasing") with the verb "thank," the NIV is correct in taking it with "remember." Paul's prayer of thanksgiving becomes one of intercession for Timothy. Paul "constantly" remembers Timothy in his prayers "day and night" (see 1 Tim 5:5 where this is required of "widows indeed").

1:4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.

As Paul prays for Timothy he wishes to see him especially when he remembers Timothy's "tears." With the macho image of men, the American culture perhaps has little room for tears of a man like Timothy. Two options have been offered for the occasion of those tears. Some suggest that Paul is referring to his farewell to the elders at Ephesus on his trip to Jerusalem (Acts 20:37). Others suggest one should see Paul's leaving Timothy in Ephesus on his way to Macedonia as the occasion (1 Tim 1:3). The latter option is more likely. Seeing Timothy will fill Paul "with joy."

1:5 I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

Paul remembers Timothy's "sincere" (ajnupokrivtou , anypokritou , literally "unhypocritical") "faith." This faith "first lived in [Timothy's] grandmother Lois and in [his] mother Eunice" (cf. Acts 16:1). Their expression of "faith" was Timothy's heritage like Paul's heritage from his forefathers (v. 3). Paul is convinced that that faith is alive and well in Timothy.

III. PAUL'S APPEAL FOR ENDURANCE IN FACING SUFFERING (1:6-2:13)

Timothy's faith will sustain him through suffering. Paul knows that Timothy has much hardship ahead of him and sets out to prepare him to endure future suffering.

A. AN APPEAL FOR LOYALTY IN FACING HARDSHIP (1:6-14)

⁶ For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷ For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

⁸ So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, ⁹ who has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, ¹⁰ but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. ¹¹ And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. ¹² That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

¹³ What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God,

Paul's conviction that Timothy has a living, "sincere faith" leads him to remind Timothy to "fan into flame the gift of God." The infinitive "to fan into flame" is a present infinitive in Greek, indicating Paul's desire for Timothy "to keep fanning something into flame." As Knight has suggested, although to fan into flame represents a metaphor of the rekindling of a dying flame, Paul is not suggesting that Timothy's faith was dying. He is simply calling Timothy to continue his faithful Christian life.

which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

The "gift of God" was given Timothy "through the laying on" of Paul's hands. The "gift" (cavrisma , charisma ) here need not be seen as a miraculous gift. It likely refers to Timothy's ministry (see the discussion of 1 Tim 1:18; 4:14) and to God's equipping him for that ministry. In 1 Tim 4:14 Timothy's gift is described as "given through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on" him. Paul's intent there was to emphasize for the church at Ephesus Timothy's authority. Here Paul speaks of his laying hands on Timothy because of the personal appeal he is making.

1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity,

Paul describes this gift in terms of spirit God has given. Most translations and modern commentators understand "spirit" (pneu'ma , pneuma ) as some spirit or attitude (KJV, RSV, NIV, NASB, NRSV). Fee and Hendriksen, however, take pneuma as "Spirit," i.e., the Holy Spirit. Fee says that Paul's intent was "something like this: 'For when God gave us his Spirit, it was not timidity that we received, but power, love and self-discipline.'" The strongest argument against this interpretation is the fact that Paul begins with the negative attribute - timidity. It also seems likely that the "us" (uJmi'n , hymin ) of the verse is Christians in general. In reality the differences between the two interpretations are minimal. With the gift of the Holy Spirit, a "spirit of timidity" is inappropriate. Perhaps, because of Timothy's own temperament as seen in both 1 and 2 Timothy, Paul sees the need to remind Timothy that timidity (or "cowardice") is inappropriate for his ministry.

but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Timothy is rather to live out his God-given "spirit of power" (cf. Rom 15:13, 19; 1 Cor 2:4; Eph 3:16), "of love" (cf. Rom 5:5; 15:10; Gal 5:22; Col 1:8), and "of self-discipline" (swfronismou' , sôphronismou , although this word appears only here in the NT, cf. 1 Tim 2:9, 14; 3:2 where cognates occur). This "spirit of power" is obviously connected to the indwelling Spirit in Timothy's life.

1:8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner.

On the basis of the "spirit" Timothy is to have (the "so," literally "therefore" of v. 8 makes this clear), Paul calls him to do two things: (1) "do not be ashamed" and (2) "join with me in suffering." Timothy is not to "be ashamed to testify about" the Lord. Appropriately Paul designates Jesus as "our Lord," indicating an element of intimacy. The NIV is correct in taking the genitive "of the Lord" as an objective genitive "the testimony about the Lord" rather than a subjective genitive "the testimony which the Lord gave." It is a call for Timothy to face the task of preaching the gospel with courage. Timothy is also called not to be ashamed of Paul "his prisoner" (cf. Eph 3:1; Phil 1:12-14).

But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,

Notice that Paul emphasizes not that his imprisonment was imposed by the Roman government but that the Lord was in control and that Paul was in prison for him. Timothy is also called to "join with [Paul] in suffering." This suffering was "for the gospel" (i.e., because of his association with and for the spread of the gospel) and "by the power of God" (cf. v. 7).

1:9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

In typical Pauline fashion, Paul moves to describe God by indicating the grandeur of his work. He "has saved us and called us to a holy life." Again Paul emphasizes that salvation and the Christian calling are "not because of anything we have done" (literally "not according to works") "but because of his own purpose and grace" (a theme already seen in the Pastoral Epistles, Titus 3:5). Grace is not earned but "given in Christ Jesus." That gift was "determined" or "became available" "before the beginning of time" (literally "before the times of the ages"), speaking of "God's decision before time and the world began" (cf. 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 1:4).

1:10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

This grace "has now been revealed through the appearing" (ejpifavneia , epiphaneia ) "of our Savior, Christ Jesus." The appearance which Paul has in mind here is the incarnation. See Titus 2:11-13 where the same word "appearing" is used of the second coming (cf. Titus 3:4; 1 Tim 6:14). For a discussion of Jesus as "Savior" see Titus 1:4; 3:6. Christ Jesus is described as the one "who has destroyed" (literally "has rendered inoperative"; cf. 1 Cor 15:26) "death and has brought life and immortality" (literally "incorruptibility"; cf. 1 Cor 15:42, 50, 53, 54) "to light through the gospel."

1:11 And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.

It is for "this gospel," which has illuminated the world with regard to "life and immortality," and its proclamation that Paul "was appointed a herald" (i.e., "public proclaimer"; see discussion at 1 Tim 2:7) "and an apostle" (see discussion at 1 Tim 1:1) "and a teacher" (cf. 1 Tim 2:7). He was to be a bold messenger, commissioned by God, to share the gospel story.

1:12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

This task was the reason that Paul was enduring hardship. Despite the suffering, a reference to the indignity of his imprisonment, Paul was "not ashamed." The clause "yet I am not ashamed" may well function here as a litotes with Paul actually proclaiming that he is proud of the "suffering" and the "gospel" for which he suffers (cf. Rom 1:16). Paul is not ashamed because God, in whom Paul has put his trust, is sufficiently powerful to "guard" something dear to Paul. The question is what is the "entrusted" thing. The text literally says "because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard my deposit (paraqhvkh , parathçkç ) for that day." Some argue that "deposit" should be taken in the same way as it is used in v. 14 which refers to the "sound teaching" of v. 13, i.e., the "gospel" of v. 11. God has entrusted the gospel to Paul (v. 12), Paul has entrusted it to Timothy (v. 14; cf. 1 Tim 6:20), and Timothy is to entrust it to others who will be able to pass it on (2:2). The text is then rendered "he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me ." This interpretation has attracted the majority of contemporary scholars and many modern translations. God is then able to keep the gospel message alive and viable no matter what may happen to a Paul or a Timothy. This interpretation has the benefit of consistency.

The alternative is to take the more traditional interpretation as per the NIV, NASB, NRSV. God is able to keep secure what Paul has "entrusted to him," namely, his life or soul, his converts, and his work. In favor of this rendering are (1) the fact that God, and not Paul, is the one who is portrayed as guarding the deposit; (2) the immediate context of Paul's suffering; and (3) the similarity to the idea expressed elsewhere in Scripture (Luke 23:46; 1 Pet 1:4; 4:19). Several factors distinguish the use of the word here from its use in 1 Tim 6:20 and 2 Tim 1:4. In the other passages Timothy is the one who is guarding the "deposit." That "deposit" is not personalized, i.e., "my deposit." Paul has already identified the nature of the "deposit" when he said "whom I have believed" ("in whom I have put my trust"). Paul has entrusted himself to God. This, by the way, also fits the direction of the entire epistle. Paul is calling Timothy to be ready to suffer for the cause. To do that he must, like Paul, entrust his life or soul to God's care. Paul's use of the phrase "for that day" also supports this interpretation. God "is able to guard" Paul's "deposit" until the last day.

1:13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

In vv. 13-14 Paul appeals to Timothy in ways that parallel 1 Timothy. He is to keep the message he heard from Paul "as the pattern of sound [or 'healthy'] teaching" (see discussion at 1 Tim 1:10). Paul has modelled this "sound teaching" for Timothy (cf. 2:2; 3:10; 1 Tim 4:6). The word "pattern" (uJpotuvpwsin , hypotypôsin ) means an outline sketch or an architect's draft. The point in this text is not "pattern theology," as some would suggest, but rather that Timothy might preach the same message he had heard from Paul. While Paul's initial concern is the content of Timothy's teaching, he is also concerned with the manner in which that teaching is to be carried out - "with faith and love in Christ Jesus." Orthodoxy is important but so are faithfulness and compassion which are located "in Christ Jesus."

1:14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Paul's final imperative in this section is an appeal for Timothy to "guard the good deposit that was entrusted to" him. This time the "deposit" is clear. It is the "sound teaching" which Paul had left with Timothy. Maintaining the purity of the gospel will require something bigger than the man Timothy. He is to rely upon "the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." The Holy Spirit lives within all believers and enables them to stand. He will enable Timothy in his ministry of the gospel.

B. EXAMPLES OF THE DISLOYAL

AND THE LOYAL (1:15-18)

¹⁵ You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

¹⁶ May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. ¹⁷ On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. ¹⁸ May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.

In this section Paul begins by illustrating his call for Timothy to "guard the good deposit" by giving some examples of those who have not done so, Phygelus and Hermogenes. He then moves to one who has been faithful to that "good deposit," Onesiphorus.

1:15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

Timothy is well aware of the fact that Christians from the province of Asia had "deserted" Paul. It is possible that some from Asia had travelled to Rome to be with Paul but had now returned leaving him alone. An alternate interpretation emphasizes Paul's use of the word "in" (ejn , en ) rather than "from" and suggests that at this time there was a major defection from the church "in the province of Asia." Since the next verses, 16-18, emphasize the help that Onesiphorus had rendered, it seems more likely that Paul intends to convey the idea that these people have abandoned him. The "all" should not be construed as "all people who are from Asia, without exception." Tychicus is clearly one from Asia who still stands by Paul (cf. Acts 20:2; 2 Tim 4:12; Titus 3:12). Onesiphorus is also from Asia. Whether Paul is reminding Timothy that some of his colleagues have deserted him, that some who are now in Asia failed to come to his aid, or that they have left to return to Asia, the modern reader cannot know with certainty. The situation was, however, clear to Timothy. The word translated "deserted" (ajpostrevfw , apostrephô ) also appears in 4:16 where Paul indicates that at his first defense all had deserted him.

No further information is given with regard to the two men in this group whom Paul singles out, Phygelus and Hermogenes. Later in the apocryphal work The Acts of Paul and Thecla , Hermogenes is mentioned with Onesiphorus.

1:16 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

The mention of those who had deserted him brings to mind one who had helped him during his imprisonment and the family of that man. Onesiphorus had set the example of one who was loyal and who held as sacred the good deposit of the gospel. "He often refreshed" (literally "to blow" or "to make cool") Paul. This refreshing could involve encouraging Paul, providing him with food, doing anything that would lift his spirits. Ellis has said, "When Onesiphorus came to see Paul in the stuffy dungeon, it was as if the air conditioning had been turned on." Paul mentions the fact that "Onesiphorus was not ashamed of my chains" to drive home his call in v. 8 for Timothy "not to be ashamed" of him the Lord's "prisoner."

1:17 On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me.

Visiting and assisting a prisoner in Rome was not an easy task. Onesiphorus had "searched hard" for Paul "until he found" him. His assistance, though, did not begin when Paul went to prison. Timothy was well aware of all the assistance he had rendered to Paul earlier in Ephesus.

1:18 May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.

The language of vv. 16-18 may well indicate that Onesiphorus has died. Paul asked that the "Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus" rather than to "Onesiphorus and his household." Fee has suggested that even the wish Paul expresses for Onesiphorus may indicate his death - "May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day!" Even if he was dead his memory was clear to Paul. He had "helped" (diakonevw , diakoneô ; literally "served") in "many ways" when Timothy and Paul labored there (cf. 1 Cor 4:17; 16:8). Timothy needed to be like Onesiphorus and not like Phygelus and Hermogenes.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

Introduction / Outline

Robertson: 2 Timothy (Book Introduction)

Second Timothy

From Rome Probably Early Autumn of 67 or Spring of 68

JFB: 2 Timothy (Book Introduction)

PLACE OF WRITING.--Paul, in the interval between his first and second imprisonment, after having written First Timothy from Macedonia or Corinth [BIRKS] (if we are to adopt the opinion that First Timothy was written after his first imprisonment), returned to Ephesus, as he intended, by way of Troas, where he left the books, &c. (mentioned in 2Ti 4:13), with Carpus. From Ephesus he went to Crete for a short visit and returned, and then wrote to Titus. Next he went by Miletus to Corinth (2Ti 4:20), and thence to Nicopolis (Tit 3:12), whence he proceeded to Rome. From his prison there he wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy, shortly before his martyrdom. It is not certain where Timothy was at this time. Some of the internal evidences favor the view of his having been then at Ephesus; thus the salutation of Priscilla and Aquila, who generally resided there (2Ti 4:19); also that of the household of Onesiphorus, who is stated in 2Ti 1:16-18 to have ministered to Paul at Ephesus, a circumstance implying his residence there. Also, the Hymenæus of 2Ti 2:17 seems to be the same as the Hymenæus at Ephesus (1Ti 1:20); and probably "Alexander the coppersmith" (2Ti 4:14) is the same as the Alexander joined with Hymenæus (1Ti 1:20), and possibly the same as the Alexander put forward by the Jews to clear themselves, not to befriend Paul, at the riot in Ephesus (Act 19:33-34). The difficulty is, on this supposition, how to account for 2Ti 4:12, 2Ti 4:20 : if Timothy was at Ephesus, why did he need to be told that Paul had sent Tychicus to Ephesus? or that Paul had left Trophimus, himself an Ephesian (Act 21:29), sick at Miletus, which was only thirty miles from Ephesus? However, see on 2Ti 4:12; 2Ti 4:20. Troas lay on the road to Rome from either Ephesus or Pontus, so that 2Ti 4:13 will accord with the theory of either Ephesus or any other place in the northwest of Asia Minor, being Timothy's place of sojourn at the time. Probably, he had the general superintendence of the Pauline churches in Asia Minor, in accordance with his mission combining the office of evangelist, or itinerant missionary, with that of presiding overseer. Ephesus was probably his headquarters.

TIME OF WRITING.--(1) Paul's first imprisonment, described in Act 28:17-31, was much milder than that in which he was when writing Second Timothy. In the former, he had liberty to lodge in his own hired house, and to receive all comers, guarded only by a single soldier; in the latter, he was so closely confined that Onesiphorus with difficulty found him; he was chained, his friends had forsaken him, and he had narrowly escaped sentence of execution from the Roman emperor. Medieval legends represent the Mamertine prison, or Tullianum, as the scene of his incarceration with Peter. But this is irreconcilable with the fact of Onesiphorus, Linus, Pudens, &c., having access to him. He was probably under military custody, as in his former imprisonment, though of a severer kind (2Ti 1:16-18; 2Ti 2:9; 2Ti 4:6-8, 2Ti 4:16-17). (2) The visit to Troas (2Ti 4:13) can hardly have been that mentioned in Act 20:5-7, the last before his first imprisonment; for, if it were, the interval between that visit and the first imprisonment would be seven or eight years, a period most unlikely for him to have allowed to pass without sending for his cloak and parchments, when they might have been of service to him in the interim. (3) Paul's leaving Trophimus sick at Miletus (2Ti 4:20), could not have been on the occasion mentioned in Act 20:15; for, subsequent to that, Trophimus was with Paul in Jerusalem (Act 21:29). (4) The words (2Ti 4:20), "Erastus abode at Corinth," imply that Paul had shortly before been at Corinth, where he left Erastus. But before his first imprisonment, Paul had not been at Corinth for several years; and in the interval Timothy had been with him, so that Timothy did not need at a later period to be told about that visit (Act 20:2, Act 20:4). For all these reasons the imprisonment, during which he wrote Second Timothy, is shown to be his second imprisonment. Moreover, Heb 13:23-24, represents the writer (who was probably Paul) as in Italy, and at liberty. So CLEMENT OF ROME [First Epistle to the Corinthians, 1.5], the disciple of Paul, explicitly states, "In the east and west, Paul as a preacher instructed the whole world (that is, the Roman empire) in righteousness, and having gone to the extremity of the west, and having borne witness before the rulers (of Rome), he so was removed from the world." This plainly implies that he fulfilled his design (Rom 15:24-28) of a missionary journey into Spain. The canon of the New Testament, compiled about A.D. 170 (called MURATORI'S Canon), also mentions "the journey of Paul from Rome to Spain." See ROUTH [Sacred Fragments, vol. 4, p. 1-12].

His martyrdom is universally said to have occurred in Nero's reign [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 2.22; JEROME, On Illustrious Men]. Five years thus seem to have elapsed between the first imprisonment, A.D. 63 (Act 28:17-31), and his martyrdom, June A.D. 68, the last year of Nero's reign. He was probably arrested by the magistrates in Nicopolis (Tit 3:12) in Epirus, in the winter, on a double charge, first, of being one of the Christians who had conspired, it was alleged by Nero's partisans, to set fire to Rome, A.D. 64; secondly, of introducing a novel and unlawful religion. His friends all left him, except Luke: Demas from "love of this present world": the others from various causes (2Ti 4:10-11). On the first charge he seems to have been acquitted. His liberation from his first imprisonment took place in A.D. 63, the year before the great fire at Rome, which Nero made the pretext for his persecution of the Christians. Every cruelty was heaped on them; some were crucified; some were arrayed in the skins of wild beasts and hunted to death by dogs; some were wrapped in pitch-robes and set on fire by night to illuminate the circus of the Vatican and gardens of Nero, while that monster mixed among the spectators in the garb of a charioteer. But now (A.D. 67 or 68) some years had elapsed since the first excitement which followed the fire. Hence, Paul, being a Roman citizen, was treated in his trial with a greater respect for the forms of the law, and hence was acquitted (2Ti 4:17) on the first charge of having instigated the Christians to their supposed acts of incendiarism before his last departure from Rome. Alexander the coppersmith seems to have been a witness against him (2Ti 4:14). Had he been condemned on the first charge, he would probably have been burnt alive, as the preceding martyrs were, for arson. His judge was the city Præfect. CLEMENT OF ROME specifies that his trial was (not before the emperor, but) "before the rulers." No advocate ventured to plead his cause, no patron appeared for him, such as under ordinary circumstances might have aided him; for instance, one of the powerful Æmilian house, under which his family possibly enjoyed clientship (2Ti 4:16-17), whence he may have taken his name Paul. The place of trial was, probably, one of the great basilicas in the Forum, two of which were called the Pauline Basilicas, from L. Æmilius Paulus, who had built one and restored the other. He was remanded for the second stage of his trial. He did not expect this to come on until the following "winter" (2Ti 4:21), whereas it took place about midsummer; if in Nero's reign, not later than June. In the interim Luke was his only constant companion; but one friend from Asia, Onesiphorus, had diligently sought him and visited him in prison, undeterred by the danger. Linus, too, the future bishop of Rome, Pudens, the son of a senator, and Claudia, his bride, perhaps the daughter of a British king (see on 2Ti 4:21), were among his visitors; and Tychicus, before he was sent by Paul to Ephesus (2Ti 4:12; perhaps bearing with him this Epistle).

OBJECT OF THE EPISTLE.--He was anxious to see his disciple Timothy, before his death, and that Timothy should bring Mark with him (2Ti 1:4; 2Ti 4:9, 2Ti 4:11, 2Ti 4:21). But feeling how uncertain it was whether Timothy should arrive in time, he felt it necessary, also, to give him by letter a last warning as to the heresies, the germs of which were then being scattered in the Churches. Hence he writes a series of exhortations to faithfulness, and zeal for sound doctrine, and patience amidst trials: a charge which Timothy seems to have needed, if we are to judge from the apostle's earnestness in urging him to boldness in Christ's cause, as though Paul thought he saw in him some signs of constitutional timidity (2Ti 2:2-8; 2Ti 4:1-5; 1Ti 5:22-23).

PAUL'S DEATH.--DIOYSIUS, bishop of Corinth (quoted in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 2.25]) about A.D. 170, is the earliest authority for the tradition that Peter suffered martyrdom at Rome "about the same time" as Paul, after having labored for some time there. He calls Peter and Paul "the founders of the Corinthian and Roman Churches." The Roman presbyter, CAIUS (about A.D. 200), mentions the tradition that Peter suffered martyrdom in the Vatican. But (1) Peter's work was among the Jews (Gal 2:9), whereas Rome was a Gentile Church (Rom 1:13. Moreover, (2) the First Epistle of Peter (1Pe 1:1; 1Pe 5:13) represents him as laboring in Babylon in Mesopotamia. (3) The silence concerning Peter of Paul's Epistles written in Rome, negatives the tradition of his having founded, or labored long at Rome; though it is possible he may have endured martyrdom there. His martyrdom, certainly, was not, as JEROME says, "on the same day" with that of Paul, else Paul would have mentioned Peter's being at Rome in 2Ti 4:11. The legend says that Peter, through fear, was fleeing from Rome at early dawn by the Appian Way, when he met our Lord, and falling at His feet, asked, Lord, whither goest thou? to which the Lord replied, I go again to be crucified. The disciple returned penitent and ashamed, and was martyred. The Church of Domine quo vadis, on the Appian Way, commemorates the supposed fact. Paul, according to CAIUS (quoted in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 2.25]), suffered martyrdom on the Ostian Way. So also JEROME, who gives the date, the fourteenth year of Nero. It was common to send prisoners, whose death might attract too much notice at Rome, to some distance from the city, under a military escort, for execution; hence the soldier's sword, not the executioner's axe, was the instrument of his decapitation [OROSIUS, The Seven Books of History against the Pagans, 7.7]. Paul appears, from Phi. 1:12-30, to have had his partisans even in the palace, and certainly must have exercised such an influence as would excite sympathy in his behalf, to avoid which the execution was ordered outside the city. Compare TACITUS [Histories, 4.11]. The Basilica of St. Paul, first built by Constantine, now stands outside Rome on the road to Ostia: before the Reformation it was under the protection of the kings of England, and the emblem of the order of the Garter is still to be seen among its decorations. The traditional spot of the martyrdom is the Tre Fontane, not far from the Basilica [CONYBEARE and HOWSON].

JFB: 2 Timothy (Outline)

• EXHORTATIONS; TO FAITHFULNESS AS A GOOD SOLDIER OF CHRIST; ERRORS TO BE SHUNNED; THE LORD'S SURE FOUNDATION; THE RIGHT SPIRIT FOR A SERVANT OF CHRIST. (2Ti. 2:1-26)
• COMING EVIL DAYS: SIGNS OF EVIL ALREADY: CONTRAST IN THE DOCTRINE AND LIFE OF PAUL, WHICH TIMOTHY SHOULD FOLLOW IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS EARLY TRAINING IN SCRIPTURE. (2Ti. 3:1-17)
• SOLEMN CHARGE TO TIMOTHY TO DO HIS DUTY ZEALOUSLY, FOR TIMES OF APOSTASY ARE AT HAND, AND THE APOSTLE IS NEAR HIS TRIUMPHANT END: REQUESTS HIM TO COME AND BRING MARK WITH HIM TO ROME, AS LUKE ALONE IS WITH HIM, THE OTHERS HAVING GONE: ALSO HIS CLOAK AND PARCHMENTS: WARNS HIM AGAINST ALEXANDER: TELLS WHAT BEFELL HIM AT HIS FIRST DEFENSE: GREETINGS: BENEDICTION. (2Ti. 4:1-22)

TSK: 2 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

2Ti 1:1, Paul’s love to Timothy, and the unfeigned faith which was in Timothy himself, his mother, and grandmother; 2Ti 1:6, He is exhorted to stir up the gift of God which was in him; 2Ti 1:8, to be stedfast and patient in persecution; 2Ti 1:13, and to persist in the form and truth of that doctrine which he had learned of him; 2Ti 1:15, Phygellus and Hermogenes, and such like, are noted, and Onesiphorus is highly commended.

Poole: 2 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

ARGUMENT

This Second Epistle to Timothy was most certainly written from Rome, when Paul was a prisoner there, 2Ti 1:8 , and, as most judge, a very little while before his death, for he tells us, 2Ti 4:7,8 , that he was ready to be offered, he had finished his course, the time of his departure was at hand. He is said to have died Anno Christi 68, and in the five and thirtieth after his conversion; so this Epistle was written about sixteen years after the writing of the former. The scope of it is much the same as of the former: to exhort and encourage him to faithfulness in his ministry, to keep stedfast in the faith, to be diligent in his work; to avoid all strifes of words, perverse disputings, &c. He also in it admonisheth him, that the latter times were like to be yet more dangerous, and therefore adviseth him to prepare for hardship and persecutions, propounding his own example to him, both as to doctrine and as to suffering.

2 TIMOTHY CHAPTER 1

2Ti 1:1,2 Paul affectionately saluteth Timothy,

2Ti 1:3-5 assuring him of his constant prayers for him, and

remembrance of that sincere faith which had been

derived to Timothy from his mother and grandmother.

2Ti 1:6,7 He exhorteth him to stir up the gift of God which was

in him,

2Ti 1:8-12 and not to be ashamed of the testimony of the gospel,

but to be ready to suffer for it, according to his example,

2Ti 1:13,14 and to hold fast the form of sound words which he

had learned.

2Ti 1:15 He putteth him in mind of the general defection of

the converts in Asia,

2Ti 1:16-18 and commendeth Onesiphorus for his repeated kindness

toward him.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God: See Poole on "1Ti 1:1".

According to the promise of life: it is much the same with Rom 1:1,2 , according to the gospel, which he had promised afore by his prophets. These words either signify the end of his apostleship, to declare the gospel in which is the promise of life, or the matter of his preaching.

Which is in Christ Jesus which eternal life was promised of old, but is not to be had but in Christ Jesus, and in him is the promise fulfilled.

MHCC: 2 Timothy (Book Introduction)

The first design of this epistle seems to have been, to apprize Timothy of what had occurred during the imprisonment of the apostle, and to request him to come to Rome. But being uncertain whether he should be suffered to live to see him, Paul gives a variety of advices and encouragements, for the faithful discharge of his ministerial duties. As this was a private epistle written to St. Paul's most intimate friend, under the miseries of imprisonment, and in the near prospect of death, it shows the temper and character of the apostle, and contains convincing proofs that he sincerely believed the doctrines he preached.

MHCC: 2 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

(2Ti 1:1-5) Paul expresses great affection for Timothy.

(2Ti 1:6-14) Exhorts him to improve his spiritual gifts.

(2Ti 1:15-18) Tells of many who basely deserted him; but speaks with affection of Onesiphorus.

Matthew Henry: 2 Timothy (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Second Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy

This second epistle Paul wrote to Timothy from Rome, when he was a prisoner there and in danger of his life; this is evident from these words, I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand, 2Ti 4:6. It appears that his removal out of this world, in his own apprehension, was not far off, especially considering the rage and malice of his persecutors; and that he had been brought before the emperor Nero, which he calls his first answer, when no man stood with him, but all men forsook him, 2Ti 4:16. And interpreters agree that this was the last epistle he wrote. Where Timothy now was is not certain. The scope of this epistle somewhat differs from that of the former, not so much relating to his office as an evangelist as to his personal conduct and behaviour.

Matthew Henry: 2 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

After the introduction (2Ti 1:1, 2Ti 1:2) we have, I. Paul's sincere love to Timothy (2Ti 1:3-5). II. Divers exhortations given to him (2Ti 1:6-14). III. He speaks of Phygellus and Hermogenes, with others, and closes with Onesiphorus (2Ti 1:15 to the end).

Barclay: 2 Timothy (Book Introduction)

A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS OF PAUL

The Letters Of Paul

There is no more interesting body of documents in the New Testament than the letters of Paul. That is because of all forms of literature a letter is most personal. Demetrius, one of the old Greek literary critics, once wrote, "Every one reveals his own soul in his letters. In every other form of composition it is possible to discern the writercharacter, but in none so clearly as the epistolary." (Demetrius, On Style, 227). It is just because he left us so many letters that we feel we know Paul so well. In them he opened his mind and heart to the folk he loved so much; and in them, to this day, we can see that great mind grappling with the problems of the early church, and feel that great heart throbbing with love for men, even when they were misguided and mistaken.

The Difficulty Of Letters

At the same time, there is often nothing so difficult to understand as a letter. Demetrius (On Style, 223) quotes a saying of Artemon, who edited the letters of Aristotle. Artemon said that a letter ought to be written in the same manner as a dialogue, because it was one of the two sides of a dialogue. In other words, to read a letter is like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. So when we read the letters of Paul we are often in a difficulty. We do not possess the letter which he was answering; we do not fully know the circumstances with which he was dealing; it is only from the letter itself that we can deduce the situation which prompted it. Before we can hope to understand fully any letter Paul wrote, we must try to reconstruct the situation which produced it.

The Ancient Letters

It is a great pity that Paulletters were ever called epistles. They are in the most literal sense letters. One of the great lights shed on the interpretation of the New Testament has been the discovery and the publication of the papyri. In the ancient world, papyrus was the substance on which most documents were written. It was composed of strips of the pith of a certain bulrush that grew on the banks of the Nile. These strips were laid one on top of the other to form a substance very like brown paper. The sands of the Egyptian desert were ideal for preservation, for papyrus, although very brittle, will last forever so long as moisture does not get at it. As a result, from the Egyptian rubbish heaps, archaeologists have rescued hundreds of documents, marriage contracts, legal agreements, government forms, and, most interesting of all, private letters. When we read these private letters we find that there was a pattern to which nearly all conformed; and we find that Paulletters reproduce exactly that pattern. Here is one of these ancient letters. It is from a soldier, called Apion, to his father Epimachus. He is writing from Misenum to tell his father that he has arrived safely after a stormy passage.

"Apion sends heartiest greetings to his father and lord Epimachus.

I pray above all that you are well and fit; and that things are

going well with you and my sister and her daughter and my brother.

I thank my Lord Serapis [his god] that he kept me safe when I was

in peril on the sea. As soon as I got to Misenum I got my journey

money from Caesar--three gold pieces. And things are going fine

with me. So I beg you, my dear father, send me a line, first to let

me know how you are, and then about my brothers, and thirdly, that

I may kiss your hand, because you brought me up well, and because

of that I hope, God willing, soon to be promoted. Give Capito my

heartiest greetings, and my brothers and Serenilla and my friends.

I sent you a little picture of myself painted by Euctemon. My

military name is Antonius Maximus. I pray for your good health.

Serenus sends good wishes, Agathos Daimonboy, and Turbo,

Galloniuson." (G. Milligan, Selections from the Greek Papyri,

36).

Little did Apion think that we would be reading his letter to his father 1800 years after he had written it. It shows how little human nature changes. The lad is hoping for promotion quickly. Who will Serenilla be but the girl he left behind him? He sends the ancient equivalent of a photograph to the folk at home. Now that letter falls into certain sections. (i) There is a greeting. (ii) There is a prayer for the health of the recipients. (iii) There is a thanksgiving to the gods. (iv) There are the special contents. (v) Finally, there are the special salutations and the personal greetings. Practically every one of Paulletters shows exactly the same sections, as we now demonstrate.

(i) The Greeting: Rom_1:1 ; 1Co_1:1 ; 2Co_1:1 ; Gal_1:1 ; Eph_1:1 ; Phi_1:1 ; Col_1:1-2 ; 1Th_1:1 ; 2Th_1:1 .

(ii) The Prayer: in every case Paul prays for the grace of God on the people to whom he writes: Rom_1:7 ; 1Co_1:3 ; 2Co_1:2 ; Gal_1:3 ; Eph_1:2 ; Phi_1:3 ; Col_1:2 ; 1Th_1:1 ; 2Th_1:2 .

(iii) The Thanksgiving: Rom_1:8 ; 1Co_1:4 ; 2Co_1:3 ; Eph_1:3 ; Phi_1:3 ; 1Th_1:3 ; 2Th_1:3 .

(iv) The Special Contents: the main body of the letters.

(v) Special Salutations and Personal Greetings: Rom 16 ; 1Co_16:19 ; 2Co_13:13 ; Phi_4:21-22 ; Col_4:12-15 ; 1Th_5:26 .

When Paul wrote letters, he wrote them on the pattern which everyone used. Deissmann says of them, "They differ from the messages of the homely papyrus leaves of Egypt, not as letters but only as the letters of Paul." When we read Paulletters we are not reading things which were meant to be academic exercises and theological treatises, but human documents written by a friend to his friends.

The Immediate Situation

With a very few exceptions, all Paulletters were written to meet an immediate situation and not treatises which he sat down to write in the peace and silence of his study. There was some threatening situation in Corinth, or Galatia, or Philippi, or Thessalonica, and he wrote a letter to meet it. He was not in the least thinking of us when he wrote, but solely of the people to whom he was writing. Deissmann writes, "Paul had no thought of adding a few fresh compositions to the already extant Jewish epistles; still less of enriching the sacred literature of his nation. He had no presentiment of the place his words would occupy in universal history; not so much that they would be in existence in the next generation, far less that one day people would look at them as Holy Scripture." We must always remember that a thing need not be transient because it was written to meet an immediate situation. All the great love songs of the world were written for one person, but they live on for the whole of mankind. It is just because Paulletters were written to meet a threatening danger or a clamant need that they still throb with life. And it is because human need and the human situation do not change that God speaks to us through them today.

The Spoken Word

One other thing we must note about these letters. Paul did what most people did in his day. He did not normally pen his own letters but dictated them to a secretary, and then added his own authenticating signature. (We actually know the name of one of the people who did the writing for him. In Rom_16:22 Tertius, the secretary, slips in his own greeting before the letter draws to an end). In 1Co_16:21 Paul says, "This is my own signature, my autograph, so that you can be sure this letter comes from me." (compare Col_4:18 ; 2Th_3:17 .)

This explains a great deal. Sometimes Paul is hard to understand, because his sentences begin and never finish; his grammar breaks down and the construction becomes involved. We must not think of him sitting quietly at a desk, carefully polishing each sentence as he writes. We must think of him striding up and down some little room, pouring out a torrent Paul composed his letters, he had in his mindeye a vision of words, while his secretary races to get them down. When of the folk to whom he was writing, and he was pouring out his heart to them in words that fell over each other in his eagerness to help.

INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS TO TIMOTHY AND TITUS

Personal Letters

1 and 2 Timothy and Titus have always been regarded as forming a separate group of letters, different from the other letters of Paul. The most obvious difference is that they, along with the little letter to Philemon, are written to persons, whereas all other Pauline letters are written to Churches. The Muratorian Canon, which was the earliest official list of New Testament books, says that they were written "from personal feeling and affection." They are private rather than public letters.

Ecclesiastical Letters

But it very soon began to be seen that, though these are personal and private letters, they have a significance and a relevance far beyond the immediate. In 1Ti_3:15 their aim is set down. They are written to Timothy "that you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God." So, then, it came to be seen that these letters have not only a personal significance, but also what one might call an ecclesiastical significance. The Muratorian Canon says of them that, though they are personal letters written out of personal affection, "they are still hallowed in the respect of the Catholic Church, and in the arrangement of ecclesiastical discipline." Tertullian said that Paul wrote "two letters to Timothy and one to Titus, which were composed concerning the state of the Church (de ecclesiastico statu)." It is not then surprising that the first name given to them was Pontifical Letters, that is, written by the pontifex, the priest, the controller of the Church.

Pastoral Letters

Bit by bit they came to acquire the name by which they are still known--The Pastoral Epistles. In writing of I Timothy Thomas Aquinas, as long ago as 1274, said, "This letter is as it were a pastoral rule which the Apostle delivered to Timothy." In his introduction to the second letter, he writes, "In the first letter he gives Timothy instructions concerning ecclesiastical order; in this second letter he deals with a pastoral care which should be so great that it will even accept martyrdom for the sake of the care of the flock." But this title, The Pastoral Epistles, really became affixed to these letters in 1726 when a great scholar, Paul Anton by name, gave a series of famous lectures on them under that title.

These letters then deal with the care and organization of the flock of God; they tell men how to behave within the household of God; they give instructions as to how Godhouse should be administered, as to what kind of people the leaders and pastors of the Church should be, and as to how the threats which endanger the purity of Christian faith and life should be dealt with.

The Growing Church

The supreme interest of these letters is that we get in them a picture of the infant Church. In those early days it was an island in a sea of paganism. The people in it were only one remove from their heathen origin. It would have been so easy for them to relapse into the pagan standards from which they had come; the tarnishing atmosphere was all around. It is most significant that missionaries tell us that of all letters the Pastoral Epistles speak most directly to the situation of the younger Churches. The situation with which they deal is being re-enacted in India, in Africa, in China every day. They can never lose their interest because in them we see, as nowhere else, the problems which continually beset the growing Church.

The Ecclesiastical Background Of The Pastorals

From the beginning these letters have presented problems to New Testament scholars. There are many who have felt that, as they stand, they cannot have come directly from the hand and pen of Paul. That this is no new feeling may be seen from the fact that Marcion, who, although he was a heretic, was the first man to draw up a list of New Testament books, did not include them among Paulletters. Let us then see what makes people doubt their direct Pauline authorship.

In them we are confronted with the picture of a Church with a fairly highly developed ecclesiastical organization. There are elders (1Ti_5:17-19 ; Tit_1:5-6 ); there are bishops, superintendents or overseers (1Ti_3:1-7 ; Tit_1:7-16 ); there are deacons (1Ti_3:8-13 ). From 1Ti_5:17-18 we learn that by that time elders were even salaried officials. The elders that rule well are to be counted worthy of a double pay and the Church is urged to remember that the labourer is worthy of his hire. There is at least the beginning of the order of widows who became so prominent later on in the early Church (1Ti_5:3-16 ). There is clearly here a quite elaborate structure within the Church, too elaborate some would claim for the early days in which Paul lived and worked.

The Days Of Creeds

It is even claimed that in these letters we can see the days of creeds emerging. The word faith changed its meaning. In the earliest days it is always faith in a person; it is the most intimate possible personal connection of love and trust and obedience with Jesus Christ. In later days it became faith in a creed; it became the acceptance of certain doctrines. It is said that in the Pastoral Epistles we can see this change emerging.

In the later days men will come who will depart from the faith and give heed to doctrines of devils (1Ti_4:1 ). A good servant of Jesus Christ must be nourished in the words of faith and good doctrine (1Ti_4:6 ). The heretics are men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith (2Ti_3:8 ). The duty of Titus is to rebuke men that they may be sound in the faith (Tit_1:13 ).

This comes out very particularly in an expression peculiar to the Pastorals. Timothy is urged to keep hold of "the truth that has been entrusted to you" (2Ti_1:14 ). The word for that has been entrusted is paratheke (G3866). Paratheke means a deposit which has been entrusted to a banker or someone else for safe-keeping. It is essentially something which must be handed back or handed on absolutely unchanged. That is to say the stress is on orthodoxy. Instead of being a close, personal relationship to Jesus Christ, as it was in the thrilling and throbbing days of the early Church, faith has become the acceptance of a creed. It is even held that in the Pastorals we have echoes of the earliest creeds.

"God was manifested in the flesh;

Vindicated in the Spirit;

Seen by angels;

Preached among the nations;

Believed on in the world;

Taken up in glory" (1Ti_3:16 ).

That indeed sounds like the fragment of a creed to be recited.

"Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from

David, as preached in my gospel" (2Ti_2:8 ).

That sounds like a reminder of a sentence from an accepted creed.

Within the Pastorals there undoubtedly are indications that the day of insistence on acceptance of a creed has begun, and that the days of the first thrilling personal discovery of Christ are beginning to fade.

A Dangerous Heresy

It is clear that in the forefront of the situation against which the Pastoral Epistles were written there was a dangerous heresy which was threatening the welfare of the Christian Church. If we can distinguish the various characteristic features of that heresy, we may be able to go on to identify it.

It was characterized by speculative intellectualism. It produced questions (1Ti_1:4 ); those involved in it doted about questions (1Ti_6:4 ); it dealt in foolish and unlearned questions (2Ti_2:23 ); its foolish questions are to be avoided (Tit_3:9 ). The word used in each case for questions is ekzetesis (compare G1567 and G2214), which means speculative discussion. This heresy was obviously one which was a play-ground of the intellectuals, or rather the pseudo-intellectuals of the Church.

It was characterized by pride. The heretic is proud, although in reality he knows nothing (1Ti_6:4 ). There are indications that these intellectuals set themselves on a plane above the ordinary Christian; in fact they may well have said that complete salvation was outside the grasp of the ordinary man and open only to them. At times the Pastoral Epistles stress the word all in a most significant way. The grace of God, which brings salvation, has appeared to all men (Tit_2:11 ). It is Godwill that all men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1Ti_2:4 ). The intellectuals tried to make the greatest blessings of Christianity the exclusive possession of a chosen few; and in contradistinction the true faith stresses the all-embracing love of God.

There were within that heresy two opposite tendencies. There was a tendency to asceticism. The heretics tried to lay down special food laws, forgetting that everything God has made is good (1Ti_4:4-5 ). They listed many things as impure, forgetting that to the pure all things are pure (Tit_1:15 ). It is not impossible that they regarded sex as something unclean and belittled marriage, and even tried to persuade those who were married to renounce it, for in Tit_2:4 the simple duties of the married life are stressed as being binding on the Christian.

But this heresy also issued in immorality. The heretics even invaded private houses and led away weak and foolish women in evil desires (2Ti_3:6 ). They professed to know God, but denied him by their deeds (Tit_1:16 ). They were out to impose upon people and to make money out of their false teaching. To them gain was godliness (1Ti_6:5 ); they taught and deceived for base gain (Tit_1:11 ).

On the one hand this heresy issued in an unchristian asceticism, and on the other it produced an equally unchristian immorality.

It was characterized, too, by words and tales and genealogies. It was full of godless chatter and useless controversies (1Ti_6:20 ). It produced endless genealogies (1Ti_1:4 ; Tit_3:9 ). It produced myths and fables (1Ti_1:4 ; Tit_1:14 ).

It was at least in some way and to some extent tied up with Jewish legalism. Amongst its devotees were those of the circumcision (Tit_1:10 ). The aim of the heretics was to be teachers of the law (1Ti_1:7 ). It pressed on men Jewish fables and the commandments of men (Tit_1:14 ).

Finally, these heretics denied the resurrection of the body. They said that any resurrection that a man was going to experience had been experienced already (2Ti_2:18 ). This is probably a reference to those who held that the only resurrection the Christian experienced was a spiritual one when he died with Christ and rose again with him in the experience of baptism (Rom_6:4 ).

The Beginnings Of Gnosticism

Is there any heresy which fits all this material? There is, and its name is Gnosticism. The basic thought of Gnosticism was that all matter is essentially evil and spirit alone is good. That basic belief had certain consequences.

The Gnostic believed that matter is as eternal as God; and that when God created the world he had to use this essentially evil matter. That meant that to them God could not be the direct creator of the world. In order to touch this flawed matter he had to send out a series of emanations--they called them aeons--each one more and more distant from himself until at last there came an emanation or aeon so distant that it could deal with matter and create the world. Between man and God there stretched a series of these emanations, each with his name and genealogy. So Gnosticism literally had endless fables and endless genealogies. If a man was ever to get to God, he must, as it were, ascend this ladder of emanations; and to do that he needed a very special kind of knowledge including all kinds of passwords to get him past each stage. Only a person of the highest intellectual calibre could hope to acquire this knowledge and know these passwords and so get to God.

Further, if matter was altogether evil, the body was altogether evil. From that, two opposite possible consequences sprang. Either the body must be held down so that a rigorous asceticism resulted, in which the needs of the body were as far as possible eliminated and its instincts, especially the sex instinct, as far as possible destroyed; or it could be held that, since it was evil, it did not matter what was done with the body and its instincts and desires could be given full rein. The Gnostic therefore became either an ascetic or a man to whom morality had ceased to have any relevance at all.

Still further, if the body was evil, clearly there could be no such thing as its resurrection. It was not the resurrection of the body but its destruction to which the Gnostic looked forward.

All this fits accurately the situation of the Pastoral Epistles. In Gnosticism we see the intellectualism, the intellectual arrogance, the fables and the genealogies, the asceticism and the immorality, the refusal to contemplate the possibility of a bodily resurrection, which were part and parcel of the heresy against which the Pastoral Epistles were written.

One element in the heresy has not yet been fitted into place--the Judaism and the legalism of which the Pastoral Epistles speak. That too finds its place. Sometimes Gnosticism and Judaism joined hands. We have already said that the Gnostics insisted that to climb the ladder to God a very special knowledge was necessary; and that some of them insisted that for the good life a strict asceticism was essential. It was the claim of certain of the Jews that it was precisely the Jewish law and the Jewish food regulations which provided that special knowledge and necessary asceticism; and so there were times when Judaism and Gnosticism went hand in hand.

It is quite clear that the heresy at the back of the Pastoral Epistles was Gnosticism. Some have used that fact to try to prove that Paul could have had nothing to do with the writing of them, because, they say, Gnosticism did not emerge until much later than Paul. It is quite true that the great formal systems of Gnosticism, connected with such names as Valentinus and Basilides, did not arise until the second century; but these great figures only systematized what was already there. The basic ideas of Gnosticism were there in the atmosphere which surrounded the early Church, even in the days of Paul. It is easy to see their attraction, and also to see that, if they had been allowed to flourish unchecked, they could have turned Christianity into a speculative philosophy and wrecked it. In facing Gnosticism, the Church was facing one of the gravest dangers which ever threatened the Christian faith.

The Language Of The Pastorals

The most impressive argument against the direct Pauline origin of the Pastorals is a fact which is quite clear in the Greek but not so clear in any English translation. The total number of words in the Pastoral Epistles is 902, of which 54 are proper names; and of these 902 words, no fewer than 306 never occur in any other of Paulletters. That is to say more than a third of the words in the Pastoral Epistles are totally absent from Paulother letters. In fact 175 words in the Pastoral Epistles occur nowhere else in the New Testament at all; although it is only fair to say that there are 50 words in the Pastoral Epistles which occur in Paulother letters and nowhere else in the New Testament.

Further, when the other letters of Paul and the Pastorals say the same thing they say it in different ways, using different words and different turns of speech to express the same idea.

Again, many of Paulfavourite words are absent entirely from the Pastoral Epistles. The words for the cross (stauros, G4716) and to crucify (stauroun, G4717) occur 27 times in Paulother letters, and never in the Pastorals. Eleutheria (G1657) and the kindred words which have to do with freedom occur 29 times in Paulother letters, and never in the Pastorals. Huios (G5207), "son," and huiothesia (G5206), "adoption," occur 46 times in Paulother letters, and never in the Pastorals.

Moreover, Greek has many more of those little words called particles and enclitics than English has. Sometimes they indicate little more than a tone of voice; every Greek sentence is joined to its predecessor by one of them; and they are often virtually untranslatable. Of these particles and enclitics there are 112 which Paul uses altogether 932 times in his other letters that never occur in the Pastorals.

There is clearly something which has to be explained here. The vocabulary and the style make it hard to believe that Paul wrote the Pastoral Epistles in the same sense as he wrote his other letters.

PaulActivities In The Pastorals

But perhaps the most obvious difficulty of the Pastorals is that they show Paul engaged in activities for which there is no room in his life as we know it from the book of Acts. He has clearly conducted a mission in Crete (Tit_1:5 ). And he proposes to spend a winter in Nicopolis, which is in Epirus (Tit_3:12 ). In Paullife as we know it that particular mission and that particular winter just cannot be fitted in. But it may well be that just here we have stumbled on the solution to the problem.

Was Paul Released From His Roman Imprisonment?

Let us sum up. We have seen that the Church organization of the Pastorals is more elaborate than in any other Pauline letter. We have seen that the stress on orthodoxy sounds like second or third generation Christianity, when the thrill of the new discovery is wearing off and the Church is on the way to becoming an institution. We have seen that Paul is depicted as carrying out a mission or missions which cannot be fitted into the scheme of his life as we have it in Acts. But Acts leaves it quite uncertain what happened to Paul in Rome. It ends by telling us that he lived for two whole years in a kind of semi-captivity, preaching the gospel without hindrance (Act_28:30-31 ). But it does not tell us how that captivity ended, whether in Paulrelease or his execution. It is true that the general assumption is that it ended in his condemnation and death; but there is a by no means negligible stream of tradition which tells that it ended in his release, his liberty for two or three further years, his reimprisonment and his final execution about the year A.D. 67.

Let us look at this question, for it is of the greatest interest.

First, it is clear that when Paul was in prison in Rome, he did not regard release as impossible; in fact, it looks as if he expected it. When he wrote to the Philippians, he said that he was sending Timothy to them, and goes on, "And I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself shall come also" (Phi_2:24 ). When he wrote to Philemon, sending back the runaway Onesimus, he says, "At the same time prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be granted to you" (Phm_1:22 ). Clearly he was prepared for release, whether or not it ever came.

Second, let us remember a plan that was very dear to Paulheart. Before he went to Jerusalem on that journey on which he was arrested, he wrote to the Church at Rome, and in that letter he is planning a visit to Spain. "I hope to see you in passing," he writes, "as I go to Spain." "I shall go on by way of you," he writes, "to Spain" (Rom_15:24 , Rom_15:28 ). Was that visit ever paid?

Clement of Rome, when he wrote to the Church at Corinth about A.D. 90, said of Paul that he preached the gospel in the East and in the West; that he instructed the whole world (that is, the Roman Empire) in righteousness; and that he went to the extremity (terma, the terminus) of the West, before his martyrdom. What did Clement mean by the extremity of the West? There are many who argue that he meant nothing more than Rome. Now it is true that someone writing away in the East in Asia Minor would probably think of Rome as the extremity, of the West. But Clement was writing from Rome; and it is difficult to see that for anyone in Rome the extremity of the West could be anything else but Spain. It certainly seems that Clement believed that Paul reached Spain.

The greatest of all the early Church historians was Eusebius. In his account of Paullife he writes: "Luke who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, brought his history to a close at this point, after stating that Paul had spent two whole years at Rome as a prisoner at large, and preached the word of God without constraint. Thus, after he had made his defence, it is said that the Apostle was sent again on the ministry of preaching, and that on coming to the same city a second time he suffered martyrdom" (Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History, 2.22.2). Eusebius has nothing to say about Spain, but he did know the story that Paul had been released from his first Roman imprisonment.

The Muratorian Canon, that first list of New Testament books, describes Lukescheme in writing Acts: "Luke related to Theophilus events of which he was an eye-witness, as also, in a separate place, he evidently declares the martyrdom of Peter (he probably refers to Luk_22:31-32 ); but omits the journey of Paul from Rome to Spain."

In the fifth century, two of the great Christian fathers are definite about this journey. Chrysostom in his sermon on 2Ti_4:20 says: "Saint Paul after his residence in Rome departed to Spain." Jerome in his Catalogue of Writers says that Paul "was dismissed by Nero that he might preach Christgospel in the West."

Beyond doubt a stream of tradition held that Paul journeyed to Spain.

This is a matter on which we will have to come to our own decision. The one thing which makes us doubt the historicity of that tradition is that in Spain itself there is not and never was any tradition that Paul had worked and preached there, no stories about him, no places connected with his name. It would be indeed strange if the memory of such a visit had become totally obliterated. It could well be that the whole story of Paulrelease and journey to the west arose simply as a deduction from his expressed intention to visit Spain (Rom 15 ). Most New Testament scholars do not think that Paul was released from his imprisonment; the general consensus of opinion is that his only release was by death.

Paul And The Pastoral Epistles

What then shall we say of Paulconnection with these letters? If we can accept the tradition of his release, and of his return to preaching and teaching, and of his death as late as A.D. 67, we might well believe that as they stand they came from his hand. But, if we cannot believe that--and the evidence is on the whole against it--are we to say that they have no connection with Paul at all?

We must remember that the ancient world did not think of these things as we do. It would see nothing wrong in issuing a letter under the name of a great teacher, if it was sure that the letter said the things which that teacher would say under the same circumstances. To the ancient world it was natural and seemly that a disciple should write in his mastername. No one would have seen anything wrong in one of Pauldisciples meeting a new and threatening situation with a letter under Paulname. To regard that as forgery is to misunderstand the mind of the ancient world. Are we then to swing completely to the other extreme and say that some disciple of his issued these letters in Paulname years after he was dead, and at a time when the Church was much more highly organized than ever it was during his lifetime?

As we see it, the answer is no. It is incredible that any disciple would put into Paulmouth a claim to be the chief of sinners (1Ti_1:15 ); his tendency would be to stress Paulholiness, not to talk about his sin. It is incredible that anyone writing in the name of Paul would give Timothy the homely advice to drink a little wine for the sake of his health (1Ti_5:23 ). The whole of 2Tim 4 is so personal and so full of intimate, loving details that no one but Paul could have written it.

Wherein lies the solution? It may well be that something like this happened. It is quite obvious that many letters of Paul went lost. Apart from his great public letters, he must have had a continuous private correspondence; and of that we possess only the little letter to Philemon. It may well be that in the later days there were some fragments of Paulcorrespondence in the possession of some Christian teacher. This teacher saw the Church of his day and his locality in Ephesus threatened on every side. It was threatened with heresy from without and from within. It was threatened with a fall away from its own high standards of purity and truth. The quality of its members and the standard of its office-bearers were degenerating. He had in his possession little letters of Paul which said exactly the things that should be said, but, as they stood, they were too short and too fragmentary to publish. So he amplified them and made them supremely relevant to the contemporary situation and sent them out to the Church.

In the Pastoral Epistles we are still hearing the voice of Paul, and often hearing it speak with a unique personal intimacy; but we think that the form of the letters is due to a Christian teacher who summoned the help of Paul when the Church of the day needed the guidance which only he could give.

FURTHER READING

Timothy

D. Guthrie, The Pastoral Epistles (TC; E)

W. Lock, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC; G)

E. F. Scott, The Pastoral Epistles (MC; E)

E. K. Simpson, The Pastoral Epistles

Abbreviations

CGT: Cambridge Greek Testament

ICC: International Critical Commentary

MC: Moffatt Commentary

TC: Tyndale Commentary

E: English Text

G: Greek Text

Barclay: 2 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

An Apostle's Glory And An Apostle's Privilege (2Ti_1:1-7)

The Inspiring Of Timothy (2Ti_1:1-7 Continued)

A Gospel Worth Suffering For (2Ti_1:8-11)

A Gospel Worth Suffering For (2Ti_1:8-11 Continued)

Trust, Human And Divine (2Ti_1:12-14)

Trust Human And Divine (2Ti_1:12-14 Continued)

The Faithless Many And The Faithful One (2Ti_1:15-18)

Constable: 2 Timothy (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Historical Background

Assuming Paul visited Nicapolis as he planned (Titus 3:12), he went from there to Rome evidently indirectly. His visit to Troas (2 Tim. 4:13) probably took place shortly before he wrote 2 Timothy. It may be that Paul's arrest required his leaving his cloak, books, and parchments there, but that is only speculation. In any case Paul ended up in Rome as a prisoner again (2:9). He had already had his initial hearing and was awaiting trial when he wrote this epistle (4:16). He believed that the Roman authorities would find him guilty and execute him soon (4:6).

Timothy seems to have remained at Ephesus for some time following his reception of Paul's first epistle to him and then, presumably, Paul's personal visit of him there (1 Tim. 3:14). He was evidently in Ephesus when Paul wrote this epistle (2 Tim. 1:16-18; 4:14 cf. 1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 4:19).

Ever since Rome had burned in July of 64 A.D. and Nero had blamed the Christians it had become dangerous to be a Christian. It was also dangerous to have contact with leaders of the church such as Paul.¹ Consequently many believers, including some of Paul's coworkers, had chosen to seek a much lower profile and become less aggressive in their ministries. Timothy faced temptation to do the same. Paul wrote this epistle to urge him to remain faithful to his calling and loyal to his father in the faith. Timothy needed to stand shoulder to shoulder with Paul and the other believers and to continue to "preach the Word" as he had done.

Paul probably wrote 2 Timothy in the fall of 67 A.D. There are two reasons for this date. According to early church tradition Paul suffered execution shortly before Nero committed suicide in June of 68 A.D. Second, Paul penned this last of his canonical epistles fairly near the time of his execution though before the winter of 67-68 A.D. (4:21).

Message²

Paul had previously written to Timothy explaining that the local church is a supporting pedestal for God's truth (1 Tim. 3:15). He had said that the purpose of the local church is the proclamation of God's truth in the world. He had also said that the purpose of church leaders is the exposition of God's truth in the church. Conditions facing the church had worsened considerably since he had written 1 Timothy. Characteristics of the last days were becoming increasingly obvious (2 Tim. 3:1-7). Godlessness and worldliness were invading the church. If the church failed to fulfill its purpose, God's truth would cease to go out into the world. The church would fail if its leaders failed to expound God's truth to the saints in the church. Consequently Paul wrote this letter to encourage Timothy to fulfill his responsibility as a leader in the church. This epistle, therefore, is particularly for church leaders and deals mainly with their duties.

This epistle reveals the true minister of Jesus Christ. It reveals his resources, his methods, and his most important work. Of course every Christian is a true minister of Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:12).

The essential resources of the Christian minister are God's gifts and God's grace.

A person can become a minister of God's truth only when the Head of the church bestows a gift on him or her through the Holy Spirit. This is the primary qualification for ministry (1:6). Some leaders have great gifts, others have lesser gifts, but all have at least one gift (1 Pet. 4:10). These gifts are abilities for service that God gives us.

Grace is also necessary. Grace refers to all God's resources that are available to us through Christ. God works through the gifts He has given us. Grace is His power at work to accomplish what is supernatural. His grace brings force to our public ministries and godliness into our personal lives. Its ultimate purpose is to bring everything about us into harmony with God's character (2:1; 2 Cor. 12:9).

The methods of the Christian minister are construction and demonstration.

The leader of God's people must aim at the development of holy character and conduct in the lives of those under his or her care. He or she seeks to build up the saints so they can fulfill their function. Second Timothy 3:16-17 gives the process. This takes place through authoritative instruction, correction, restoration, and patient guidance.

Second, the minister must also demonstrate in his or her own life what godliness and righteousness are. He or she must give people an example they can follow as well as information they can believe (1:8; 2:22-23).

The most important work of the minister is also two-fold. He must know the Scriptures and proclaim the Scriptures.

Knowledge of the whole counsel of God is essential (3:14-15). We must know the Word because that is what God uses to build up His people. We must also know it because it is through our mastery of the Word that God masters us and changes our lives into the examples we need to be.

While proclaiming the Word is not the totality of pastoral ministry, it is without question its most important public function (4:1-2).

Paul's great appeal in this letter is to "fulfill your ministry" (4:5).

Concerning his resources the minister must stir up his or her gift (1:6) to fulfill his or her ministry. We must rekindle our gifts from time to time. They tend to diminish if we do not use them, as any other unused ability tends to diminish. We are in danger of growing cold. We need to keep using and seeking to improve our gifts.

We have a second responsibility concerning our resources. We must draw strength from God's grace (2:1). To do this we must make use of the means of grace: prayer, the devotional reading of the Bible, fellowship with other Christians, and meditation on the cross.

Concerning methods Paul appealed to give diligence to our work of construction (2:15). The approval of God requires zeal in ministry, not half-hearted or sloppy service. In our culture many people are willing to do just enough to get by.

Our work of demonstrating an example for the church requires that we flee some things and pursue others (2:22). Our inner lives affect our ability to demonstrate the truth perhaps more than our ability to proclaim the truth.

We fulfill our responsibility to know the Scriptures when we abide in them (3:14). We must not neglect much less abandon them day by day. We need to read, memorize, and meditate on the Word frequently and regularly.

We fulfill our responsibility to proclaim the Scriptures when we are instant in season and out of season (4:2). There is no "season" for heralding God's truth. We should be ready to do it always.

These are Paul's revelations of the secrets of success in ministry.

Let me make a few applications of the message of this epistle.

First, let us consider some applications to the church.

It is the proclamation of God's truth both in the church and in the world that will keep the church solid and secure. The Word of God is its most important resource. The church must preach the Word!

Second, the church must give attention to both correct thinking and correct acting. Correct thinking is basic to correct behavior. The church must practice and preach godliness. The Word is indispensable to both objectives. Churches that emphasize the proclamation of the Word are most effective on both these fronts. This is the main reason evangelical churches usually grow.

Third, the church must fully know the Word and faithfully proclaim the Word. This is its great work in the world. Do not turn aside to lesser goals.

Finally, let us consider three applications for individual ministers, church leaders.

First, the Lord will guard the lives of those who guard His Word (1:12, 14). There is no safer place to be than doing God's will.

Second, God has given the Scriptures to us in trust, to pass along so that others will benefit from them (2:2). We have an obligation to do this (1 Cor. 9:16).

Third, we have a responsibility to be faithful to our trust. Paul said this was true in this letter for three reasons. Christ will return soon. There is growing apostasy in the church. Furthermore there are always gaps opening in the ranks of the church's leadership by death (Paul) and defection (Demas, et al.). 2 Timothy emphasizes faithfulness.

There is constant turnover in the leadership of the church. Nevertheless the proclamation of the Word by the church's leaders must continue to have priority for the church to fulfill its function in the world. This is the message statement.

Constable: 2 Timothy (Outline)

Outline

I. Salutation 1:1-2

II. Thanksgiving for faithful fellow workers 1:3-18

A. Timothy's past faithfulness 1:3-7

B. Charges to remain loyal 1:8-14

1. Exhortation to be courageous 1:8-12

2. Exhortation to guard the gospel 1:13-14

C. Examples of faithful and unfaithful service 1:15-18

III. Exhortations to persevere 2:1-26

A. Charge to endure hardship 2:1-13

1. Timothy's duty 2:1-7

2. The examples of Jesus and Paul 2:8-10

3. A popular saying 2:11-13

B. Charge to remain faithful 2:14-26

1. Faithfulness in public ministry 2:14-18

2. Faithfulness in personal life 2:19-21

3. Summary applications 2:22-26

IV. Directions concerning the last days 3:1-4:8

A. Characteristics of the last days 3:1-13

1. Evidences of faithlessness 3:1-7

2. Negative and positive illustrations 3:8-13

B. Conduct in the last days 3:14-4:5

1. Adherence to the truth 3:14-17

2. Proclamation of the truth 4:1-5

C. Paul's role in the last days 4:6-8

V. Concluding personal instructions and information 4:9-22

A. Fellow workers and an opponent 4:9-15

B. Paul's preliminary hearing in court 4:16-18

C. Additional greetings and instructions 4:19-21

D. Benediction 4:22

Constable: 2 Timothy

2 Timothy

Bibliography

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: 2 Timothy (Book Introduction)

THE SECOND

EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE,

TO TIMOTHY.

INTRODUCTION.

The main subject and design of this epistle is much the same as the former; in it the apostle again instructs and admonishes Timothy in what belonged to his office, and also warns him to shun the conversation of those who erred from the truth, describing at the same time their character. He tells him of his approaching death, and desires him to come speedily to him. It appears from this circumstance, that he wrote this second epistle in the time of his last imprisonment at Rome, and not long before his martyrdom. See Eusebius, St. Jerome, and others cited by Tillemont, and by P. Mauduit, (Diss. xi.) where this historical fact is discussed at large. (Challoner, Witham)

====================

Gill: 2 Timothy (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 2 TIMOTHY

That this epistle was written to Timothy, while he was at Ephesus, where the apostle in his former epistle had desired him to stay, is evident from his making mention of some persons in it, who were Ephesians; as Onesiphorus, whom he commends, and Alexander the coppersmith, of whom he complains: and that this epistle was written by the apostle, when he was at Rome, is no less evident; for he expressly calls himself a prisoner, 2Ti 1:8 and speaks of being then in trouble, and in bonds, 2Ti 2:9 and the persons that send their salutations in it to Timothy were Romans, 2Ti 4:21 but at what time it was written is not so certain: it seems by 2Ti 4:7 that it was but a little time before his martyrdom; though those words may only signify, that he was now very much on the decline of life, was now grown an old man, and in continual expectation of death, and was in a constant readiness for it, come when it would; having faithfully discharged his duty, and his warfare being as good as accomplished, and his race almost run out; for he afterwards presses Timothy to come to him, and that before winter; and desires him to bring with him his cloak, books, and parchments, which one would think he would have little occasion for, if just upon his martyrdom: besides, he says he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, that by him the preaching of the Gospel might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear it; and expresses his confidence, that he should be again delivered, 2Ti 4:9. And it looks as if this epistle was written before the epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, since it appears that Timothy did come to him at Rome; as here desired, and is joined with the apostle in those epistles. Some, therefore, have placed this epistle in the year 58, or 59, about the fourth or fifth of Nero's reign. The design of it is to stir up Timothy to the faithful and diligent discharge of his duty, as a minister of the Gospel; to abide constantly by the truths of it, and to animate him to suffer patiently, cheerfully, and courageously for the sake of it; and to warn him against false teachers, and their errors, who were already risen, and would afterwards arise, and be followed by such who had itching ears, and could not bear sound doctrine; but this should be no discouragement to him in the prosecution of his work; and lastly to desire his presence with him at Rome, being now destitute of his several assistants.

Gill: 2 Timothy 1 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 2 TIMOTHY 1

In this chapter, after the inscription and salutation, the apostle expresses his great affection for Timothy, and highly commends him; exhorts him to various things relating to his office, as a preacher of the Gospel; and concludes with taking notice of the kindness shown him by Onesiphorus. The inscription and salutation are in 2Ti 1:1 and then follows the preface to the epistle, in which the apostle testifies his great love to Timothy, and commends him; by declaring his thankfulness to God, that he had reason always to remember him in his prayers; by his desire to see him again, who had shed so many tears for him, that his joy might be filled; and by taking notice of his unfeigned faith, the same with that which had dwelt in his ancestors, 2Ti 1:3. And then he proceeds to exhort him to the exercise and improvement of his ministerial gift; to show a fortitude of mind, and a manly spirit in the cause of Christ; and to suffer cheerfully for the sake of it, 2Ti 1:6 and in order to animate and encourage him to the same, he gives a summary of the Gospel, as containing in it the great doctrines of salvation, and eternal life, according to the free grace of God through Jesus Christ, 2Ti 1:9 and observes, that he himself was appointed a preacher of it to the Gentiles, 2Ti 1:11 and instances in himself, as suffering for it, without being ashamed; and as having a strong confidence in Christ, as able to keep him, and what he had committed to him, 2Ti 1:12 and then returns to his exhortation to Timothy to hold fast the Gospel of Christ; to which he urges him from the consideration of the nature and value of it, being a form of sound words, and that famous good thing, and of the means and manner in which he came to the knowledge of it; and chiefly from its being committed to him by the Holy Ghost, that dwelt in him; and also because of the general defection of the Asian professors from it, 2Ti 1:13 but he excepts one person, Onesiphorus by name, whom he commends for his kindness to him both at Ephesus and at Rome; and therefore entreats of the Lord mercy, both for him and his house, at the great day, 2Ti 1:16.

College: 2 Timothy (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION

DATE AND PLACE OF ORIGIN

In 2 Timothy Paul finds himself in a Roman prison. Onesiphorus had searched for Paul and found him in Rome (1:16-17). Paul instructed Timothy to get Mark and bring him as he came (4:11). This indicates a time in Rome other than the imprisonment related at the end of Acts since both Timothy and Mark were with Paul when he wrote Colossians (Col 1:1; 4:10; Phlm 24). Paul had recently been in Asia Minor and left his cloak at Troas (4:13), stayed with Erastus at Corinth, and left Trophimus sick at Miletus (4:20).

Though Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea for two years before being sent on to Rome (Acts 24:27), it is unlikely that he was writing from Caesarea since Trophimus and Timothy were both with him in Jerusalem when he was arrested. It seems more likely that Paul was released from the imprisonment at the end of Acts, was involved in missionary activities, and then was subsequently arrested once again (probably in Troas). 2 Timothy would then have been written during that second Roman imprisonment. Paul describes his situation in terms that indicate that he is in prison facing the prospects of a speedy execution.

The date of 2 Timothy depends largely upon one's view of the authorship of the book, the place of origin of the book, and Eusebius' date of the martyrdom of Paul. Those who deny Pauline authorship of the book class it with the other Pastoral Epistles and date it in the second century. Since Eusebius dates the martyrdom of Paul in A.D. 67, those who hold to Pauline authorship normally date the book in 66 or 67.

DESTINATION AND AUDIENCE

It appears from several references in 2 Timothy (2 Tim 1:18; 2:17; 4:9, 12, 14, 19; cf. 1 Tim 1:20; Acts 18:18-19, 24-26; 19:33-34) that Timothy is in Ephesus as Paul writes this book as he was when Paul wrote 1 Timothy (1 Tim 1:3). Again, as in 1 Timothy, while the book bears many personal notes intended for Timothy, Paul desires for this book to be read by the whole church.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF 2 TIMOTHY

The central message of 2 Timothy is Paul's desire for Timothy to suffer with him and endure hardship for the gospel. Timothy is to stand assured that God will provide him with strength (1:6-14; 2:1-13; 3:12; 4:5). Timothy is also urged to hold on to the apostolic message (1:13-14), to pass it on to others who can in turn share it with others (2:2), and to be careful to deal with it and the message of the Old Testament correctly (2:15; 3:10-17). Put simply, Timothy must fulfill his ministry (4:1-5); Paul is passing on the mantle to his young co-worker.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

College: 2 Timothy (Outline)

OUTLINE

I. SALUTATION - 1:1-2

II. THANKSGIVING - 1:3-5

III. PAUL'S APPEAL FOR ENDURANCE IN FACING SUFFERING - 1:6-2:13

A. An Appeal for Loyalty in Facing Hardship - 1:6-14

B. Examples of the Disloyal and the Loyal - 1:15-18

C. Illustrations for Effective Ministry when Facing Hardship - 2:1-7

D. The Basis of Effective Ministry when Facing Hardship - 2:8-13

IV. FALSE TEACHERS AND SOUND DOCTRINES - 2:14-4:8

A. Dealing with False Teachers - 2:14-19

B. Preparing for Noble Work - 2:20-26

C. The Character of the Last Days - 3:1-9

D. Further Exhortations for Timothy to Endure - 3:10-17

E. A Final Charge to Timothy - 4:1-8

V. PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS - 4:9-18

VI. FINAL SALUTATIONS - 4:19-22

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV