Text -- 2 Timothy 4:6-22 (NET)

4:6 For I am already being poured out as an offering, and the time for me to depart is at hand. 4:7 I have competed competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith! 4:8 Finally the crown of righteousness is reserved for me. The Lord, the righteous Judge, will award it to me in that day– and not to me only, but also to all who have set their affection on his appearing.

Travel Plans and Concluding Greetings

4:9 Make every effort to come to me soon. 4:10 For Demas deserted me, since he loved the present age, and he went to Thessalonica. Crescens went to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. 4:11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is a great help to me in ministry. 4:12 Now I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 4:13 When you come, bring with you the cloak I left in Troas with Carpas and the scrolls, especially the parchments. 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him in keeping with his deeds. 4:15 You be on guard against him too, because he vehemently opposed our words. 4:16 At my first defense no one appeared in my support; instead they all deserted me– may they not be held accountable for it. 4:17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed for all the Gentiles to hear. And so I was delivered from the lion’s mouth! 4:18 The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever! Amen. 4:19 Greetings to Prisca and Aquila and the family of Onesiphorus. 4:20 Erastus stayed in Corinth. Trophimus I left ill in Miletus. 4:21 Make every effort to come before winter. Greetings to you from Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters. 4:22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: 2Ti 4:6

I am already being offered ( ēdē spendomai ).

Present (progressive) passive indicative of spendō , old verb, to pour out a libation or drink offering. In N.T. only here and Phi 2:17. "What was then a possibility is now a certainty"(Parry). The sacrifice of Paul’ s life-blood has begun.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:6

Of my departure ( tēs analuseōs mou ).

Our very word "analysis."Old word from analuō , to loosen up or back, to unloose. Only here in N.T., though analusai for death is used by Paul in Phi 1:23 which see for the metaphor.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:6

Is come ( ephestēken ).

Perfect active indicative of ephistēmi (intransitive use). See note on 1Th 5:3; Luk 21:34. The hour has struck. The time has come.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:7

I have fought the good fight ( ton kalon agōna ēgōnismai ).

Perfect middle indicative of agōnizomai , a favourite figure with Paul (1Co 9:25; Col 1:29), with the cognate accusative agōna (Phi 1:27, Phi 1:30, etc.). The "fight"is the athletic contest of his struggle for Christ.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:7

I have finished the course ( ton dromon teteleka ).

Perfect active indicative of teleō . He had used this metaphor also of himself to the elders at Ephesus (Act 20:24). Then the "course"was ahead of him. Now it is behind him.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:7

I have kept the faith ( tēn pistin tetērēka ).

Perfect active indicative again of tēreō . Paul has not deserted. He has kept faith with Christ. For this phrase, see note on Rev 14:12. Deissmann ( Light, etc. , p. 309) gives inscriptions in Ephesus of a man who says: "I have kept faith"(tēn pistin etērēsa ) and another of a man of whom it is said: "He fought three fights, and twice was crowned."

Robertson: 2Ti 4:8

Henceforth ( loipon ).

Accusative case, "for the rest."

Robertson: 2Ti 4:8

There is laid up for me ( apokeitai moi ).

Present passive of apokeimai , old verb, to be laid away. See note on Col 1:5 for the hope laid away. Paul’ s "crown of righteousness"(ho tēs dikaiosunēs stephanos , genitive of apposition, the crown that consists in righteousness and is also the reward for righteousness, the victor’ s crown as in 1Co 9:25 which see) "is laid away"for him.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:8

At that day ( en ekeinēi tēi hēmerāi ).

That great and blessed day (2Ti 1:12, 2Ti 1:18).

Robertson: 2Ti 4:8

The righteous judge ( ho dikaios kritēs ).

"The just judge,"the umpire who makes no mistakes who judges us all (2Co 5:10).

Robertson: 2Ti 4:8

Shall give me ( apodōsei moi ).

Future active of apodidōmi . "Will give back"as in Rom 2:6 and in full.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:8

But also to all them that have loved his appearing ( alla pāsin tois ēgapēkosin tēn epiphaneian autou ).

Dative case of the perfect active participle of agapaō , to love, who have loved and still love his second coming. Epiphaneia here can as in 2Ti 1:10 be interpreted of Christ’ s Incarnation.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:9

Shortly ( tacheōs ).

In 2Ti 4:21 he more definitely says "before winter."Apparently the trial might drag on through its various stages.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:10

Forsook me ( me egkateleipen ).

Imperfect (MSS. also have aorist, egkatelipen ) active of the old double compound verb egkataleipō , for which see note on Rom 9:29. Clearly in contrast to 2Ti 4:9 and in the sense of 1Ti 6:17, wilful desertion. Only mentioned elsewhere in Col 4:14.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:10

Crescens ( Krēskēs ).

No other mention of him.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:10

Titus to Dalmatia ( Titos eis Dalmatian ).

Titus had been asked to rejoin Paul in Nicopolis where he was to winter, probably the winter previous to this one (Tit 3:12). He came and has been with Paul.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:11

Only Luke is with me ( Loukas estin monos met' emou ).

Luke is with Paul now in Rome as during the first Roman imprisonment (Phm 1:24; Col 4:14).

Robertson: 2Ti 4:11

Take Mark ( Markon analabōn ).

Second aorist active participle of analambanō , old verb, to pick up, as in Eph 6:13, Eph 6:16. "Pick up Mark."

Robertson: 2Ti 4:11

He is useful to me ( estin moi euchrēstos ).

See note on 2Ti 2:21 for euchrēstos . Paul had long ago changed his opinion of Mark (Col 4:10) because Mark had changed his conduct and had made good in his ministry. Now Paul longs to have the man that he once scornfully rejected (Act 15:37.).

Robertson: 2Ti 4:12

Tychicus I sent to Ephesus ( Tuchikon apesteila eis Epheson ).

Perhaps Paul had sent him on before he came to Rome. He may have been still on the way to Ephesus.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:13

The cloke ( tēn phelonēn ).

More common form pheilonē . By metathesis for phainolē , Latin paenula , though which language transliterated the word into the other is not known. The meaning is also uncertain, though probably "cloke"as there are so many papyri examples in that sense (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary ). Milligan (N.T. Documents , p. 20) had previously urged "book wrap"as probable but he changed his mind and rightly so.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:13

With Carpus ( para Karpōi ).

"Beside Carpus,"at his house. Not mentioned elsewhere. Probably a visit to Troas after Paul’ s return from Crete.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:13

The books ( ta biblia ).

Probably papyrus rolls. One can only guess what rolls the old preacher longs to have with him, probably copies of Old Testament books, possibly copies of his own letters, and other books used and loved. The old preacher can be happy with his books.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:13

Especially the parchments ( malista tas membranas ).

Latin membrana . The dressed skins were first made at Pergamum and so termed "parchments."These in particular would likely be copies of Old Testament books, parchment being more expensive than papyrus, possibly even copies of Christ’ s sayings (Luk 1:1-4). We recall that in Act 26:24 Festus referred to Paul’ s learning (ta grammata ). He would not waste his time in prison.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:14

Alexander the coppersmith ( Alexandros ho chalkeus ).

Old word, only here in N.T., for metal-worker (copper, iron, gold, etc.). Possibly the one in 1Ti 1:20, but not the one in Act 19:33. unless he afterwards became a Christian.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:14

Did me much evil ( moi kaka enedeixato ).

Evidently he had some personal dislike towards Paul and possibly also he was a Gnostic.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:14

Will render ( apodōsei ).

Future active of the same verb used in 2Ti 4:8, but with a very different atmosphere.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:15

Be thou ware also ( kai su phulassou ).

Present middle (direct) imperative of phulassō , "from whom keep thyself away."

Robertson: 2Ti 4:15

Withstood ( antestē ).

Second aorist active indicative of anthistēmi , "stood against my words."See note on 2Ti 3:8; Gal 2:11.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:16

At my first defence ( en tēi prōtēi apologiāi ).

Original sense of "apology"as in Phi 1:7, Phi 1:16. Either the first stage in this trial or the previous trial and acquittal at the end of the first Roman imprisonment. Probably the first view is correct, though really there is no way to decide.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:16

No one took my part ( oudeis moi paregeneto ).

"No one came by my side"(second aorist middle indicative of paraginomai ). See note on 1Co 16:3.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:16

But all forsook me ( alla pantes me egkateleipon ).

Same verb and tense used of Demas above (2Ti 4:10), "But all were forsaking me"(one by one) or, if aorist egkatelipon , "all at once left me."

Robertson: 2Ti 4:16

May it not be laid to their account ( mē autois logistheiē ).

First aorist passive optative in future wish with negative mē . Common Pauline verb logizomai (1Co 13:5; Rom 4:3, Rom 4:5).

Robertson: 2Ti 4:17

But the Lord stood by me ( ho de kurios moi parestē ).

Second aorist active of paristēmi (intransitive use), "took his stand by my side."See note on Rom 16:2. Clearly Jesus appeared to Paul now at this crisis and climax as he had done so many times before.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:17

Strengthened me ( enedunamōsen me ).

"Poured power into me."See note on Phi 4:13.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:17

That through me the message might be fully proclaimed ( hina di' emou to kērugma plērophorēthēi ).

Final clause with hina and first aorist passive subjunctive of plērophoreō (see 2Ti 4:5). Either to the rulers in Rome now or, if the first imprisonment, by his release and going to Spain.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:17

And that all the Gentiles might hear ( kai akousōsin panta ta ethnē ).

Continuation of the purpose with the aorist active subjunctive of akouō .

Robertson: 2Ti 4:17

I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion ( erusthēn ek stomatos leontos ).

First aorist passive indicative of ruomai (1Th 1:10). A proverb, but not certain what the application is whether to Nero or to Satan (1Th 2:18) or to the lion in the arena where Paul could not be sent because a Roman citizen.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:18

Will deliver me ( rusetai me ).

Future middle. Recall the Lord’ s Prayer. Paul is not afraid of death. He will find his triumph in death (Phi 1:21.).

Robertson: 2Ti 4:18

Unto his heavenly kingdom ( eis tēn basileian autou tēn epouranion ).

The future life of glory as in 1Co 15:24, 1Co 15:50. He will save (sōsei , effective future) me there finally and free from all evil.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:18

To whom be the glory ( hōi hē doxa ).

No verb in the Greek. Paul’ s final doxology, his Swan Song, to Christ as in Rom 9:5; Rom 16:27.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:19

Prisca and Aquila ( Priscan kai Akulan ).

Paul’ s friends now back in Ephesus, no longer in Rome (Rom 16:3). See note on 2Ti 1:16 for the house of Onesiphorus.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:20

Erastus ( Erastos ).

See note on Act 19:22 and note on Rom 16:23.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:20

Trophimus ( Trophimon ).

A native of Ephesus and with Paul in Jerusalem (Act 20:4; Act 21:29).

Robertson: 2Ti 4:20

At Miletus sick ( en Milētōi asthenounta ).

Present active participle of astheneō , to be weak. Probably on Paul’ s return from Crete.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:21

Before winter ( pro cheimōnos ).

Pathetic item if Paul was now in the Mamertine Dungeon in Rome with winter coming on and without his cloak for which he asked. How long he had been in prison this time we do not know. He may even have spent the previous winter or part of it here. Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia are all unknown otherwise. Irenaeus does speak of Linus.

Robertson: 2Ti 4:21

The Lord be with thy Spirit ( ho kurios meta tou pneumatos sou ).

Let us hope that Timothy and Mark reached Paul before winter, before the end came, with the cloak and with the books. Our hero, we may be sure, met the end nobly. He is already more than conqueror in Christ who is by his side and who will welcome him to heaven and give him his crown. Luke, Timothy, Mark will do all that mortal hands can do to cheer the heart of Paul with human comfort. He already had the comfort of Christ in full measure.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:6

For I am now ready to be offered ( ἐγὼ γὰρ ἤδη σπένδομαι )

I , emphatic contrast with σὺ thou , 2Ti 4:5. Already . What he is now suffering is the beginning of the end. Σπένδεσθαι to be poured out as a libation , only here and Phi 2:17 (note). In the active voice quite often in lxx.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:6

Departure ( ἀναλύσεως )

N.T.o . o lxx. Comp. ἀναλῦσαι to depart , Phi 1:23. The figure is explained by some of loosing a ship from its moorings; by others of breaking camp. In Philippians the latter is the more probable explanation, because Paul's situation in the custody of the Praetorians at Rome would naturally suggest a military metaphor, and because he is habitually sparing of nautical metaphors. Comp. 2Co 5:1, and Clement of Rome, ad Corinth . xliv: " Blessed are the presbyters who have gone before, seeing that their departure (ἀνάλυσιν ) was fruitful and ripe."

Vincent: 2Ti 4:7

I have fought a good fight ( τὸν καλὸν ἀγῶνα ἠγώνισμαι )

For a good fight rend. the good fight. For the phrase, see on 1Ti 6:12. Comp. Phi 1:27, Phi 1:30; 1Co 9:25; Col 2:1; 1Th 2:2; Eph 6:11 ff.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:7

Course ( δρόμον )

Metaphor from the race-course. Only here and Act 13:25; Act 20:24; comp. 1Co 9:24; Gal 2:2; Gal 5:7; Rom 9:16; Phi 2:16; Phi 3:12-14.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:7

I have kept the faith ( τὴν πίστιν τετήρηκα )

The phrase N.T.o . For τηρεῖν to keep , see on 1Ti 5:22; see on 1Ti 6:14.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:8

Henceforth ( λοιπὸν )

Lit. as to what remains . Λοιπὸν or τὸ λοιπὸν either finally , as 2Co 13:11; or henceforth as here, Mar 14:41; 1Co 7:29, Heb 10:13 : or for the rest , besides , as 1Th 4:1 (note); 2Th 3:1.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:8

There is laid up ( ἀπόκειται )

Or laid away . In Pastorals only here. In Paul, see Col 1:5 (note). Luk 19:20 of the pound laid up in a napkin.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:8

A crown of righteousness ( ὃ τῆς δικαιοσύνης στέφανος )

The phrase N.T.o . See on στεφανοῦται is crowned , 2Ti 2:5. Rend. the crown.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:8

Judge ( κριτής )

Comp. 2Ti 4:1. Mostly in Luke and Acts. o P. Only here in Pastorals. Applied to Christ, Act 10:42; Jam 5:9; to God, Heb 12:28; Jam 4:12.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:8

Shall give ( ἀποδώσει )

Most frequent in Synoptic Gospels. It may mean to give over or away , as Mat 27:58; Act 5:8; Heb 12:16 : or to give back , recompose , as here, Mat 6:4, Mat 6:6, Mat 6:18; Rom 2:6.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:8

At that day ( ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ )

See on 2Ti 1:12.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:8

That love his appearing ( τοῖς ἠγαπηκόσι τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν αὐτοῦ )

For love rend. have loved . Appearing , Christ's second coming: see on 1Ti 6:14; see on 2Th 2:8. The phrase N.T.o . Some have interpreted appearing as Christ's first coming into the world, as 2Ti 1:10; but the other sense is according to the analogy of 1Co 2:9; Phi 3:20; Heb 9:28.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:9

Do thy diligence ( σπούδασον )

Earnestly endeavor. See on 2Ti 2:15, and comp. 2Ti 1:3. Do diligence and give diligence (2Pe 1:10) are old English phrases. So Chaucer:

" And night and day dide ever his diligence

Hir for to please."

Manciple's T . 141 .

" And ech of hem doth al his diligence

To doon un-to the feste reverence."

Clerke's T . 195

Vincent: 2Ti 4:10

Demas

A contraction of Demetrius or Demarchus. He is mentioned Col 4:13 and Phm 1:24. It is supposed that he was a Thessalonian. On leaving Paul he went to Thessalonica; and in Philemon his name is mentioned next to that of Aristarchus the Thessalonian. That no epithet is attached to his name in Col 4:14 (comp. " Luke the beloved physician" ) may be a shadow of Demas's behavior mentioned here, in case Colossians was written later than 2nd Timothy.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:10

Hath forsaken ( ἐγκατέλειπεν )

In Pastorals here and 2Ti 4:16. See on 2Co 4:9. The compounded preposition ἐν indicates a condition or circumstances in which one has been left, as the common phrase left in the lurch . Comp. Germ. im Stiche .

Vincent: 2Ti 4:10

Having loved ( ἀγαπήσας )

The participle is explanatory, because he loved.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:10

This present world ( τὸν νῦν αἰῶνα )

See on 1Ti 6:17. Contrast love his appearing , 2Ti 4:8.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:10

Crescens ( Κρήσκης )

N.T.o . Unknown.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:10

Galatia ( Γαλατίαν )

Most probably Galatia. See Introd. to Galatians. Eusebius ( H . E . iii. 4) says: " Paul testifies that Crescens was sent to Gaul (Γαλλίαν )." Tischendorf adopts this reading.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:10

Dalmatia ( Δαλματίαν )

Part of the country known generally as Illyricum, along the eastern coast of the Adriatic. See Rom 15:19.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:11

Luke

See Introd. to Luke. His connection with Paul appears first in Act 16:10. He remained at Philippi after Paul's departure, and was there seven years later, when Paul revisited the city (Act 20:5, Act 20:6). He accompanied Paul to Jerusalem (Act 21:15), after which we lose sight of him until he appears at Caesarea (Act 27:2), whence he accompanies Paul to Rome. He is mentioned Col 4:14 and Phm 1:24.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:11

Take ( ἀναλαβὼν )

In N.T. mostly in Acts. See on Act 23:31, and comp. Act 20:13, Act 20:14.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:11

Mark

Mentioned Col 4:10; Phm 1:24; 1Pe 5:13. Probably John Mark (Act 12:12, Act 12:25; Act 15:37), called the cousin of Barnabas (Col 4:10). The first mention of him since the separation from Paul (Act 15:39) occurs in Colossians and Philemon. He is commended to the church at Colossae. In 1st Peter he sends salutations to Asia. In both Colossians and Philemon his name appears along with that of Demas. In Colossians he is named shortly before Luke and along with Aristarchus who does not appear here. He (Mark) is about to come to Asia where 2nd Timothy finds him. The appearance in Colossians of Aristarchus with Mark and of Demas with Luke is probably the point of connection with the representation in 2nd Timothy.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:11

Profitable for the ministry ( εὔχρηστος εἰς διακονίαν )

Ἑύχρηστος profitable , only here, 2Ti 2:21, Phm 1:11. For for the ministry rend. for ministering or for service , and see on 1Ti 1:12.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:12

Tychicus

A comparatively uncommon name in N.T., but found in inscriptions of Asia Minor and on Asiatic coins. He is mentioned Act 20:4, Act 20:5; Eph 6:21; Col 4:7. In Act 20:4 he is described as a native of proconsular Asia.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:13

The cloak ( φελόνην )

Hesychius, however, explains as a γλωσσόκομον , originally a case for keeping the mouthpieces of wind-instruments; thence, generally, a box . Γλωσσόκομον is the word for the disciples' treasury-chest ( bag , Joh 12:6). Also a box for transporting or preserving parchments. Specimens have been found at Herculaneum. In lxx, 2Sa 6:11, the ark of the Lord (but the reading varies): in 2Ch 24:8, the chest placed by order of Joash at the gate of the temple, to receive contributions for its repair. Joseph. Ant . 6:1, 2, of the coffer into which the jewels of gold were put for a trespass-offering when the ark was sent back (1Sa 6:8). Phrynicus defines it as " a receptacle for books, clothes, silver, or anything else." Φαιλόνης or φαινόλης a wrapper of parchments , was translated figuratively in Latin by toga or paenula " a cloak," sometimes of leather; also the wrapping which a shopkeeper put round fish or olives; also the parchment cover for papyrus rolls. Accordingly it is claimed that Timothy is here bidden to bring, not a cloak, but a roll-case. So the Syriac Version. There seems to be no sufficient reason for abandoning the translation of A.V.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:13

Carpus

Not mentioned elsewhere.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:13

The books ( βιβλία )

Βίβλος or, βιβλίον was the term most widely used by the Greeks for book or volume . The usual derivation is from βύβλος the Egyptian papyrus . Comp. Lat. liber " the inner bark of a tree," also " book." Pliny ( Nat . Hist . xiii. 11) says that the pith of the papyrus plant was cut in slices and laid in rows, over which other rows were laid crosswise, and the whole was massed by pressure. The name for the blank papyrus sheets was χάρτης (charta) paper . See on 2Jo 1:12. Timothy is here requested to bring some papyrus documents which are distinguished from the vellum manuscripts.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:13

Parchments ( μεμβράνας )

N.T.o . Manuscripts written on parchment or vellum. Strictly speaking, vellum was made from the skins of young calves and the common parchment from those of sheep, goats, or antelopes. It was a more durable material than papyrus and more expensive. The Latin name was membrana , and also pergamena or pergamina , from Pergamum in Mysia where it was extensively manufactured, and from which it was introduced into Greece. As to the character and contents of these documents which Timothy is requested to bring, we are of course entirely ignorant.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:14

Alexander the coppersmith

Comp. 1Ti 1:20, and Act 19:33. The same person is probably meant in all three cases.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:14

Did me much evil ( πολλά μοι κακὰ ἐνεδείξατο )

Lit. shewed me much ill - treatment . Comp. 1Ti 1:16.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:14

May the Lord reward ( ἀποδώσει )

More correctly shall reward . A.V. follows the reading ἀποδω ῄ .

Vincent: 2Ti 4:15

Greatly withstood ( λίαν ἀντέστη )

Comp. 2Ti 3:8, and Gal 2:11. This may refer to the occurrences at Ephesus (Act 19:33), or to Alexander's attitude during Paul's trial. The former is more probable. Λίαν greatly , not in Paul, except in the compound ὑπερλίαν , 2Co 11:5; 2Co 12:11. Only here in Pastorals. Mostly in Synoptic Gospels.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:16

At my first answer ( ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ μου ἀπολογίᾳ )

Ἁπολογία defense in a judicial trial . Comp. Act 25:16. Also against private persons , as 1Co 9:3; 2Co 7:11. Defense of the gospel against its adversaries , as Phi 1:7, Phi 1:16; comp. 1Pe 3:15 (note). It is impossible to decide to what this refers. On the assumption of a second imprisonment of Paul (see Introduction) it would probably refer to a preliminary hearing before the main trial. It is not improbable that the writer had before his mind the situation of Paul as described in Philippians 1, since this Epistle shows at many points the influence of the Philippians letter. It should be noted, however, that ἀπολογία in Phi 1:7, Phi 1:16, has no specific reference to Paul's trial, but refers to the defense of the gospel under any and all circumstances. In any case, the first Romans imprisonment cannot be alluded to here. On that supposition, the omission of all reference to Timothy's presence and personal ministry at that time, and the words about his first defense, which must have taken place before Timothy left Rome (Phi 2:19-23) and which is here related as a piece of news, are quite inexplicable.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:16

Stood with me ( παρεγένετο )

As a patron or an advocate. The verb mostly in Luke and Acts: once in Paul, 1Co 16:3 : only here in Pastorals. It means to place one's self beside ; hence, to come to , and this latter sense is almost universal in N.T. In the sense of coming to or standing by one as a friend, only here.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:16

Be laid to their charge ( αὐτοῖς λογισθείη )

Mostly in Paul: only here in Pastorals. See on Rom 4:3, Rom 4:5; see on 1Co 13:5.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:17

Strengthened ( ἐνεδυνάμωσεν )

See on 1Ti 1:12.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:17

The preaching ( τὸ κήρυγμα )

Better, the message ( par excellence ), the gospel message. Usually with a defining word, as of Jonah ; of Jesus Christ ; my preaching; our preaching. Absolutely, as here, 1Co 1:21; Tit 1:3.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:17

Might be fully known ( πληροφορηθῇ )

See on 2Ti 4:5. Lit. might be fulfilled ; fully carried out by being proclaimed before rulers in the capital of the world. Comp. Rom 15:19; Act 23:11; Act 28:31; Phi 1:12-14.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:17

Out of the mouth of the lion ( ἐκ στόματος λέοντος )

Figurative expression for danger of death. Comp. 1Co 15:32. As usual, all manner of special references have been imagined: the lions of the amphitheatre; Nero; the chief accuser; the Jews; the Devil.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:18

Every evil work ( ἐκ ἔργου πονηρου )

Every design and attempt against him and his work. Πονηρός evil cannot be limited to evil on its active side. See on 1Co 5:13. The word is connected at the root with πένεσθαι to be needy , and πονεῖν to toil ; and this connection opens a glimpse of that sentiment which associated badness with a poor and toiling condition. The word means originally full of or oppressed by labors ; thence, that which brings annoyance or toil . Comp. ἡμέρα πονηρά evil day , Eph 5:16; Eph 6:13; ἕλκος πονηρὸν a grievous sore , Rev 16:2.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:18

Heavenly kingdom ( τὴν βασιλείαν τὴν ἐπουράνιον )

The phrase N.T.o . Ἑπουράνιος heavenly only here in Pastorals. Mostly in Paul and Hebrews. Heavenly kingdom , here the future, glorified life, as 1Co 6:9, 1Co 6:10; 1Co 15:50; Luk 13:29. In the same sense, kingdom of Christ and of God , Eph 5:5; kingdom of their Father , Mat 13:43; my Father's kingdom , Mat 26:29; kingdom prepared for you , Mat 25:34; eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ , 2Pe 1:11.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:19

Salute ( ἄσπασαι )

Very often in Paul. The singular only here and Tit 3:15.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:19

Prisca and Aquila

They appear in Corinth, Act 18:2, Act 18:3; in Ephesus, Act 18:18, Act 18:26; 1Co 16:19.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:19

Onesiphorus

Profit-bringer . Comp. 2Ti 1:16. One of the punning names so common among slaves. Comp. Chresimus, Chrestus, Onesimus, Symphorus, all of which signify useful or helpful .

Vincent: 2Ti 4:20

Erastus

In Act 19:22, sent by Paul with Timothy to Macedonia from Ephesus. Rom 16:23, the city-treasurer who sends salutations. He cannot be certainly identified with the one mentioned here. The writer merely selects names of well-known companions of Paul.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:20

Trophimus

See Act 22:4; Act 21:9.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:20

Sick ( ἀσθενοῦντα )

By Paul mostly in a moral sense, as weak in the faith , Rom 4:19; the law was weak , Rom 8:3; the weak brother , 1Co 8:11. Of bodily sickness, Phi 2:26, Phi 2:27.

Vincent: 2Ti 4:21

Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia

N.T.o .

Vincent: 2Ti 4:22

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit

Omit Jesus Christ . The closing benediction only here in this form.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:6

So undoubtedly God had shown him.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:6

Literally, to be poured out, as the wine and oil were on the ancient sacrifices.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:8

Which God has imputed to me and wrought in me.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:8

This increases the joy of Paul, and encourages Timotheus. Many of these St. Paul himself had gained.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:8

Which only a real Christian can do. I say a real Christian, to comply with the mode of the times: else they would not understand, although the word Christian necessarily implies whatsoever is holy, as God is holy. Strictly speaking, to join real or sincere to a word of so complete an import, is grievously to debase its noble signification, and is like adding long to eternity or wide to immensity.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:9

Both that he might comfort him, and be strengthened by him. Timotheus himself is said to have suffered at Ephesus.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:10

Once my fellowlabourer, Phm 1:24. Hath forsaken me. Crescens, probably a preacher also, is gone, with my consent, to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, having now left Crete. These either went with him to Rome, or visited him there.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:11

Of my fellowlabourers, is with me - But God is with me; and it is enough.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:11

Who, though he once "departed from the work," is now again profitable to me.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:13

Either the toga, which belonged to him as a Roman citizen, or an upper garment, which might be needful as winter came on.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:13

Who was probably his host there.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:13

The books written on parchment.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:14

This he spoke prophetically.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:16

My friends and companions.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:16

And do we expect to find such as will not forsake us? My first defence - Before the savage emperor Nero.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:17

The gospel which we preach.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:18

Which is far more than delivering me from death. Yea, and, over and above, preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom - Far better than that of Nero.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:20

Being chamberlain of the city, Rom 16:23.

Wesley: 2Ti 4:20

Not having power (as neither had any of the apostles) to work miracles when he pleased, but only when God pleased.

JFB: 2Ti 4:6

The departure and final blessedness of Paul; it is the end that crowns the work [BENGEL]. As the time of his departure was indicated to Peter, so to Paul (2Pe 1:14).

JFB: 2Ti 4:6

Literally, "loosing anchor" (see on Phi 1:23). Dissolution.

JFB: 2Ti 4:7

"I have striven the good strife"; the Greek is not restricted to a fight, but includes any competitive contest, for example, that of the racecourse (1Ti 6:12 [ALFORD]; 1Co 9:24, &c.; Heb 12:1-2).

JFB: 2Ti 4:7

The Christian faith committed to me as a believer and an apostle (compare 2Ti 1:14; Rev 2:10; Rev 3:10).

JFB: 2Ti 4:8

Rather as Greek, "the crown." The "henceforth" marks the decisive moment; he looks to his state in a threefold aspect: (1) The past "I have fought"; (2) The immediate present; "there is laid up for me." (3) The future "the Lord will give in that day" [BENGEL].

JFB: 2Ti 4:8

A crown, or garland, used to be bestowed at the Greek national games on the successful competitor in wrestling, running, &c. (compare 1Pe 5:4; Rev 2:10).

JFB: 2Ti 4:8

The reward is in recognition of righteousness wrought in Paul by God's Spirit; the crown is prepared for the righteous; but it is a crown which consists in righteousness. Righteousness will be its own reward (Rev 22:11). Compare Exo 39:30. A man is justified gratuitously by the merits of Christ through faith; and when he is so justified God accepts his works and honors them with a reward which is not their due, but is given of grace. "So great is God's goodness to men that He wills that their works should be merits, though they are merely His own gifts" [POPE CELESTINE I., Epistles, 12].

JFB: 2Ti 4:8

Greek, "shall award" in righteous requital as "Judge" (Act 17:31; 2Co 5:10; 2Th 1:6-7).

JFB: 2Ti 4:8

Not until His appearing (2Ti 1:12). The partakers of the first resurrection may receive a crown also at the last day, and obtain in that general assembly of all men, a new award of praise. The favorable sentence passed on the "brethren" of the Judge, who sit with Him on His throne, is in Mat 25:40, taken for granted as already awarded, when that affecting those who benefited them is being passed [BENGEL]. The former, the elect Church who reign with Christ in the millennium, are fewer than the latter. The righteous heavenly Judge stands in contrast to the unrighteous earthly judges who condemned Paul.

JFB: 2Ti 4:8

Individual appropriation. Greek, "not only to me."

JFB: 2Ti 4:8

Greek, "have loved, and do love"; habitual love and desire for Christ's appearing, which presupposes faith (compare Heb 9:28). Compare the sad contrast, 2Ti 4:10, "having loved this present world."

JFB: 2Ti 4:9

(2Ti 4:21; 2Ti 1:4, 2Ti 1:8.) Timothy is asked to come to be a comfort to Paul, and also to be strengthened by Paul, for carrying on the Gospel work after Paul's decease.

JFB: 2Ti 4:10

Once a "fellow laborer" of Paul, along with Mark and Luke (Col 4:14; Phm 1:24). His motive for forsaking Paul seems to have been love of worldly ease, safety, and comforts at home, and disinclination to brave danger with Paul (Mat 13:20-22). CHRYSOSTOM implies that Thessalonica was his home.

JFB: 2Ti 4:10

One oldest manuscript supports the reading "Gaul." But most oldest manuscripts, &c., "Galatia."

JFB: 2Ti 4:10

He must have therefore left Crete after "setting in order" the affairs of the churches there (Tit 1:5).

JFB: 2Ti 4:10

Part of the Roman province of Illyricum on the coast of the Adriatic. Paul had written to him (Tit 3:12) to come to him in the winter to Nicopolis (in Epirus), intending in the spring to preach the Gospel in the adjoining province of Dalmatia. Titus seems to have gone thither to carry out the apostle's intention, the execution of which was interrupted by his arrest. Whether he went of his own accord, as is likely, or was sent by Paul, which the expression "is departed" hardly accords with, cannot be positively decided. Paul here speaks only of his personal attendants having forsaken him; he had still friends among the Roman Christians who visited him (2Ti 4:21), though they had been afraid to stand by him at his trial (2Ti 4:16).

JFB: 2Ti 4:11

Greek, "take up" on thy journey (Act 20:13-14). John Mark was probably in, or near, Colosse, as in the Epistle to the Colossians (Col 4:10), written two years before this, he is mentioned as about to visit them. Timothy was now absent from Ephesus and somewhere in the interior of Asia Minor; hence he would be sure to fall in with Mark on his journey.

JFB: 2Ti 4:11

Mark had been under a cloud for having forsaken Paul at a critical moment in his missionary tour with Barnabas (Act 15:37-40; Act 13:5, Act 13:13). Timothy had subsequently occupied the same post in relation to Paul as Mark once held. Hence Paul, appropriately here, wipes out the past censure by high praise of Mark and guards against Timothy's making self-complacent comparisons between himself and Mark, as though he were superior to the latter (compare Phm 1:24). Demas apostatizes. Mark returns to the right way, and is no longer unprofitable, but is profitable for the Gospel ministry (Phm 1:11).

JFB: 2Ti 4:12

Greek, "But." Thou art to come to me, but Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus to supply thy place (if thou so willest it) in presiding over the Church there in thy absence (compare Tit 3:12). It is possible Tychicus was the bearer of this Epistle, though the omission of "to thee" is rather against this view.

JFB: 2Ti 4:13

Probably obliged to leave it in a hurried departure from Troas.

JFB: 2Ti 4:13

A faithful friend to have been entrusted with so precious deposits. The mention of his "cloak," so far from being unworthy of inspiration, is one of those graphic touches which sheds a flood of light on the last scene of Paul's life, on the confines of two worlds; in this wanting a cloak to cover him from the winter cold, in that covered with the righteousness of saints, "clothed upon with his house from heaven" [GAUSSEN]. So the inner vesture and outer garment of Jesus, Paul's master, are suggestive of most instructive thought (Joh 19:2).

JFB: 2Ti 4:13

He was anxious respecting these that he might transmit them to the faithful, so that they might have the teaching of his writings when he should be gone.

JFB: 2Ti 4:13

Containing perhaps some of his inspired Epistles themselves.

JFB: 2Ti 4:14

Or "smith" in general. Perhaps the same as the Alexander (see on 1Ti 1:20) at Ephesus. Excommunicated then he subsequently was restored, and now vented his personal malice because of his excommunication in accusing Paul before the Roman judges, whether of incendiarism or of introducing a new religion. See my Introduction. He may have been the Alexander put forward by the Jews in the tumult at Ephesus (Act 19:33-34).

JFB: 2Ti 4:14

The oldest manuscripts read, "shall reward," or "requite him." Personal revenge certainly did not influence the apostle (2Ti 4:16, end).

JFB: 2Ti 4:15

The arguments of us Christians for our common faith. Believers have a common cause.

JFB: 2Ti 4:16

That is, "defense" in court, at my first public examination. Timothy knew nothing of this, it is plain, till Paul now informs him. But during his former imprisonment at Rome, Timothy was with him (Phi 1:1, Phi 1:7). This must have been, therefore, a second imprisonment. He must have been set free before the persecution in A.D. 64, when the Christians were accused of causing the conflagration in Rome; for, had he been a prisoner then, he certainly would not have been spared. The tradition [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 2.251] that he was finally beheaded, accords with his not having been put to death in the persecution, A.D. 64, when burning to death was the mode by which the Christians were executed, but subsequently to it. His "first" trial in his second imprisonment seems to have been on the charge of complicity in the conflagration; his absence from Rome may have been the ground of his acquittal on that charge; his final condemnation was probably on the charge of introducing a new and unlawful religion into Rome.

JFB: 2Ti 4:16

Greek, "came forward with me" [ALFORD] as a friend and advocate.

JFB: 2Ti 4:16

The position of "their," in the Greek, is emphatic. "May it not be laid to THEIR charge," for they were intimidated; their drawing back from me was not from bad disposition so much as from fear; it is sure to be laid to the charge of those who intimidated them. Still Paul, like Stephen, would doubtless have offered the same prayer for his persecutors themselves (Act 7:60).

JFB: 2Ti 4:17

The more because men deserted me.

JFB: 2Ti 4:17

Stronger than "came forward with me" (Greek, 2Ti 4:16).

JFB: 2Ti 4:17

Greek, "put strength in me."

JFB: 2Ti 4:17

"through me"; through my means. One single occasion is often of the greatest moment.

JFB: 2Ti 4:17

"the Gospel proclamation."

JFB: 2Ti 4:17

Might be fully made (see on 2Ti 4:5).

JFB: 2Ti 4:17

Present at my trial, "might hear" the Gospel proclaimed then. Rome was the capital of the Gentile world, so that a proclamation of the truth to the Romans was likely to go forth to the rest of the Gentile world.

JFB: 2Ti 4:17

Namely, Satan, the roaring, devouring lion (Luk 22:31; 1Pe 5:8). I was prevented falling into his snare (2Ti 2:26; Psa 22:21; 2Pe 2:9); 2Ti 4:18 agrees with this interpretation, "The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work," namely, both from evil and the evil one, as the Greek of the Lord's Prayer expresses it. It was not deliverance from Nero (who was called the lion) which he rejoiced in, for he did not fear death (2Ti 4:6-8), but deliverance from the temptation, through fear, to deny His Lord: so ALFORD.

JFB: 2Ti 4:18

Hope draws its conclusions from the past to the future [BENGEL].

JFB: 2Ti 4:18

Literally, "will save" (Psa 22:21), "will bring me safe to." Jesus is the Lord and the Deliverer (Phi 3:20; 1Th 1:10): He saves from evil; He gives good things.

JFB: 2Ti 4:18

Greek, "His kingdom which is a heavenly one."

JFB: 2Ti 4:18

Greek, "to whom be the glory unto the ages of ages." The very hope produces a doxology: how much greater will be the doxology which the actual enjoyment shall produce! [BENGEL].

JFB: 2Ti 4:19

(Act 18:2-3; Rom 16:3-4; 1Co 16:19, written from Ephesus, where therefore Aquila and Priscilla must then have been).

JFB: 2Ti 4:19

If he were dead at the time, the "household" would not have been called "the household of Onesiphorus." He was probably absent (see on 2Ti 1:16).

JFB: 2Ti 4:20

In order to depict his desertion, he informs Timothy that Erastus, one of his usual companions (Act 19:22, possibly the same Erastus as in Rom 16:23, though how he could leave his official duties for missionary journeys is not clear), stayed behind at Corinth, his native place, or usual residence, of which city he was "chamberlain," or city steward and treasurer (Rom 16:23); and Trophimus he left behind at Miletus sick. (On his former history, see on Act 20:4; Act 21:29). This verse is irreconcilable with the imprisonment from which he writes being the first: for he did not pass by Corinth or Miletus on his way to Rome when about to be imprisoned for the first time. As Miletus was near Ephesus, there is a presumption that Timothy was not at Ephesus when Paul wrote, or he would not need to inform Timothy of Trophimus lying sick in his immediate neighborhood. However, Trophimus may not have been still at Miletus at the time when Paul wrote, though he had left him there on his way to Rome. Prisca and Aquila were most likely to be at Ephesus (2Ti 4:19), and he desires Timothy to salute them: so also Onesiphorus' household (2Ti 1:18). Paul had not the power of healing at will (Act 19:12), but as the Lord allowed him.

JFB: 2Ti 4:21

When a voyage, according to ancient usages of navigation, would be out of the question: also, Paul would need his "cloak" against the winter (2Ti 4:13).

JFB: 2Ti 4:21

Afterwards husband and wife (according to MARTIAL [Epigrams, 4.13; 11.54]), he a Roman knight, she a Briton, surnamed Rufina. TACITUS [On Agriculture, 14], mentions that territories in southeast Britain were given to a British king; Cogidunus, in reward for his fidelity to Rome, A.D. 52, while Claudius was emperor. In 1772 a marble was dug up at Chichester, mentioning Cogidunus with the surname Claudius, added from his patron, the emperor's name; and Pudens in connection with Cogidunus, doubtless his father-in-law. His daughter would be Claudia, who seems to have been sent to Rome for education, as a pledge of the father's fidelity. Here she was under the protection of Pomponia, wife of Aulus Plautius, conqueror of Britain. Pomponia was accused of foreign superstitions, A.D. 57 [TACITUS, Annals, 3.32], probably Christianity. She probably was the instrument of converting Claudia, who took the name Rufina from her, that being a cognomen of the Pomponian gens (compare Rom 16:13, Rufus, a Christian). Pudens in MARTIAL and in the Chichester inscription, appears as a pagan; but perhaps he or his friends concealed his Christianity through fear. Tradition represents Timothy, a son of Pudens, as taking part in converting the Britons.

JFB: 2Ti 4:21

Put third; therefore not at this time yet, as he was afterwards, bishop. His name being here inserted between Pudens and Claudia, implies the two were not yet married. "Eubulus" is identified by some with Aristobulus, who, with his converts, is said to have been among the first evangelists of Britain. Paul himself, says CLEMENT, "visited the farthest west [perhaps Britain, certainly Spain], and was martyred under the rulers at Rome," who were Nero's vicegerents in his absence from the city.

JFB: 2Ti 4:22

Plural in oldest manuscripts, "with YOU," that is, thee and the members of the Ephesian and neighboring churches.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:6

For I am now ready to be offered - Ηδη σπενδομαι· I am already poured out as a libation. See the note on Phi 2:17. He considers himself as on the eve of being sacrificed, and looks upon his blood as the libation which was poured on the sacrificial offering. He could not have spoken thus positively had not the sentence of death been already passed upon him.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:7

I have fought a good fight - Every reader will perceive that the apostle, as was his very frequent custom, alludes to the contests at the Grecian games: Τον αγυνα τον καλον ηγωνισμαι· I have wrestled that good wrestling - I have struggled hard, and have over come, in a most honorable cause

Clarke: 2Ti 4:7

I have finished my course - I have started for the prize, and have come up to the goal, outstripping all my competitors, and have gained this prize also

Clarke: 2Ti 4:7

I have kept the faith - As the laws of these games must be most diligently observed and kept, (for though a man overcome, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully), so I have kept the rules of the spiritual combat and race; and thus, having contended lawfully, and conquered in each exercise, I have a right to expect the prize.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:8

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown - This I can claim as my due; but the crown I expect is not one of fading leaves, but a crown of righteousness; the reward which God, in his kindness, has promised to them who are faithful to the grace he has bestowed upon them

Clarke: 2Ti 4:8

The Lord, the righteous Judge - He alludes here to the brabeus, or umpire in the Grecian games, whose office it was to declare the victor, and to give the crown

Clarke: 2Ti 4:8

At that day - The day of judgment; the morning of the resurrection from the dead

Clarke: 2Ti 4:8

Unto all them also that love his appearing - All who live in expectation of the coming of Christ, who anticipate it with joyfulness, having buried the world and laid up all their hopes above. Here is a reward, but it is a reward not of debt but of grace; for it is by the grace of God that even an apostle is fitted for glory. And this reward is common to the faithful; it is given, not only to apostles, but to all them that love his appearing. This crown is laid up - it is in view, but not in possession. We must die first

I have several times noted the allusions of St. Paul to the Greek poets, and such as seemed to argue that he quoted immediately from them. There is a passage in the Alcestis of Euripides, in which the very expressions used here by the apostle are found, and spoken on the occasion of a wife laying down her life for her husband, when both his parents had refused to do it

Ουκ ηθελησας ουδ ’ ετολμησας θανειν

Του σου προ παιδος· αλλα την δ ’ ειασατ

Γυναικ ’ οθνειαν, ἡν εγω και μητερα

Πατερα τε γ ’ ενδικως αν ἡγοιμην μονην·

Και τοι καλον γ ’ αν τανδ ’ αγων ’ ηγωνισω,

Του σου προ παιδος κατθανων.

Alcest. v. 644

"Thou wouldst not, neither darest thou to die for thy son; but hast suffered this strange woman to do it, whom I justly esteem to be alone my father and mother: thou wouldst have fought a good fight hadst thou died for thy son.

See Sophocles and Aeschylus, quoted 1Ti 6:15

The καλος αγων, good fight, was used among the Greeks to express a contest of the most honorable kind, and in this sense the apostle uses it.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:9

Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me - He appears to have wished Timothy to be present at his death, that he might have his faith confirmed by seeing how a Christian could die; and, as he had but a short time to live, he begs Timothy to hasten his visit, and particularly so as he had scarcely now any companions.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:10

Demas hath forsaken me - This is another proof of the posteriority of this epistle: for Demas was with the apostle in his first imprisonment, and joins in the salutations, see Col 4:14, which were written when Paul was a prisoner at Rome for the first time

Clarke: 2Ti 4:10

Having loved this present world - Αγαπησας τον νυν αιωνα Having preferred Judaism to Christianity; or having loved the Jews, and having sought their welfare in preference to that of the Gentiles

The עולם הזה words olam hazzeh , which answer to the Greek τον νυν αιωνα, are generally to be understood as signifying, either the Jewish people, or the system of Judaism. It was now become doubly dangerous to be a Christian; and those who had not religion enough to enable them to burn, or in any other way to expose life for it, took refuge in that religion which was exposed to no persecution. This is a light in which the conduct of Demas may be viewed. It could not have been the love of secular gain which had induced Demas to abandon St. Paul; he must have counted this cost before he became a Christian. See below

Clarke: 2Ti 4:10

Crescens to Galatia - Whether the departure of Crescens was similar to that of Demas, as intimated above, or whether he went on an evangelical embassy, we know not. Charity would hope the latter; for we can hardly suppose that Titus, who is here said to have departed to Dalmatia, had abandoned his Cretan Churches, his apostolical office, and especially his aged father and friend, now about to seal the truth with his blood! It is probable that both these persons had gone on sacred missions, and perhaps had been gone some time before the apostle was brought into such imminent danger. Even for Demas, as standing in this connection, something might be said. It is not intimated that he had denied the faith, but simply that he had left the apostle and gone into Thessalonica; for which this reason is given, that he loved the present world. Now, if αγαπησας, having loved, can be applied to a desire to save the souls of the Jews, and that he went into Thessalonica, where they abounded, for this very purpose, then we shall find all three - Demas, Crescens, and Titus, one at Thessalonica, another at Galatia, and the third at Dalmatia, doing the work of evangelists, visiting the Churches, and converting both Jews and Gentiles. This interpretation I leave to the charitable reader, and must own that, with all the presumptive evidences against it, it has some fair show of probability. Demas has received little justice from interpreters and preachers in general. It is even fashionable to hunt him down.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:11

Only Luke is with me - This was Luke the evangelist, and writer of the Acts of the Apostles, who was always much attached to St. Paul, and it is supposed continued with him even to his martyrdom

Clarke: 2Ti 4:11

Take Mark, and bring him with thee - This was John Mark, the sister’ s son of Barnabas, who, after having wavered a little at first, became a steady, zealous, and useful man; his name and conduct have been often before the reader. See the parallel passages

Clarke: 2Ti 4:11

For he is profitable to me for the ministry - Εις διακονιαν· For service; that is, he would be very useful to the apostle, to minister to him in his present close confinement. Some think that the apostle means his preaching the Gospel; but at this time, I should suppose, there was very little, if any, public preaching at Rome.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:12

Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus - For this person, see Act 20:4; Eph 6:21; Col 4:7. It is rather strange that the apostle should say, I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus, if Timothy was at Ephesus at this time; but it is probable that Tychicus had been sent to Ephesus some time before this, and therefore the apostle might say, though writing now to Ephesus, Tychicus have I sent, etc.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:13

The cloak that I left at Troas - Τον φελονην is by several translated bag or portmanteau; and it is most likely that it was something of this kind, in which he might carry his clothes, books, and travelling necessaries. What the books were we cannot tell, it is most likely they were his own writings; and as to the parchments, they were probably the Jewish Scriptures and a copy of the Septuagint. These he must have had at hand at all times. The books and parchments now sent for could not be for the apostle’ s own use, as he was now on the eve of his martyrdom. He had probably intended to bequeath them to the faithful, that they might be preserved for the use of the Church.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:14

Alexander the coppersmith - We are not to understand this of any tradesman, but of some rabbin; for it was not unusual for the Jews to apply the name of some trade as an epithet to their rabbins and literary men. He is, in all probability, the very same mentioned Act 19:33 (note); and it is not unlikely that he may have been the same whom the apostle was obliged to excommunicate, 1Ti 1:20

Clarke: 2Ti 4:14

The Lord reward him - Αποδῳη αυτῳ ὁ Κυριος· But instead of αποδῳη, which has here the power of a solemn imprecation, αποδωσει, he will reward, is the reading of the very best MSS., several of the versions, and some of the chief Greek fathers. This makes the sentence declaratory: The Lord Will reward him according to his works. This reading is most like the spirit and temper of this heavenly man. See 2Ti 4:16.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:15

Of whom be thou ware also - It seems that this rabbin traveled about from place to place for the purpose of opposing the Gospel, the Jews putting him forward, as it is said, Act 19:33

Clarke: 2Ti 4:15

He hath greatly withstood our words - Has been a constant opposer of the Christian doctrines.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:16

At my first answer - Εν τῃ τρωτῃ μου απολογιᾳ· At my first apology; this word properly signifies a defense or vindication. To his is the meaning of what we call the apologies of the primitive fathers; they were vindications or defences of Christianity. It is generally allowed that, when St. Paul had been taken this second time by the Romans, he was examined immediately, and required to account for his conduct; and that, so odious was Christianity through the tyranny of Nero, he could procure no person to plead for him. Nero, who had himself set fire to Rome, charged it on the Christians, and they were in consequence persecuted in the most cruel manner; he caused them to be wrapped up in pitched clothes, and then, chaining them to a stake, he ordered them to be set on fire to give light in the streets after night! Tormenti genus ! To this Juvenal appears to allude. Sat. i. v. 155

Pone Tigellinum, taeda lucebis in ill

Qua stantes ardent, qui fixo gulture fumant

"If into rogues omnipotent you rake

Death is your doom, impaled upon a stake

Smear’ d o’ er with wax, and set on blaze to ligh

The streets, and make a dreadful fire by night.

Dryden

Clarke: 2Ti 4:16

I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge - How much more simple, elegant, and expressive are the apostle’ s own words: Μη αυτοις λογισθειη· let it not be placed to their account! Let them not have to reckon for it with the supreme Judge at the great day!

Clarke: 2Ti 4:17

The Lord stood with me - When all human help failed, God, in a more remarkable manner, interposed; and thus the excellency plainly appeared to be of God, and not of man

Clarke: 2Ti 4:17

That by me the preaching might be fully known - When called on to make his defense he took occasion to preach the Gospel, and to show that the great God of heaven and earth had designed to illuminate the Gentile world with the rays of his light and glory. This must have endeared him to some, while others might consider him an opposer of their gods, and be the more incensed against him

Clarke: 2Ti 4:17

I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion - I escaped the imminent danger at that time. Probably he was seized in a tumultuous manner, and expected to be torn to pieces. The words εκ στοματος or εκ βρυγμου λεοντος ῥυεσθαι, to be rescued from the mouth or jaws of the lion, are a proverbial form of speech for deliverance from the most imminent danger. Several writers think Nero to be intended by the lion, because of his rage and oppressive cruelty. But Helius Caesarinus was at this time prefect of the city; Nero being in Greece. He was a bloody tyrant, and Nero had given him the power of life and death in his absence. The apostle may mean him, if the words be not proverbial.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:18

And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work - None of the evil designs formed against me to make me unfaithful or unsteady, to cause me to save my life at the expense of faith and a good conscience, shall succeed; my life may go, but he will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. A continuance on earth the apostle expects not; but he has glory full in view, and therefore he gives God glory for what he had done, and for what he had promised to do.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:19

Salute Prisca and Aquila - Several MSS., versions, and fathers have Priscilla instead of Prisca: they are probably the same as those mentioned Act 18:18, Act 18:26

Clarke: 2Ti 4:19

The household of Onesiphorus - See 2Ti 1:16. Onesiphorus was probably at this time dead: his family still remained at Ephesus.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:20

Erastus abode at Corinth - He was treasurer of that city, as we learn from Rom 16:23 (note). The apostle had sent him and Timothy on a mission to Macedonia, Act 19:22, whence it is probable he returned to Corinth, and there became finally settled

Clarke: 2Ti 4:20

Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick - Even the apostles could not work miracles when they pleased; that power was but rarely given, and that for very special purposes. Trophimus was an Ephesian. See Act 20:4, and the note there

Miletus was a maritime town of Ionia, not far from Ephesus; but there was another Miletus, in Crete, which some learned men think to be intended here. It appears that St. Paul went from Macedonia to Corinth, where he left Erastus; from Corinth he proceeded to Troas, where he lodged with Carpus: from Troas he went to Ephesus, where he visited Timothy; from Ephesus he went to Miletus, where he left Trophimus sick; and having embarked at Miletus, he went by sea to Rome. See Calmet. It is most likely, therefore, that the Miletus of Ionia is the place intended.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:21

Come before winter -

1.    Because the apostle’ s time was short and uncertain

2.    Because sailing in those seas was very dangerous in winter. Whether Timothy saw the apostle before he was martyred is not known

Clarke: 2Ti 4:21

Eubulus - This person is nowhere else mentioned in the New Testament

Clarke: 2Ti 4:21

Pudens - Of this person we have traditions and legends, but nothing certain. The Catholics make him bishop of Rome

Clarke: 2Ti 4:21

Linus - He also is made, by the same persons, bishop of Rome; but there is no sufficient ground for these pretensions

Clarke: 2Ti 4:21

Claudia - Supposed to be the wife of Pudens. Some think she was a British lady, converted by St. Paul; and that she was the first that brought the Gospel to Britain

Clarke: 2Ti 4:21

All the brethren - All the Christians, of whom there were many at Rome; though of Paul’ s companions in travel, only Luke remained there.

Clarke: 2Ti 4:22

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit - This is a prayer addressed to Christ by one of the most eminent of his apostles; another proof of the untruth of the assertion, that prayer is never offered to Christ in the New Testament. He prays that Christ may be with his spirit, enlightening, strengthening, and confirming it to the end

Clarke: 2Ti 4:22

Grace be with you - These words show that the epistle was addressed to the whole Church, and that it is not to be considered of a private nature

Clarke: 2Ti 4:22

Amen - Omitted by ACFG and some others. See the note on this word at the end of the preceding epistle (note)

The principal subscriptions, both in the versions and MSS., are the following: -

The Second Epistle to Timothy was written from Rome. - Syriac

To the man Timothy. - Aethiopic

Nothing in the Vulgate

End of the epistle; it was written from the city of Rome when Timothy had been constituted bishop over Ephesus; and when Paul had stood the second time in the presence of Nero Caesar, the Roman emperor. Praise to the Lord of glory, perpetual, perennial, and eternal! Amen, Amen, Amen. - Arabic

The Second Epistle to Timothy is ended, who was the first bishop of the Church of Ephesus. It was written from Rome when Paul had stood the second time before Nero, the Roman emperor. - Philoxenian Syriac

Written from Rome, and sent by Onesimus. - Coptic

The MSS. are also various: -

The Second Epistle to Timothy is finished; that to Titus begins

The second to Timothy, written from Laodicea. - Codex Alexandrinus

The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy, ordained the first bishop of the Church of the Ephesians, was written from Rome when Paul was brought the second time before Nero Caesar. - Common Greek Text

There are other slighter differences in the MSS., but they are unworthy of note

That the epistle was written from Rome, about the year 65 or 66, and a little before St. Paul’ s martyrdom, is the general opinion of learned men. See the preface

The reader has already been apprized that this is most probably the last epistle the apostle ever wrote; and it is impossible to see him in a more advantageous point of view than he now appears, standing on the verge of eternity, full of God, and strongly anticipating an eternity of glory. For farther observations, see the conclusion of the first epistle, (1Ti 6:21 (note))

Calvin: 2Ti 4:6

6.For I am now offered as a sacrifice He assigns the reason for the solemn protestation which he employed. As if he had said, “So long as I lived, I stretched out my hand to thee; my constant exhortations were not withheld from thee; thou hast been much aided by my advices, and much confirmed by my example; the time is now come, that thou shouldst be thine own teacher and exhorter, and shouldst begin to swim without support: beware lest any change in thee be observed at my death.”

And the time of my dissolution is at hand ¹⁹⁷ We must attend to the modes of expression by which he denotes his death. By the word dissolution he means that we do not altogether perish when we die; because it is only a separation of the soul from the body. Hence we infer, that death is nothing else than a departure of the soul from the body — a definition which contains a testimony of the immortality of the soul.

“Sacrifice” was a term peculiarly applicable to the death of Paul, which was inflicted on him for maintaining the truth of Christ; for, although all believers, both by their obedient life and by their death, are victims or offerings acceptable to God, yet martyrs are sacrificed in a more excellent manner, by shedding their blood for the name of Christ. Besides, the wordσπένδεσθαι which Paul here employs, does not denote every kind of sacrifice, but that which serves for ratifying covenants. Accordingly, in this passage, he means the same thing which he states more clearly when he says,

“But if I am offered on the sacrifice of your faith, I rejoice.” (Phi 2:17.)

For there he means that the faith of the Philippians was ratified by his death, in precisely the same manner that covenants were ratified in ancient times by sacrifices of slain beasts; not that the certainty of our faith is founded, strictly speaking, on the steadfastness of the martyrs, but because it tends greatly to confirm us. Paul has here adorned his death by a magnificent commendation, when he called it the ratification of his doctrine, that believers, instead of sinking into despondency — as frequently happens — might be more encouraged by it to persevere.

The time of dissolution This mode of expression is also worthy of notice, because he beautifully lessens the excessive dread of death by pointing out its effect and its nature. How comes it that men are so greatly dismayed at any mention of death, but because they think that they perish utterly when they die? On the contrary, Paul, by calling it “Dissolution,” affirms that man does not perish, but teaches that the soul is merely separated from the body. It is with the same object that he fearlessly declares that “the time is at hand,” which he could not have done unless he had despised death; for although this is a natural feeling, which can never be entirely taken away, that man dreads and shrinks from death, yet that terror must be vanquished by faith, that it may not prevent us from departing form this world in an obedient manner, whenever God shall call us.

Calvin: 2Ti 4:7

7.I have fought the good fight Because it is customary to form a judgment from the event, Paul’s fight might have been condemned on the ground that it did not end happily. He therefore boasts that it is excellent, whatever may be the light in which it is regarded by the world. This declaration is a testimony of eminent faith; for not only was Paul accounted wretched in the opinion of all, but his death also was to be ignominious. Who then would not have said that he fought without success? But he does not rely on the corrupt judgments of men. On the contrary, by magnanimous courage he rises above every calamity, so that nothing opposes his happiness and glory; and therefore he declares “the fight which he fought” to be good and honorable.

I have finished my course He even congratulates himself on his death, because it may be regarded as the goal or termination of his course. We know that they who run a race have gained their wish when they have reached the goal. In this manner also he affirms that to Christ’s combatants death is desirable, because it puts an end to their labors; and, on the other hand, he likewise declares that we ought never to rest in this life, because it is of no advantage to have run well and constantly from the beginning to the middle of the course, if we do not reach the goal.

I have kept the faith ¹⁹⁸ This may have a twofold meaning, either that to the last he was a faithful soldier to his captain, or that he continued in the right doctrine. Both meanings will be highly appropriate; and indeed he could not make his fidelity acceptable to the Lord in any other way then by constantly professing, the pure doctrine of the gospel. Yet I have no doubt that he alludes to the solemn oath taken by soldiers; as if he had said that he was a good and faithful soldier to his captain.

Calvin: 2Ti 4:8

8.Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness Having boasted of having fought his fight and finished his course, and kept the faith, he now affirms that he has not labored in vain. Now it is possible to put forth strenuous exertion, and yet to be defrauded of the reward which is due. But Paul says that his reward is sure. This certainty arises from turning his eyes to the day of the resurrection, and this is what we also ought to do; for all around we see nothing but death, and therefore we ought not to keep our eye fixed on the outward appearance of the world, but, on the contrary, to hold out to our minds the coming of Christ. The consequences will be, that nothing can detract from our happiness.

Which the Lord the righteous Judge will render to me Because he mentions “the crown of righteousness” and “the righteous Judge,” and employs the word “render,” the Papists endeavor, by means of this passage, to build up the merits of works in opposition to the grace of God. But their reasoning is absurd. Justification by free grace, which is bestowed on us through faith, is not at variance within the rewarding of works, but, on the contrary, those two statements perfectly agree, that a man is justified freely through the grace of Christ, and yet that God will render to him the reward of works; for as soon as God has received us into favor, he likewise accepts our works, so as even to deign to give them a reward, though it is not due to them.

Here two blunders are committed by the Papists; first, in arguing that we deserve something from God, because we do well by virtue of our freewill; and secondly, in holding that God is bound to us, as if our salvation proceeded from anything else than from his grace. But it does not follow that God owes anything to us, because he renders righteously what he renders; for he is righteous even in those acts of kindness which are of free grace. And he “renders the reward” which he has promised, not because we take the lead by any act of obedience, but because, in the same course of liberality in which he has begun to act toward us, he follows up his former gifts by those which are afterwards bestowed. In vain, therefore, and to no purpose, do the Papists labor to prove from this, that good works proceed from the power of freewill; because there is no absurdity in saying that God crowns in us his own gifts. Not less absurdly and foolishly do they endeavor, by means of this passage, to destroy the righteousness of faith; since the goodness of God — by which he graciously embraces a man, not imputing to him his sins — is not inconsistent with that rewarding of works which he will render by the same kindness with which he made the promise. ¹⁹⁹

And not to me only That all the rest of the believers might fight courageously along with him, he invites them to a participation of the crown; for his unshaken steadfastness could not have served for an example to us, if the same hope of obtaining the crown had not been held out to us.

To all who love his coming ²⁰⁰ This is a singular mark which he employs in describing believers. And, indeed, wherever faith is strong, it will not permit their minds to fall asleep in this world, but will elevate them to the hope of the last resurrection. His meaning therefore is, that all who are so much devoted to the world, and who love so much this fleeting life, as not to care about the coming of Christ, and not to be moved by any desire of it, deprive themselves of immortal glory. Woe to our stupidity, therefore, which exercises such power over us, that we never think seriously about the coming of Christ, to which we ought to give our whole attention. Besides, he excludes from the number of believers those in whom the coming of Christ produces terror and alarm; for it cannot be loved unless it be regarded as pleasant and delightful.

Calvin: 2Ti 4:9

9.Make haste, to come to me quickly As he knew that the time of his death was at hand, there were many subjects — I doubt not — on which he wished to have a personal interview with Timothy for the good of the Church; and therefore he does not hesitate to desire him to come from a country beyond the sea. Undoubtedly there must have been no trivial reason why he called him away from a church over which he presided, and at so great a distance. Hence we may infer how highly important are conferences between such persons; for what Timothy had learned in a short space of time would be profitable, for a long period, to all the churches; so that the loss of half a year, or even of a whole year, was trivial compared with the compensation gained. And yet it appears from what follows, that Paul called Timothy with a view to his own individual benefit likewise; although his own personal matters were not preferred by him to the advantage of the Church, but it was because it involved the cause of the gospel, which was common to all believers; for as he defended it from a prison, so he needed the labors of others to aid in that defense.

Calvin: 2Ti 4:10

10.Having embraced this world It was truly base in such a man to prefer the love of this world to Christ. And yet we must not suppose that he altogether denied Christ or gave himself up either to ungodliness or to the allurements of the world; but he merely preferred his private convenience, or his safety, to the life of Paul. He could not have assisted Paul without many troubles and vexations, attended by imminent risk of his life; he was exposed to many reproaches, and must have submitted to many insults, and been constrained to leave off the care of his own affairs; and, therefore being overcome by his dislike of the cross, he resolved to consult his own interests. Nor can it be doubted, that he enjoyed a propitious gale from the world. That he was one of the leading men may be conjectured on this ground, that Paul mentions him amidst a very few at (Col 4:14,) and likewise in the Epistle to Philemon, (Phl 1:24,) where also he is ranked among Paul’s assistants; and, therefore, we need not wonder if he censures him so sharply on this occasion, for having cared more about himself than about Christ.

Others, whom he afterwards mentions, had not gone away from him but for good reasons, and with his own consent. Hence it is evident that he did not study his own advantage, so as to deprive churches of their pastors, but only to obtain from them some relief. Undoubtedly he was always careful to invite to come to him, or to keep along with him, those whose absence would not be injurious to other churches. For this reason he had sent Titus to Dalmatia, and some to one place and some to another, when he invited Timothy to come to him. Not only so, but in order that the church at Ephesus may not be left destitute or forlorn during Timothy’s absence, he sends Tychicus thither, and mentions this circumstance to Timothy, that he may know that that church will not be in want of one to fill his place during his absence.

Calvin: 2Ti 4:13

Bring the cloak which I left at Troas As to the meaning of the wordφελόνη, ²⁰¹ commentators are not agreed; for some think that it is a chest or box for containing books, and others that it is a garment used by travelers, and fitted for defending against cold and rain. Whether the one interpretation or the other be adopted, how comes it that Paul should give orders to have either a garment or a chest brought to him from a place so distant, as if there were not workmen, or as if there were not abundance both of cloth and timber? If it be said, that it was a chest filled with books, or manuscripts, or epistles, the difficulty will be solved; for such materials could not have been procured at any price. But, because many will not admit the conjecture, I willingly translate it by the word cloak. Nor is there any absurdity in saying that Paul desired to have it brought from so great a distance, because that garment, through long use, would be more comfortable for him, and he wished to avoid expense. ²⁰²

Yet (to own the truth) I give the preference to the former interpretation; more especially because Paul immediately afterwards mentions books and parchments. It is evident from this, that the Apostle had not given over reading, though he was already preparing for death. Where are those who think that they have made so great progress that they do not need any more exercise? Which of them will dare to compare himself with Paul? Still more does this expression refute the madness of those men who — despising books, and condemning all reading — boast of nothing but their ownἐνθουσιασμοὺς divine inspirations. ²⁰³ But let us know that this passage gives to all believers ²⁰⁴ a recommendation of constant reading, that they may profit by it. ²⁰⁵

Here some one will ask, “What does Paul mean by asking for a robe or cloak, if he perceived that his death was at hand?” This difficulty also induces me to interpret the word as denoting a chest, though there might have been some use of the “cloak” which is unknown in the present day; and therefore I give myself little trouble about these matters.

Calvin: 2Ti 4:14

14.Alexander the coppersmith In this man was exhibited a shocking instance of apostasy. He had made profession of some zeal in advancing the reign of Christ, against which he afterwards carried on open war. No class of enemies is more dangerous or more envenomed than this. But from the beginning, the Lord determined that his Church should not be exempted from this evil, lest our courage should fail when we are tried by any of the same kind.

Hath done me many evil things It is proper to observe, what are the “many evils” which Paul complains that Alexander brought upon him. They consisted in this, that he opposed his doctrine. Alexander was an artificer, not prepared by the learning of the schools for being a great disputer; but domestic enemies have always been abundantly able to do injury. And the wickedness of such men always obtains credit in the world, so that malicious and impudent ignorance sometimes creates trouble and difficulty greater than the highest abilities accompanied by learning. Besides, when the Lord brings his servants into contest with persons of this low and base class, he purposely withdraws them from the view of the world, that they may not indulge in ostentatious display.

From Paul’s words, (2Ti 4:15,) for he vehemently opposed our discourses, we may infer that he had committed no greater offense than an attack on sound doctrine; for if Alexander had wounded his person, or committed an assault on him, he would have endured it patiently; but when the truth of God is assailed, his holy breast burns with indignation, because, in all the members of Christ that saying must hold good,

“The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up.” (Psa 69:9.)

And this is also the reason of the stern imprecation into which he breaks out, that the Lord may reward him according to his works. A little afterwards, when he complains that all had forsaken him, (Psa 69:9,) still he does not call down the vengeance of God on them, but, on the contrary, appears as their intercessor, pleading that they may obtain pardon. So mild and so merciful to all others, how comes it that he shows himself so harsh and inexorable towards this individual? The reason is this. Because some had fallen through fear and weakness, he desires that the Lord would forgive them; for in this manner we ought to have compassion on the weakness of brethren. But because this man rose against God with malice and sacrilegious hardihood, and openly attacked known truth, such impiety had no claim to compassion.

We must not imagine, therefore, that Paul was moved by excessive warmth of temper, when he broke out into this imprecation; for it was from the Spirit of God, and through a well regulated zeal, that he wished eternal perdition to Alexander, and mercy to the others. Seeing that it is by the guidance of the Spirit that Paul pronounces a heavenly judgment from on high, we may infer from this passage, how dear to God is his truth, for attacking which he punishes so severely. Especially it ought to be observed how detestable a crime it is, to fight with deliberate malice against the true religion

But lest any person, by falsely imitating the Apostle, should rashly utter similar imprecations, there are three things here that deserve notice. First, let us not avenge the injuries done to ourselves, lest self-love and a regard to our private advantage should move us violently, as frequently happens. Secondly, while we maintain the glory of God, let us not mingle with it our own passions, which always disturb good order. Thirdly, let us not pronounce sentence against every person without discrimination, but only against reprobates, who, by their impiety, give evidence that such is their true character; and thus our wishes will agree with God’s own judgment otherwise there is ground to fear that the same reply may be made to us that Christ made to the disciples who thundered indiscriminately against all who did not comply with their views,

“Ye know not of what spirit ye are.” (Luk 9:55.)

They thought that they had Elijah as their supporter, (2Kg 1:10,) who prayed to the Lord in the same manner; but because they differed widely from the spirit of Elijah, the imitation was absurd. It is therefore necessary, that the Lord should reveal his judgment before we burst forth into such imprecations; and wish that by his Spirit he should restrain and guide our zeal. And whenever we call to our remembrance the vehemence of Paul against a single individual, let us also recollect his amazing meekness towards those who had so basely forsaken him, that we may learn, by his example, to have compassion on the weakness of our brethren.

Here I wish to put a question to those who pretend that Peter presided over the church at Rome. Where was he at that time? According to their opinion, he was not dead; for they tell us, that exactly a year intervened between his death and that of Paul. Besides, they extend his pontificate to seven years. Here Paul mentions his first defense: his second appearance before the court would not be quite so soon. In order that Peter may not lose the title of Pope, must he endure to be charged with the guilt of so shameful a revolt? Certainly, when the whole matter has been duly examined, we shall find that everything that has been believed about his Popedom is fabulous.

Calvin: 2Ti 4:17

17.But the Lord assisted me He adds this, in order to remove the scandal which he saw might arise from that base desertion of his cause. ²⁰⁶ Though the church at Rome had failed to perform its duty, he affirms that the gospel had suffered no loss by it, because, leaning on heavenly power, he was himself fully able to bear the whole burden, and was so far from being discouraged by the influence of that fear which seized on all, that it became only the more evident that the grace of God has no need of receiving aid from any other quarter. He does not boast of his courage, but gives thanks to the Lord; that, when reduced to extremities, he did not give way nor lose heart under so dangerous a temptation. He therefore acknowledges that he was supported by the arm of the Lord, and is satisfied with this, that the inward grace of God served for a shield to defend him against every assault. He assigns the reason —

That the proclamation might be confirmed The word “proclamation” is employed by him to denote the office of publishing the gospel among the Gentiles, which was especially assigned to him; ²⁰⁷ for the preaching of others did not so much resemble a proclamation, in consequence of being confined to the Jews. And with good reason does he make use of this word in many passages. It was no small confirmation of his ministry, that, when the whole world foamed with madness against him, and on the other hand, all human assistance failed him, still he remained unshaken. Thus he gave practical demonstration that his apostleship was from Christ.

He now describes the manner of the confirmation, that all the Gentiles might hear that the Lord had so powerfully assisted him; for from this event they might infer that both their own calling and that of Paul were from the Lord.

And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion By the word “lion,” many suppose that he means Nero. For my part, I rather think that he makes use of this expression to denote danger in general; as if he had said, “out of a blazing fire,” or “out of the jaws of death.” He means that it was not without wonderful assistance from God, that he escaped, the danger being so great that but for this he must have been immediately swallowed up.

Calvin: 2Ti 4:18

18.And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work He declares, that he hopes the same for the future; not that he will escape death, but that he will not be vanquished by Satan, or turn aside from the right course. This is what we ought chiefly to desire, not that the interests of the body may be promoted, but that we may rise superior to every temptation, and may be ready to suffer a hundred deaths rather than that it should come into our mind to pollute ourselves by any “evil work.” Yet I am well aware, that there are some who take the expression evil work in a passive sense, as denoting the violence of wicked men, as if Paul had said, “The Lord will not suffer wicked men to do me any injury.” But the other meaning is far more appropriate, that he will preserve him pure and unblemished from every wicked action; for he immediately adds, to his heavenly kingdom, by which he means that that alone is true salvation, when the Lord — either by life or by death — conducts us into his kingdom.

This is a remarkable passage for maintaining the uninterrupted communication of the grace of God, in opposition to the Papists. After having confessed that the beginning of salvation is from God, they ascribe the continuation of it to freewill; so that in this way perseverance is not a heavenly gift, but a virtue of man. And Paul, by ascribing to God this work of “preserving us to his kingdom,” openly affirms that we are guided by his hand during the whole course of our life, till, having discharged the whole of our warfare, we obtain the victory. And we have a memorable instance of this in Demas, whom he mentioned a little before, because, from being a noble champion of Christ, he had become a base deserter. All that follows has been seen by us formerly, and therefore does not need additional exposition.

END OF THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

Defender: 2Ti 4:7

Paul's deep desire, expressed early in his ministry, to "finish my course with joy" (Act 20:24) had been fulfilled."

Defender: 2Ti 4:8

This crown symbolizes rewards for faithful service, which Christ will award at His judgment seat (2Co 5:10; 1Co 3:14). These types of crowns include: "an incorruptible [crown]" (1Co 9:25), the "crown of rejoicing" (1Th 2:19), "the crown of life" (Jam 1:12; Rev 2:10), and "a crown of glory" (1Pe 5:4).

Defender: 2Ti 4:8

The "Judge of all the earth" will "do right" (Gen 18:25).

Defender: 2Ti 4:8

Paul had loved "his appearing" ever since the conversion. Earlier in his ministry he had thought he would be among those still living when Christ returned (1Th 4:17). As time went on, he realized he must die before that day, but he knew that for the believer, "to die is gain" (Phi 1:21). As he wrote this last epistle, he knew that "the time of my departure is at hand" (2Ti 4:6)."

Defender: 2Ti 4:10

Demas had once been an active helper in Paul's ministry (Col 4:14; Phm 1:24)."

Defender: 2Ti 4:11

Luke, the beloved physician (Col 4:14), apparently tried to attend to Paul's health needs until the end neared.

Defender: 2Ti 4:11

Mark (unlike Demas, who started out well and then left) became more useful as time went on (contrast Act 15:37-39)."

Defender: 2Ti 4:13

It is touching to note that Paul, who could have become a rich Pharisee, was willing, instead, to suffer the loss of all things for Christ (Phi 3:8), ending up in a cold, filthy, damp Roman dungeon next to the Tiber River, needing a cloke just to keep warm in the coming winter (2Ti 4:21). But he would soon receive a crown!

Defender: 2Ti 4:13

Note the remarkable example set by the apostle. Awaiting execution, in a dark prison cell, he still wanted to keep reading and studying, the better to serve the Lord and to prepare to meet Him."

Defender: 2Ti 4:22

So far as we know, these were the last words written by Paul. Compare his possible first words in 1Th 1:1 (or else in Gal 1:3). He still honored the Lord Jesus Christ and wrote words of comfort to his son in the faith."

TSK: 2Ti 4:6

I am : Phi 2:17

and : Gen 48:21, Gen 50:24; Num 27:12-17; Deu 31:14; Jos 23:14; Phi 1:23; 2Pe 1:14, 2Pe 1:15

TSK: 2Ti 4:7

have thought, 1Ti 6:12

I have finished : Joh 4:34; Act 13:25, Act 20:24; 1Co 9:24-27; Phi 3:13, Phi 3:14; Heb 12:1, Heb 12:2

I have kept : 2Ti 1:14; Pro 23:23; Luk 8:15, Luk 11:28; Joh 17:6; 1Ti 6:20; Rev 3:8, Rev 3:10

TSK: 2Ti 4:8

there : Psa 31:19; Mat 6:19, Mat 6:20; Col 1:5; 1Ti 6:19

a crown : 2Ti 2:5; Pro 4:9; 1Co 9:25; Jam 1:12; 1Pe 5:4; Rev 2:10, Rev 4:4, Rev 4:10

the righteous : 2Ti 4:1; Gen 18:25; Psa 7:11; Rom 2:5; 2Th 1:5, 2Th 1:6; Rev 19:11

at that : 2Ti 1:12, 2Ti 1:18; Mal 3:17; Mat 7:22, Mat 24:36; Luk 10:12; 1Th 5:4

that love : Rom 8:23; 1Co 2:9; 2Co 5:2; 1Th 1:10; Tit 2:13; Heb 9:28; Rev 1:7; Rev 22:20

TSK: 2Ti 4:9

2Ti 4:21, 2Ti 1:4

TSK: 2Ti 4:10

Demas : Col 4:14, Col 4:15; Phm 1:24

hath : 2Ti 4:16, 2Ti 1:15; Mat 26:56; Act 13:13, Act 15:38; 2Pe 2:15

having : Luk 9:61, Luk 9:62, Luk 14:26, Luk 14:27, Luk 14:33, Luk 16:13, Luk 17:32; Phi 2:21; 1Ti 6:10; 1Jo 2:15, 1Jo 2:16, 1Jo 5:4, 1Jo 5:5

Thessalonica : Act 17:1, Act 17:11, Act 17:13

Galatia : Act 16:6, Act 18:23; Gal 1:2

Titus : 2Co 2:13, 2Co 7:6, 2Co 8:6, 2Co 8:16; Gal 2:1-3; Tit 1:4

TSK: 2Ti 4:11

Only : 2Ti 1:15

Luke : Act 16:10; Col 4:14; Phm 1:24

Mark : Act 12:12, Act 12:25, Act 15:39; Col 4:10; 1Pe 5:13; Hos 14:4

for : Mat 19:30, Mat 20:16; Luk 13:30

TSK: 2Ti 4:12

Tychicus : Act 20:4; Eph 6:21; Col 4:7; Tit 3:12

to : Act 20:16, Act 20:17, Act 20:25; 1Ti 1:3

TSK: 2Ti 4:13

cloak : 1Co 4:11; 2Co 11:27

Troas : Act 16:8, Act 16:11, Act 20:5-12

TSK: 2Ti 4:14

Alexander : Act 19:33, Act 19:34; 1Ti 1:20

reward : 1Sa 24:12; 2Sa 3:39; Psa 28:4, 109:5-20; Jer 15:15, Jer 18:19-23; 2Th 1:6; 1Jo 5:16; Rev 6:10, Rev 18:6, Rev 18:20

TSK: 2Ti 4:15

be : Mat 10:16, Mat 10:17; Phi 3:2

withstood : 2Ti 3:8

words : or, preachings

TSK: 2Ti 4:16

answer : Act 22:1, Act 25:16; 1Co 9:3; 2Co 7:11; Phi 1:7, Phi 1:17; 1Pe 3:15 *Gr.

no : 2Ti 4:10, 2Ti 1:15; Psa 31:11-13; Mar 14:50; Joh 16:32

I pray : Act 7:60

TSK: 2Ti 4:17

the Lord : Psa 37:39, Psa 37:40, Psa 109:31; Jer 15:20,Jer 15:21, Jer 20:10,Jer 20:11; Mat 10:19; Act 18:9, Act 18:10; Act 23:11, Act 27:23, Act 27:24

strengthened : Isa 41:10,Isa 41:14; 2Co 12:9

by : Luk 21:15; Act 9:15, Act 26:17, Act 26:18; Rom 16:25, Rom 16:26; Eph 3:8; Phi 1:12-14

and I : Psa 22:21; Pro 20:2, Pro 28:15; Jer 2:30; Dan 6:22, Dan 6:27; Heb 11:33; 1Pe 5:8; 2Pe 2:9

TSK: 2Ti 4:18

deliver : Gen 48:16; 1Sa 25:39; 1Ch 4:10; Psa 121:7; Mat 6:13; Luk 11:4; Joh 17:15; 1Co 10:13; 2Co 1:10; 2Th 3:3

and will : 2Ti 1:12; Psa 37:28, Psa 73:24, Psa 92:10; Mat 13:43, Mat 25:34; Luk 12:32, Luk 22:29; Joh 10:28-30; 1Th 5:23; Jam 2:5; 1Pe 1:5; Jud 1:1, Jud 1:24

to whom : Rom 11:36, Rom 16:27; Gal 1:5; 1Ti 1:17, 1Ti 6:16; Heb 13:21; 1Pe 5:11; Jud 1:25

TSK: 2Ti 4:19

Prisca : Act 18:2, Act 18:18, Act 18:26; Rom 16:3, Rom 16:4; 1Co 16:19, Priscilla

the : 2Ti 1:16-18

TSK: 2Ti 4:20

Erastus : Act 19:22; Rom 16:23

Trophimus : Act 20:4, Act 21:29

Miletum : Act 20:15, Act 20:17, Miletus

sick : Phi 2:26, Phi 2:27

TSK: 2Ti 4:21

thy : 2Ti 4:9, 2Ti 4:13, 2Ti 1:4

and all : Rom 16:21-23; 1Co 16:20; 2Co 13:13; Phi 4:22; 2Jo 1:13; 3Jo 1:14

TSK: 2Ti 4:22

The Lord : Mat 28:20; Rom 16:20; 2Co 13:14; Gal 6:18; Phm 1:25

Grace : Rom 1:7; 1Co 16:23; Eph 6:24; Col 4:18; 1Ti 6:21; 1Pe 5:14; Rev 22:21

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: 2Ti 4:6

For I am now ready to be offered - This conviction of the apostle that he was about to die, is urged as a reason why Timothy should be laborious and faithful in the performance of the duties of his office. His own work was nearly done. He was soon to be withdrawn from the earth, and whatever benefit the world might have derived from his experience or active exertions, it was now to be deprived of it. He was about to leave a work which he much loved, and to which he had devoted the vigor of his life, and he was anxious that they who were to succeed him should carry on the work with all the energy and zeal in their power. This expresses the common feeling of aged ministers as death draws near. The word "ready"in the phrase "ready to be offered,"conveys an idea which is not in the original. It implies a willingness to depart, which, whether true or not, is not the idea conveyed by the apostle.

His statement is merely of "the fact"that he was "about"to die, or that his work "was"drawing to a close. No doubt he was ready, in the sense of being willing and prepared, but this is not the idea in the Greek. The single Greek word rendered "I am ready to be offered"- σπένδομαι spendomai - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, except in Phi 2:17, where it is translated "if I be offered;"see it explained in the notes on that place. The allusion here, says Burder (in Rosenmuller’ s A. u. n. Morgenland), is to the custom which prevailed among the pagan generally, of pouring wine and oil on the head of a victim when it was about to be offered in sacrifice. The idea of the apostle then is, that he was in the condition of the victim on whose head the wine and oil had been already poured, and which was just about to be put to death; that is, he was about to die. Every preparation had been made, and he only awaited the blow which was to strike him down.

The meaning is not that he was to be a sacrifice; it is that his death was about to occur. Nothing more remained to be done but to die. The victim was all ready, and he was sure that the blow would soon fall. What was the ground of his expectation, he has not told us. Probably there were events occurring in Rome which made it morally certain that though he had once been acquitted, he could not now escape. At all events, it is interesting to contemplate an aged and experienced Christian on the borders of the grave, and to learn what were his feelings in the prospect of his departure to the eternal world. Happily, Paul has in more places than one (compare Phi 1:23), stated his views in such circumstances, and we know that his religion then did not fail him. He found it to be in the prospect of death what he had found it to be through all his life - the source of unspeakable consolation - and he was enabled to look calmly onward to the hour which should summon him into the presence of his Judge.

And the time of my departure is at hand - Greek: "dissolving, or dissolution."So we speak of the "dissolution"of the soul and body. The verb from which the noun ( ἀνάλυσις analusis ), is derived ( ἀναλύω analuō ), means to loosen again; to undo. It is applied to the act of unloosing or casting off the fastenings of a ship, preparatory to a departure. The proper idea in the use of the word would be, that he had been bound to the present world, like a ship to its moorings, and that death would be a release. He would now spread his sails on the broad ocean of eternity. The true idea of death is that of loosening the bands that confine us to the present world; of setting us free, and permitting the soul to go forth, as with expanded sails, on its eternal voyage. With such a view of death, why should a Christian fear to die?

Barnes: 2Ti 4:7

I have fought a good fight - The Christian life is often represented as a conflict, or warfare; see the notes on 1Ti 6:12. That noble conflict with sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil, Paul now says he had been able to maintain.

I have finished my course - The Christian life, too, is often represented as a "race"to be run; compare the notes at 1Co 9:24-26.

I have kept the faith - I have steadfastly maintained the faith of the gospel; or, have lived a life of fidelity to my Master. Probably the expression means that he had kept his plighted faith to the Redeemer, or had spent a life in faithfully endeavoring to serve his Lord.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:8

Henceforth there is laid up for me - At the end of my race, as there was a crown in reserve for those who had successfully striven in the Grecian games; compare the notes on 1Co 9:25. The word "henceforth"- λοιπὸν loipon - means "what remains, or as to the rest;"and the idea is, that that was what remained of the whole career. The race had been run; the conflict had been waged; and all which was now necessary to complete the whole transaction, was merely that the crown be bestowed.

A crown of righteousness - That is, a crown won in the cause of righteousness, and conferred as the reward of his conflicts and efforts in the cause of holiness. It was not the crown of ambition; it was not a garland won in struggles for earthly distinction; it was that which was the appropriate reward of his efforts to be personally holy, and to spread the principles of holiness as far as possible through the world.

Which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me - The Lord Jesus, appointed to judge the world, and to dispense the rewards of eternity. It will be seen in the last day that the rewards of heaven are not conferred in an arbitrary manner, but that they are bestowed because they ought to be, or that God is righteous and just in doing it. No man will be admitted to heaven who ought not, under all the circumstances of the case, to be admitted there; no one will be excluded who ought to have been saved.

At that day - That is, the time when he will come to judge the world; Matt. 25.

And not to me only - "Though my life has been spent in laboriously endeavoring to spread his religion; though I have suffered much, and labored long; though I have struggled hard to win the prize, and now have it full in view, yet I do not suppose that it is to be conferred on me alone. It is not like the wreath of olive, laurel, pine, or parsley (See the notes at 1Co 9:25), which could be conferred only on one victor (See the notes at 1Co 9:24); but here every one may obtain the crown who strives for it. The struggle is not between me and a competitor in such a sense that, if ‘ I’ obtain the crown, ‘ he’ must be excluded; but it is a crown which ‘ he"can obtain as well as ‘ I.’ As many as run - as many as fight the good fight - as many as keep the faith - as many as love his appearing, may win the crown as well as I."Such is religion, and such is the manner in which its rewards differ from all others.

At the Grecian games, but one could obtain the prize; 1Co 9:24. All the rest who contended in those games, no matter how numerous they were, or how skilfully they contended, or how much effort they made, were of course subjected to the mortification of a failure, and to all the ill-feeling and envy to which such a failure might give rise. So it is in respect to all the prizes which this world can bestow. In a lottery, but one can obtain the highest prize; in a class in college, but one can secure the highest honor; in the scramble for office, no matter how numerous the competitors may be, or what may be their merits, but one can obtain it. All the rest are liable to the disappointments and mortifications of defeat. Not so in religion. No matter how numerous the competitors, or how worthy any one of them may be, or how pre-eminent above his brethren, yet all may obtain the prize; all may be crowned with a diadem of life, of equal brilliancy. No one is excluded because another is successful; no one fails of the reward because another obtains it. Who, then, would not make an effort to win the immortal crown?

Unto all them also that love his appearing - That is, unto all who desire his second coming. To believe in the second advent of the Lord Jesus to judge the world, and to desire his return, became a kind of a criterion by which Christians were known. No others but true Christians were supposed to believe in that, and no others truly desired it; compare Rev 1:7; Rev 22:20. It is so now. It is one of the characteristics of a true Christian that he sincerely desires the return of his Saviour, and would weLcome his appearing in the clouds of heaven.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:9

Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me - As soon as possible. Timothy had been Paul’ s traveling companion, and was his intimate friend. The apostle was now nearly forsaken, and was about to pass through severe trials. It is not certainly known for what purpose he wished him to come to him, but perhaps he desired to give him some parting counsels; perhaps he wished him to be near him when he died. It is evident from this that he did not regard him as the prelatical "bishop of the church of the Ephesians,"or consider that he was so confined to that place in his labors, that he was not also to go to other places if he was called in the providence of God. It is probable that Timothy would obey such a summons, and there is no reason to believe that he ever returned to Ephseus.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:10

For Demas hath forsaken me - Demas is honorably mentioned in Col 4:14; but nothing more is known of him than what can be gathered from that place and this - that he was at first a friend and fellow-laborer of Paul, but that, under the influence of a desire to live, he afterward forsook him, even in circumstances where he greatly needed the presence of a friend.

Having loved this present world - This does not mean, necessarily, that he was an avaricious man, or that, in itself, he loved the honors or wealth of this world; but it means that he desired to live. He was not willing to stay with Paul, and subject himself to the probabilities of martyrdom; and, in order to secure his life, he departed to a place of safety. The Greek is, ἀγαπὴσας τὸν νὺν αἰῶνα agapēsas ton nun aiōna - having loved the world that now is; that is, this world as it is, with all its cares, and troubles, and comforts; having desired to remain in this world, rather than to go to the other. There is, perhaps, a slight censure here in the language of Paul - "the censure of grief;"but there is no reason why Demas should be held up as an example of a worldly man. That he desired to live longer; that he was unwilling to remain and risk the loss of life, is indeed clear. That Paul was pained by his departure, and that he felt lonely and sad, is quite apparent; but I see no evidence that Demas was influenced by what are commonly called worldly feelings, or that he was led to this course by the desire of wealth, or fame, or pleasure.

And is departed unto Thessalonica - Perhaps his native place. "Calmet."

Crescens - Nothing more is known of Crescens than is here mentioned. "He is thought by Eusebius and others to have preached in Gaul, and to have founded the church in Vienne, in Dauphiny"- Calmet.

To Galatia - See Intro. to the Epistle to the Galatians, Section 1. It is not known to what part of Galatia he had gone, or why he went there.

Titus into Dalmatia - Dalmatia was a part of Illyricum, on the gulf of Venice, or the Adriatic sea. On the situation of Illyricum, see the notes on Rom 15:19. Paul does not mention the reason why Titus had gone there; but it is not improbable that he had gone to preach the gospel, or to visit the churches which Paul had planted in that region. The apostle does not suggest that he was deserving of blame for having gone, and it can hardly be supposed that "Titus"would have left him at this time without his concurrence. Perhaps, when he permitted him to go, he did not know how soon events would come to a crisis with him; and as a letter would more readily reach Timothy at Ephesus, than Titus in Dalmatia, he requested him to come to him, instead of directing Titus to return.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:11

Only Luke is with me - Luke, the author of the gospel which bears his name, and of the Acts of the Apostles. For a considerable part of the ministry of Paul, he was his traveling companion (compare the notes on Act 16:10), and we know that he went with him to Rome; Act 27:1.

Take Mark - John Mark, see the notes at Act 15:37. He was the son of a sister of Barnabas, and had been the traveling companion of Barnabas and Paul. There had been a temporary alienation between Paul and him Act 15:38; but this passage proves that that had been removed, and that Paul was reconciled to him.

For he is profitable to me for the ministry - In what way he would be profitable, he does not say; nor is it known why Mark was at that time with Timothy. It may be observed, however, that this is such language as Paul might be expected to use of Mark, after what had occurred, as recorded in Act 15:38. He felt that he was now about to die. If he suspected that there was on the part of Mark any lingering apprehension that the great apostle was not entirely reconciled to him, or retained a recollection of what had formerly occurred, nothing would be more natural than that, at this trying time of his life, Paul should summon him to his side, and express toward him the kindest emotions. It would soothe any lingering irritation in the mind of Mark, to receive such a message.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:12

And Tychicus - See Act 20:4. In Eph 6:21, Paul calls him "a beloved brother, and faithful minister in the Lord."But it may be asked why he did not retain him with him, or why should he have sent him away, and then call Timothy to him? The probability is, that he had sent him before he had seen reason to apprehend that he would be put to death; and now, feeling the need of a friend to be with him, he sent to Timothy, rather than to him, because Tychicus had been employed to perform some service which he could not well leave, and because Paul wished to give some some special instructions to Timothy before he died.

Have I sent to Ephesus - Why, is not certainly known; compare Intro. Section 2.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:13

The cloak that I left at Troas - On the situation of Troas, see the notes on Act 16:8. It was not on the most direct route from Ephesus to Rome, but was a route frequently taken. See also the introduction, section 2. In regard to what the "cloak"here mentioned was, there has been considerable difference of opinion. The Greek word used ( φελόνης phelonēs , - variously written φαιλόνης phailonēs , φελόνης phelonēs , and φελώνης phelōnēs ), occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It is supposed to be used for a similar Greek word ( φαινόλης phainolēs ) to denote a cloak, or great-coat, with a hood, used chiefly on journeys, or in the army: Latin, "penula ."It is described by Eschenberg (Man. Class. Lit., p. 209) as a "cloak without sleeves, for cold or rainy weather."See the uses of it in the quotations made by Wetstein, in loc.

Others, however, have supposed that the word means a traveling-case for books, etc. So Hesychius understands it. Bloomfield endeavors to unite the two opinions by suggesting that it may mean a "cloak-bag,"and that he had left his books and parchments in it. It is impossible to settle the precise meaning of the word here, and it is not material. The common opinion that it was a wrapper or traveling-cloak, is the most probable; and such a garment would not be undesirable for a prisoner. It should be remembered, also, that winter was approaching 2Ti 4:21, and such a cloak would be particularly needed. He had probably passed through Troas in summer, and, not needing the cloak, and not choosing to encumber himself with it, had left it at the house of a friend. On the meaning of the word, see Wetstein, Robinson, Lex ., and Schleusner, Lexicon . Compare, also, Suic. Thes ii. 1422. The doubt in regard to what is here meant, is as old as Chrysostom. He says (Homily x. on this Epistle), that the word φελόνην phelonēn denotes a garment - τὸ ἱματίον to himation . But some understood by it a capsula, or bag - γλωσσόκομον glōssokomon ,"(compare the notes on Joh 12:6), "in which books, etc. were carried."

With Carpus - Carpus is not elsewhere mentioned. He was evidently a friend of the apostle, and it would seem probable that Paul had made his house his home when he was in Troas.

And the books - It is impossible to determine what books are meant here. They may have been portions of the Old Testament, or classic writings, or books written by other Christians, or by himself. It is worthy of remark that even Paul did not travel without books, and that he found them in some way necessary for the work of the ministry.

Especially the parchments - The word here used ( μεμβράνας membranas , whence our word "membrane"), occurs only in this place in the New Testament, and means skin, membrane, or parchment. Dressed skins were among the earliest materials for writing, and were in common use before the art of making paper from rags was discovered. These "parchments"seem to have been something different from "books,"and probably refer to some of his own writings. They may have contained notes, memorandums, journals, or unfinished letters. It is, of course, impossible now to determine what they were. Benson supposes they were letters which he had received from the churches; Macknight, that they were the originals of the letters which he had written; Dr. Bull, that they were a kind of common-place book, in which he inserted hints and extracts of the most remarkable passages in the authors which he read. All this, however, is mere conjecture.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:14

Alexander the coppersmith - Or, rather, "the brazier"- ὁ χαλκεύς ho chalkeus . The word is used, however, to denote a worker in any kind of metals. This is probably the same person who is mentioned in 1Ti 1:20, and perhaps the same as the one mentioned in Act 19:33; see the notes on 1Ti 1:20.

Did me much evil - In what way this was done, is not mentioned. If this is the same person who is referred to in 1Ti 1:20, it is probable that it was not evil to Paul personally, so much as embarrassment to the cause of religion which he advocated; compare 2Ti 2:17-18.

The Lord reward him according to his works; - compare the notes at 1Ti 1:20. This need not be regarded as an expression of private feeling; still less should it be understood as expressing a desire of revenge. It is the language of one who wished that God would treat him exactly as he ought to be treated, and might be in accordance with the highest benevolence of any heart. It is the aim of every just government that every one should be treated exactly as he deserves; and every good citizen should desire and pray that exact justice may be done to all. It is the business of a police officer to ferret out the guilty, to bring them to trial, to secure a just sentence; and any police officer might "pray,"with the utmost propriety, that God would assist him in his endeavors, and enable him to perform his duty. This might be done with no malevolent feeling toward any human being, but with the purest love of country, and the most earnest desire for the welfare of all.

if such a police officer, or if a judge, or a juryman, were heard thus to pray, who would dare to accuse him of having a vindictive spirit, or a malevolent heart? And why should Paul be so charged, when his prayer amounts to no more than this? For it remains yet to be proved that he refers to any private wrong which Alexander had done him, or that he was actuated by any other desire than that the sacred interests of truth should be guarded, and equal justice done to all. Why is it wrong to desire or to pray that universal justice may be done, and that every man may be treated as, under all the circumstances of the case, he ought to be treated? On the subject of the "Imprecations in the Scriptures,"the reader may consult an article in the Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 1, pp. 97-110. It should be added here, that some manuscripts, instead of ἀποδῴη apodōē , "may the Lord reward,"read it in the future - ἀποδώσει apodōsei , "will reward."See Wetstein. The future is also found in the Vulgate, Coptic, and in Augustine, Theodoret, and Chrysostom. Augustine says (on the Sermon on the Mount), "He does not say, may he reward (reddat ); but, he will reward (reddet ), which is a verb of prophecy, not of imprecation. The authority, however, is not sufficient to justify a change in the present reading. These variations have doubtless arisen from a belief that the common reading expresses a sentiment inconsistent with the true spirit of a Christian, and a desire to find a better. But there is no reason for "desiring"a change in the text.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:15

Of whom be thou ware also - It would seem from this that Alexander was still a public teacher, and that his discourses were plausible and artful. The best and the wisest of men need to be on their guard against the efforts of the advocates of error.

For he hath greatly withstood our words - Margin, "preachings."The Greek is, "words;"but the reference is doubtless to the public teachings of Paul. This verse makes it clear that it was no private wrong that Paul referred to, but the injury which he was doing to the cause of truth as a professed public teacher.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:16

At my first answer - Greek, "apology ( ἀπολογία apologia ), plea, or defense."This evidently refers to some trial which he had had before the Roman emperor. He speaks of a first trial of this kind; but whether it was on some former occasion, and he had been released and permitted again to go abroad, or whether it was a trial which he had already had during his second imprisonment, it is not easy to determine. The former is the most natural supposition; for, if he had had a trial during his present imprisonment, it is difficult to see why he was still held as a prisoner. See this point examined in the introduction, section 1.

No man stood with me - Paul had many friends in Rome (2Ti 4:21; compare Rom. 16); but it seems that they did not wish to appear as such when he was put on trial for his life. They were doubtless afraid that they would be identified with him, and would endanger their own lives. It should be said that some of the friends of the apostle, mentioned in Rom. 16, and who were there when that Epistle was written, may have died before the apostle arrived there, or, in the trials and persecutions to which they were exposed, may have left the city. Still, it is remarkable that those who were there should have all left him on so trying an occasion. But to forsake a friend in the day of calamity is not uncommon, and Paul experienced what thousands before him and since have done. Thus, Job was forsaken by friends and kindred in the day of his trials; see his pathetic description in Job 19:13-17;

He hath put my brethren far from me,

And mine acquaintance verily are estranged from me.

My kinsfolk have failed,

And my familiar friends have forgotten me.

They that dwell in my house, and my maids,

Count me for a stranger.

I am an alien in their sight.

I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth.

My breath is strange to my wife.

Though I entreated for the children’ s sake of mine own body.

Thus, the Psalmist was forsaken by his friends in the time of calamity; Psa 35:12-16; Psa 38:2; Psa 41:9; Psa 55:12. And thus the Saviour was forsaken in his trials; Mat 26:56; compare, for illustration, Zec 13:6. The world is full of instances in which those who have been overtaken by overwhelming calamities, have been forsaken by professed friends, and have been left to suffer alone. This has arisen, partly from the circumstance that many sincere friends are timid, and their courage fails them when their attachment for another would expose them to peril; but more commonly from the circumstance that there is much professed friendship in the world which is false, and that calamity becomes a test of it which it cannot abide. There is professed friendship which is caused by wealth Pro 14:20; Pro 19:4; there is that which is cherished for those in elevated and fashionable circles; there is that which is formed for beauty of person, or graceful manners, rather than for the solid virtues of the heart; there is that which is created in the sunshine of life - the affection of those "swallow friends; who retire in the winter, and return in the spring."Compare the concluding remarks on the book of Job. Such friendship is always tested by calamity; and when affliction comes, they who in the days of prosperity were surrounded by many flatterers and admirers, are surprised to find how few there were among them who truly loved them.

"In the wind and tempest of his frown,

Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,

Puffing at all, winnows the light away;

And what hath mass or matter by itself,

Lies, rich in virtue and unmingled."

Troilus and Cressida.

So common has this been - so little confidence can be placed in professed friends in time of adversity, that we are sometimes disposed to believe that there is more truth than fancy in the representation of the poet when he says:

"And what is friendship but a name,

A charm that lulls to sleep;

A shade that follows wealth or fame.

But leaves the wretch to weep?"

Yet there is true friendship in the world. It existed between Damon and Pythias, and its power and beauty were still more strikingly illustrated in the warm affection of David and Jonathan. In the trials of David - though raised from the condition of a shepherd boy - and though having no powerful friends at court, the son of Saul never forsook him, and never gave him occasion to suspect the sincerity or the depth of his affection. With what exquisite beauty he sang of that attachment when Jonathan was dead!

"I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan.

Very pleasant hast thou been unto me:

Thy love to me was wonderful,

Passing the love of women."

2Sa 1:26

True friendship, founded on sincere love, so rare, so difficult to be found, so little known among the gay and the great, is one of the richest of Heaven’ s blessings to man, and when enjoyed, should be regarded as more than a compensation for all of show, and splendor, and flattery that wealth can obtain.

"Though choice of follies fasten on the great,

None clings more obstinate, than fancy fond.

That sacred friendship is their easy prey;

Caught by the wafture of a golden lure,

Or fascination of a high-born smile.

Their smiles, the great, and the coquette, throw out.

For other’ s hearts, tenacious of their own,

And we no less of ours, when such the bait,

Ye fortune’ s cofferers? ye powers of wealth!

Can gold gain friendship! Impudence of hope!

As well mere man an angel might beget.

Love, and love only, is the loan for love.

Lorenzo! pride repress; nor hope to find.

A friend, but what has found a friend in thee.

All like the purchase; few the price will pay,

And this makes friends such miracles below.

A friend is worth all hazards we can run.

Poor is the friendless master of a world;

A world in purchase of a friend is gain."

Night Thoughts, Night 2

I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge - That it may not be "reckoned,"or imputed to them - λογισθείῃ logistheiē . On the meaning of this word, see the notes on Rom 4:3, and Philem. 18. The prayer of the apostle here breathes the very spirit of Christ; see the notes on Luk 23:34; compare Act 7:60.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:17

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me - Though all "men"forsook me, yet "God"did not. This expresses a universal truth in regard to the faithfulness of God; see Psa 27:10; compare Job 5:17-19; Isa 14:1-2.

That by me the preaching might be fully known - The word "preaching,"here probably means "the gospel as preached by him."The word rendered "might be fully known"- πληροφορηθῃ plērophorē̄thē - means "might obtain full credence;"that is, might be fully confirmed, so that others might be assured of its truth. The apostle doubtless means that on his trial, though forsaken by all men, he was enabled to be so steadfast in his profession of the truth, and so calm in the prospect of death, that all who witnessed his trial saw that there was a reality in religion, and that the gospel was founded in truth. He had maintained as a preacher that the gospel was able to support the soul in trial, and he was now able to illustrate its power in his own case. He had proclaimed the gospel as the true system of religion, and he was now able to bear testimony to it with the prospect of approaching martyrdom.

The sentiment of this passage then is, that the truth of the gospel is made known, or that men may become fully assured of it, by the testimony which is borne to it by its friends in the near prospect of death. One of the most important means of establishing the truth of the gospel in the world has been the testimony borne to it by martyrs, and the spirit of unwavering confidence in God which they have evinced. And now, one of the most important methods of keeping up the knowledge of the value of religion in the world, and of convincing men of the truth of Christianity, is the spirit evinced by its friends when they are about to die. Men judge much, and justly, of the value of a system of religion by its power to comfort in the day of calamity, and to sustain the soul when about to enter on an untried state of being. That system is of little value to mankind which leaves us in the day of trial; that is of inestimable worth which will enable us to die with the firm hope of a brighter and better world. A Christian, having served his God faithfully in life, may, therefore, be eminently useful when he comes to die.

And that all the Gentiles might hear - Paul was at this time in Rome. His trial was before a pagan tribunal, and he was surrounded by Pagans. Rome, too, was then the center of the world, and at all times there was a great conflux of strangers there. His trial, therefore, gave him an opportunity of testifying to the truth of Christianity before Gentile rulers, and in such circumstances that the knowledge of his sufferings, and of the religion for which he suffered, might be conveyed by the strangers who witnessed it to the ends of the world. His main object in life was to make the gospel known to the Gentiles, and he had thus an opportunity of furthering that great cause, even on what he supposed might be the trial which would determine with him the question of life or death; compare the notes on Rom 1:10.

And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion - This may either mean that he was delivered from Nero, compared with a lion, or literally that he was saved from being thrown to lions in the amphitheater, as was common in Rome; see the notes on 1Co 15:32.

It is not uncommon in the Scriptures to compare tyrants and persecutors with ravenous wild beasts; compare Psa 22:13, Psa 22:21; Jer 2:30. Nero is called a "lion"by Seneca, and it was usual among pagan writers to apply the term in various senses to princes and warriors; see Grotius, in loc. The common interpretation here has been, that this refers to Nero, and there is no improbability in the interpretation. Still, it is quite as natural to suppose that the punishment which had been appointed for him, or to which he would have been subjected, was to be thrown to lions, and that in some way, now unknown to us, he had been delivered from it. Paul attributes his deliverance entirely to the Lord - but what instrumental agency there may have been, he does not specify. It seems probable that it was his own defense; that he was enabled to plead his own cause with so much ability that he found favor even with the Roman emperor, and was discharged. If it had been through the help of a friend at court, it is hardly to be supposed that he would not have mentioned the name of him to whom he owed his deliverance.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:18

And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work - He does not say from "death,"for he expected now to die; see 2Ti 4:6. But he was assured that God would keep him from shrinking from death when the hour approached; from apostasy, and from the manifestation of an improper spirit when he came to die.

And will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom - So keep me from evil that I shall reach his heavenly kingdom; see 2Ti 4:8.

To whom be glory forever and ever - Paul was accustomed to introduce a doxology in his writings when his heart was full (compare Rom 9:5), and in no place could it be more appropriate than here, when he had the fullest confidence that he was soon to be brought to heaven. If man is ever disposed to ascribe glory to God, it is on such an occasion.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:19

Salute Prisca and Aquila - Prisca, or Priscilla, was the wife of Aquila, though her name is sometimes mentioned first. In regard to their history, see the notes at Rom 16:3. They were at Rome when Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans, but afterward went into Asia Minor, which was the native place of Aquila Act 18:2, and where they probably died.

And the household of Onesiphorus; - see the notes on 2Ti 1:16.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:20

Erastus - see the notes on Rom 16:23.

Abode at Corinth - This was his home, where he filled an important office; see the notes at Rom 16:23. It would seem that when Paul went to Rome, there was some expectation that he would accompany him, but that reasons had occurred for his remaining in Corinth. His doing so is referred to without blame.

But Trophimus - see Act 20:4. He was a native of Asia Minor.

Have I left at Miletum sick - Probably he designed to accompany him to Rome, as he had been often with him in his journeys. On the situation of Miletus, or Miletum, see the notes on Act 20:15.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:21

Do thy diligence; - 2Ti 4:9.

To come before winter - Probably because of the dangers of the navigation then, and because the circumstances of the apostle were such as to demand the presence of a friend.

Eubulus, ... - These names are of common occurrence in the works of the classic writers, but of the persons here referred to we know nothing.

Barnes: 2Ti 4:22

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit; - see Gal 6:18; Rom 15:20. The subscription to this Epistle was not added by Paul himself, nor is there any evidence that it was by an inspired man, and it is of no authority. There is not the slightest evidence that Timothy was "ordained the first bishop of the church of the Ephesians,"or that he was a "bishop"there at all. There is no reason to believe that he was even a "pastor"there, in the technical sense; see the notes on 1Ti 1:3. Compare the remarks on the subscriptions to the Epistle to the Romans, 1 Corinthians, and especially Titus.

Poole: 2Ti 4:6

For I am now ready to be offeredspendomai , the word properly signifieth to be offered as a drink-offering, which was offered by being poured out. Some say that spendomai is only used to signify such offerings whereby some covenant was confirmed; so as it not only signifieth that Paul was sensible that he should die a violent death, but that his death should be an establishment and confirmation of the doctrine of the gospel which he had preached, that he should be offered upon the sacrifice and service of their faith, as he speaketh, Phi 2:17 , where the same word is used. A learned author thinks it is there used in a little different sense, there as an accession to the sacrifice, here as a preparation to it, they being wont to prepare their sacrifice by pouring wine upon it; which possibly guided our translators to translate it here, I am ready to be offered. And the time of my departure is at hand; analusewv we translate it departure, it properly signifieth resolution, because in death we are resolved into dust, from whence we are. If any ask how Paul knew that the time of his death was so near;

Answer: He might know it by revelation from God, or from his observation of Nero’ s temper, malice, or behaviour toward him.

Poole: 2Ti 4:7

I have fought a good fight my life hath been a military life, but I have not fought the evil fights of ambitious or quarrelsome men: my fighting hath been the good and noble fight of faith, a fight with the world, the flesh, and the devil, a contending for the faith delivered to the saints, a maintaining the lustings of the Spirit against the flesh, a warring with spiritual wickednesses in high places.

I have finished my course God appointed me a race to run, as a Christian, as an apostle and minister of Christ; I have now finished it.

I have kept the faith I have kept the doctrine of faith, upholding and maintaining it in and by my ministry; and I have lived in the exercise of the grace of faith.

Poole: 2Ti 4:8

Henceforth there is laid up for me as to what remains for me, (so the word loipon signifies, not henceforth, as we translate it), there is prepared, and in safe keeping for me, Col 1:5 ; or, there is appointed for me: see Heb 9:27 .

A crown another kind of crown than what the conquerors used to have in the Grecian games; a high and great reward, a glory with which my whole man shall be encompassed, as a man’ s head is with a crown.

Of righteousness the purchase of Christ’ s righteousness, and an ample reward of mine also, the giving out of which also will be the effect of God’ s truth and justice, 1Jo 1:9 .

Which the Lord, the righteous judge and Jesus Christ, who in this shall show himself a righteous judge,

shall give it me of his free mercy, for all I have done hath not merited it, at that day at the day of judgment; my soul shall have it at my dissolution, my whole man in the resurrection.

And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing nor is this crown my particular reward, but if any persons so lead their lives in this world, as that they can desire and be pleased with the thoughts and hopes of the second coming of Christ to judgment, Christ will give them also the same reward.

Poole: 2Ti 4:9

To Rome, where Paul was at this time a prisoner. It appears from Phi 2:19 , that Timothy did go to Paul at Rome, according to this desire of his, and was with him while a prisoner there.

Poole: 2Ti 4:10

He showeth the reason why he desired Timothy to come to him, because most of those who were with him were gone.

For Demas hath forsaken me some think this Demas is Demetrius, mentioned 3Jo 1:12 , the name being only shortened. He was at Rome with Paul some time, Col 4:14 . Some make a question, whether Demas wholly apostized or only left Paul for a time, and went to Thessalonica about some secular business, afterward returning.

Having loved this present world ; some make the sense of this phrase nor more than minding his worldly business. Others think that he, being frightened with Paul’ s danger, wholly left him, and went to Thessalonica ; possibly by his own country, however, at a great distance from the danger of Nero’ s court.

Crecens to Galatia , a province in the Lesser Asia, whither probably Crescens went to preach the gospel.

Titus unto Dalmatia ; Dalmatia is in Sclavonia; Titus went thither (without al doubt) to preach the gospel.

Poole: 2Ti 4:11

Only Luke is with me ; of whom we also read Col 4:14 . He was a physician, Paul’ s fellow labourer , Phm 1:24 .

Take Mark, and bring him with thee ; of Mark we read Act 12:12 15:37 . He was kinsman to Barnabas, Col 4:10 . It appears by that text that he was at Rome with Paul, and his fellow labourer , Phm 1:24 , For he is prifitable to me for the ministry ; the ministry of the gospel. Paul’ s care was more for that, than for a ministering to himself, though he was a prisioner.

Poole: 2Ti 4:12

I have given order to Tychius to come to Ephesus in thy absence.

Poole: 2Ti 4:13

Troas was a city in Asia, where we find Paul more than once, Act 16:8,20:5 ; he preached Christ there, 2Co 2:12 . There Paul left an upper garment with one Carpus , which probably (having no great wardrobe) he might want, being a prisoner. And the books, but especially the parchments ; interpreters idly busy themselves in inquiring after what they can never find out, what these books were, or what was written in these parchments.

Poole: 2Ti 4:14

Alesander the coppersmith did me much evil ; we read of three Alexanders; one Mar 15:21 , the son of him that bare Christ’ s cross; another Act 4:6 , akin to Annas the High Priest; a third, Act 19:33 , probably the person here meant, for he was an Ephesian; but he at that time was a disciple of Paul’ s, as appears there; probably afterward he apostasized, and was excommunicated by Paul, 1Ti 1:20 , which might possibly provoke him: what harm he did to him, and where, whether at Ephesus or Rome, it is not said. The Lord reward him according to his works ; how far it is lawful to pray against our enemies, (as Paul did here against Alexander), See Poole "Psa 99:6" , See Poole "Jer 11:20" , See Poole "Jer 12:3" .

Poole: 2Ti 4:16

At my first answer , at my first appearing before Nero, and the court of Rome, no man stood with me ; none of the Christians stood by me, or owned me; but all men forsook me ; but all, being frighted at my danger, left me alone to speak for myself.

I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge ; the sinned through weakness and human frailty, and the Lord, I hope, will pardon it; God grant them remission.

Poole: 2Ti 4:17

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me ; that is, did not leave me. It is opened by the next word, and strengthened me ; he gave me courage and inward ability, so as I was able to plead, and to defend my cause.

That by me the preaching might be fully known ; that all men that heard me might fully know by God’ s presence with me, seen in my courage, that my preaching was not from myself, or from men, but from God, the message of God by one to the sons of men.

And that all the Gentiles might hear ; and that all the heathen present in the court of Rome might hear and believe.

And I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion ; and I was for the present delivered out of my great danger: or possibly he calls Nero (the Roman emperor at that time) a lion for his barbarous cruelties.

Poole: 2Ti 4:18

And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work ; faith riseth upon experiences, 1Sa 17:37,46 2Co 1:10 . By evil work may be understood any sin into which Paul might fall through temptation; or the evil works of others, designing mischief to the apostle. He expresseth his faith in this term or various signification, to learn us how to exercise our faith in God in an evil time, viz. believing that God will either deliver us from our danger, or from sinning by reason of our danger, for we have no foundation for out faith to believe that God will at all times keep us from evils of suffering.

And will preserve me unto is heavenly kingdom ; and that he will save us, and preserve us, if not as to a temporal life, yet to a celestial, honourable, glorious inheritance.

To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen ; this is a usual form of giving praise to God, desiring all honour might be given to him.

Poole: 2Ti 4:19

Salute Prisca and Aquila ; by this Prisca and Aquila it is mor than probable he means that Priscilla and Aquila mentioned 1Co 16:19 .

And the household of Onesiphorus ; it cannot be concluded from hence that Onesiphorus was now dead, but probably he was. It is the same man mentioned 2Ti 1:16 .

Poole: 2Ti 4:20

Erastus abode at Corinth ; of this Erastus see Rom 16:23 . He was the chamberlain of Corith, so he abode there. Paul sent him into Macedonia, Act 19:22 .

But Tropimus have I left at Miletus sick ; Trophimus was an Ephesian, Act 21:29 , one of Paul’ s companions, Act 20:4 ; he was left at Miletum, a city in Asia, not far from Ephesus.

Poole: 2Ti 4:21

Do thy diligence to come before winter ; that is, to come to Rome to me before winter, either because sailing in the winter time would be more dangerous, or because in the winter time he might have more need of assistance.

Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren ; we have no further account of these persons in holy writ; the first is a Greek name, the rest Latin, Claudia is a woman’ s name. Paul sends the respects of these persons, and all the other Christians that at that time were in Rome to Timothy.

Poole: 2Ti 4:22

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit ; se the like, Gal 6:18 Phm 1:25 .

Grace be with you ; the free grace of God, it its various emanations, suited to all your necessities, be with you. Amen .

< epistle unto Timotheus, ordained the first Bishop of the church of the Ephesians, was written from Rome, when Paul was brought before Nero the second time.>>

Haydock: 2Ti 4:6

I am even now ready to be sacrificed. [5] Literally, to be immolated. See Philippians ii. 17. ---

The time of my dissolution (literally, resolution) is at hand. This makes many judge that this letter was written during his last imprisonment; but the sense perhaps may be, that being old and worn out with labours, he could not live long. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Jam delibor, Greek: ede spendomai. See St. John Chrysostom ( Greek: om. th. p. 372) that Greek: sponde, libamen, is more than Greek: thusia, hostia.

Haydock: 2Ti 4:7

I have fought a good fight, or strived a good strife. [6] The Latin and Greek may signify any kind of striving for a prize. ---

I have kept the faith, not only the Christian faith, the been faithful in my office. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Certamen certavi, Greek: ton agona egonismai, It is not expressed by Greek: machomai and Greek: mache.

Haydock: 2Ti 4:8

A crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me. These words confirm the Catholic doctrine, that good works performed with the assistance of God's grace, deserve and are meritorious of a reward in heaven: it is what is signified, 1. by a crown of justice, 2. from a just judge, 3. which he will render or give as a reward. Yet we own with St. Augustine that we have no merit, but what is also a gift of God from his grace and mercy, and grounded on his promises. (Witham) ---

"A crown of justice ," which the Protestant translate, of righteousness; but let us see how the learned St. Augustine, 1400 years ago, expounds the apostle's meaning: "How should he repay as a just judge, unless he had first given as a merciful Father?" (De grat. et lib. arb. chap. vi.) See Hebrews vi. 10. God is not unjust, that he should forget your works; the the Protestants change into, God is not unrighteous.

Haydock: 2Ti 4:9

Demas hath, &c. The Demas here mentioned, is the same that was at Rome with St. Paul in his first voyage, in 61 or 62, and of whom he makes mention in his epistle to the Colossians, (iv. 14.) also in that to Philemon, ver. 24. He was perverted in this last voyage, in 65, and abandoned his master in the time of danger. It is not ascertained whether he entirely renounced his faith, or whether God gave his grace to rise from his fall; or whether the love of the world, with which St. Paul here reproaches him, was only a passing fault, and an effect of pure human infirmity. St. Epiphanius (hזres. 51.) presumes that he renounced the faith, and was engaged in the heresies of Cerintus, Ebion, and others, who held Jesus Christ to be no more than a mere man. Many moderns, Grotius, Menochius, Cornel.[Cornelius a Lapide?], &c. believe that he returned with St. Paul: and Estius himself seems to think that he was the same Demas of which St. Ignatius speaks, writing to the Magnesians, calling him a worthy bishop of God. But this is founded on a false supposition, that this letter was written during his first confinement at Rome, or at least before St. Paul wrote his epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon. (Calmet) ---

Loving this world; i.e. his safety, and to avoid persecutions. (Witham)

Haydock: 2Ti 4:10

Crescens into Galatia, Titus, &c. These two did not abandon the faith, but only left St. Paul to preach the gospel, with his consent. Crescens went from Rome into Galatia, or into Gaul, as it is found written in the Greek. Theodoret, Eusebius, St. Epiphanius, &c. say that Galatia, in the Greek, is often put for Gaul, in profane authors. On this account it is said by some, that Crescens preached in Gaul. Adon makes him founder of the Church of Vienne, in Dauphine; an opinion still prevalent in that city. The feast of St. Crescens is kept by the Latin Church, on the 27th of June. (Calmet) ---

As to Titus, it cannot be doubted but he went into Dalmatia for the purpose of the ministry, and by the order of St. Paul. Thence it seems most probable that he went into Crete, where he governed the Church as bishop, and there died. (Theodoret, St. John Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Estius, &c.)

Haydock: 2Ti 4:11

Luke. St. Luke was always much attached to St. Paul. It is thought he accompanied him to the time of his martyrdom. When St. Paul says Luke alone was with him, we must understand that no other disciple was at that time with him; not that the faithful of Rome, whose faith was so lively and charity so ardent, had abandoned him in this time of danger. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. x. p. 610.) ---

Mark. This is John Mark, cousin of Barnabas, of whom mention was made, Acts xiii. 12. &c. also Colossians iv. 10. He rather wavered in faith at the beginning, but was afterwards much attached to the apostle. (Calmet)

Haydock: 2Ti 4:12

Tychicus. Theodoret and some others have inferred from this verse, that Timothy was not at Ephesus at this time; otherwise St. Paul would have here said, I have sent Tychicus to thee. Timothy, in quality of bishop of Ephesus, had the inspection of the whole province of Asia; hence St. Paul might have presumed, that Tychicus would not be able to find him in that city. But these reasons do not appear sufficiently convincing. Tychicus might have been the bearer of this epistle; then St. Paul might say, I have sent him to carry it. Or St. Paul might have sent him before, and here tells Timothy of it; because, on account of the distance of Rome from Ephesus, he might not have yet heard of his arrival. Mention has been made of Tychicus before, Acts. xx. 4.; Ephesians vi. 71.; Colossians iv. 70. (Calmet)

Haydock: 2Ti 4:13

The cloak [7] which I left at Troas. It is expounded a cloak by St. John Chrysostom, St. Jerome, &c. Others think he may mean some coffer, or trunk, in which were his books and some things that he valued. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Penulam, Greek: phelonen, some manuscripts Greek: phailonen, and Greek: phailonen. St. John Chrysostom, ( Greek: om. 1. p. 375.) Greek: entautha ton imation legei; though he takes notice, that some understood Greek: glossokomon, entha ta biblia.

Haydock: 2Ti 4:14

The Lord will render [8] to him. We read shall render, not only in the Latin and Syriac, but also in divers Greek manuscripts which Dr. Wells again prefers before the ordinary Greek copies, in which we read, The Lord render or reward him, as in the Protestant translation. If that was the true reading, we must take the words by way of a prophecy, and not as an imprecation or curse. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Reddet, Greek: apodosei, in some manuscripts though in more, Greek: apodoe. The commentary of St. John Chrysostom agrees with the Latin.

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

Haydock: 2Ti 4:16

At my first defence, or trial, when I appeared before Nero and my judges, no man stood with me; all, or almost all, abandoned me in that danger: may it not be laid to their charge. (Witham)

Haydock: 2Ti 4:17

The Lord stood, &c. All agree that Nero is here meant by the lion. St. John Chrysostom thinks that St. Paul was set at liberty after this first justification of his conduct, but that having afterwards converted the cupbearer of Nero, he was by him beheaded. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. x. p. 611.) ---

But the Lord assisted and fortified me on this occasion by a vision, in which he assured me that he would prolong my life for the more perfect preaching of the gospel. (Bible de Vence) ---

The times predicted by the apostle in this epistle, (ver. 3. and 4.) are now arrived; and the warnings he gives to Timothy and to all preachers of the word, should be sedulously attended to: preach the word: be instant in season and out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke with all patience and doctrine. There will arrive a time when men will not bear sound doctrine; eager in the extreme to hear what flatters, they will have recourse to a variety of teachers not lawfully sent or ordained, calculated to tickle their ears : Assentatores populi, multitudinis levitatem voluptate quasi titillantes. (Cicero) In the same sense Plutarch says: Greek: ta ota apoknaiousin. It is yours, adds St. Paul, Greek: os kalos stratiotes Christou Iesou, [2 Timothy ii. 3.] as a valiant soldier of Jesus Christ, to oppose yourself as a wall to all these evils, to attend every branch of your ministerial duty, not to yield to either opponents or dangers, and to see that the gospel is both preached and practised in all its purity. Thus may the Church find in you, and in her other ministers, what she is soon to lose in me, knowing as I do that my course is nearly run. ---

That by me the preaching may be accomplished, (or fulfilled) and that all the Gentiles may hear it. This is an argument that he wrote this letter in his first imprisonment. ---

And I was delivered from the mouth of the lion; that is, according to the common exposition, from Nero. (Witham)

Haydock: 2Ti 4:22

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. These words are a fervent prayer, with which St. Paul divers times concludes his epistles; such is the prayer of the priest, when he turns about at mass, with Dominus vobiscum, the people answering, et cum Spiritu tuo. (Witham)

Gill: 2Ti 4:6

For I am now ready to be offered,.... Or poured out, as a libation, or a drink offering; or as the blood was poured out at the bottom of the altar; which is expressive of martyrdom, and shows that the apostle knew what death he should die; for which he was habitually ready; and this sacrifice of himself was not to atone for sin, his own, or others; Christ's death was the only sacrifice for sin, and that is a complete one, and needs no other to be added to it; but this was in the cause of Christ, and for the confirmation of the Gospel, and the faith of the saints in it: so covenants have been confirmed by libations or drink offerings of wine; and this was an offering acceptable unto God, in whose sight the death of his saints is precious; as the wine in the drink offering is said to cheer God, that is, to be acceptable to him:

and the time of my departure is at hand; death is not an annihilation of man, neither of his body, nor of his soul; the one at death returns to dust, and the other to God that gave it; death is a dissolution of soul and body, or a dissolving of the union that is between them, and a resolution of the body into its first principles; hence the Syriac version renders it, "the time in which I shall be dissolved"; and the Vulgate Latin version, "the time of my resolution". Death analyzes men, and reduces them to their first original earth; it is a removing of persons from one place and state to another; from an house of clay, from this earthly house of our tabernacle, to an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, to everlasting habitations, and mansions in Christ's Father's house. This phrase, "a departure", is an easy representation of death, and supposes an existence after it; See Gill on Phi 1:23. Now there is a "time" for this; saints are not to continue here always; this is a state of pilgrimage, and a time of sojourning, and which is fixed and settled; the time for going out of this world, as well as for coming into it, is determined by God, beyond which there is no passing; the number of men's days, months, and years, is with him; and the apostle knew partly from his age, and partly from his situation, being in bonds at Rome, and it may be by divine revelation, that his time of removing out of this world was very near; and which he mentions, to stir up Timothy to diligence, since he would not have him long with him, to give him counsel and advice, to admonish him, or set him an example.

Gill: 2Ti 4:7

I have fought a good fight,.... The fight of faith; the same as in 1Ti 6:10; see Gill on 1Ti 6:10,

I have finished my course, or race; the race of life set before him, his course of years; his days were extinct, the grave was ready for him, and he for that; his last sands were dropping, and he was just going the way of all flesh; or else he means the course of his ministry, which he desired to finish with joy, and was now finishing; Act 13:25 he was now got to the end of his line, to Rome, where he was to be a martyr for Christ, Act 23:11 so that he now concluded his work was done, and his warfare accomplished:

I have kept the faith; by which he means, not so much the grace of faith, that was kept by Christ, the object, author, and finisher of it, and through his effectual grace and powerful intercession; but rather the profession of faith, which he had held fast without wavering; and chiefly the doctrine of faith, which was committed to his trust, which he had kept pure and incorrupt against all opposition; unless his faithfulness and integrity in the ministerial work should be thought rather to be intended; and which sense is favoured by the Syriac and Ethiopic versions, which render it, "I have kept my faith"; or have been faithful to my trust, as a good steward of the mysteries of God; not concealing and keeping back any thing that was profitable, but declaring the whole counsel of God; and now what remained for him was the crown of righteousness; and this he says for the comfort and encouragement and imitation of Timothy and others. The phrase seems to be Jewish; it is said ^y by the Jews, that he that does not keep the feast of unleavened bread, is as he who does not נטיר מהימנותא, "keep the faith of the holy blessed God".

Gill: 2Ti 4:8

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,.... The happiness of the future state of the saints is signified by a crown, on account of the glory and excellency of it; and in perfect agreement with the character of the saints, as kings; and who are raised to sit among princes, and to inherit the throne of glory, and have a kingdom prepared for them; and this is called a crown "of righteousness", because it comes through the righteousness of Christ; it is that which gives a right unto it, and without which it cannot be enjoyed; and because it is obtained and possessed in a righteous way, and not by force and usurpation, as crowns sometimes are: it is God the Father's free gift unto his children, what they are born heirs unto, and have a meetness for, through regenerating and sanctifying grace, and have a legal title to it through the righteousness of Christ. Moreover, this may be expressive of the perfect holiness and righteousness of the heavenly state, and of the saints in it, wherein will dwell none but righteous persons, and who will be entirely without sin. And this happiness, signified by a crown, is "laid up"; in the covenant of grace for the saints, which is ordered in all things and sure; and in Christ, in whose hands their persons are, and their grace is, and with him also is their life of glory hid and secured: and this also is laid up in heaven, and reserved there, and that

for me, and thee; for particular persons, for all the vessels of mercy, for all that are chosen in Christ Jesus, and redeemed by his blood, and sanctified by his Spirit;

which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day. By the Lord is meant the Lord Jesus Christ; as is evident from his character, as a Judge, for the Father judgeth no man; and from mention being made hereafter of his appearing: Christ is ordained Judge of quick and dead, for which he is abundantly qualified, and a "righteous" one he will be; he is righteous as God, and as man, and as Mediator, in the discharge of all his offices, and so he will be as a Judge, in the administration of that office; righteousness will be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins; and from Christ, under this character, the apostle expected to receive all his future glory and happiness; and that both in a way of gift, as a free grace gift from him, and through him, and in a way of righteousness; and this seems to be a Jewish way of speaking. One of the Septuagint interpreters, whom Ptolomy king of Egypt sent for from Judea, to translate the law of Moses into Greek, in answer to a question put to him by the king, uses this phrase of στεφανος δικαιοσυνης, "a crown of righteousness"; and which he represents as the gift of God ^z:

at that day; either at the day of death, the time of his dissolution, which was at hand; or at the day of the resurrection, and of the last judgment, when Christ will appear under the above character: and the apostle further observes, to the comfort and encouragement of Timothy, and others, that this happiness was not intended and prepared for himself only, but for others:

and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing; that is, his appearing at his second coming; which is to be loved, and so looked for by the saints, not only because it will be glorious in itself, in its attendants and consequences, but will be of great advantage to the saints; Christ will appear unto salvation to them, and so to their joy; they will appear with him in glory, and be like him, and enjoy the everlasting vision of him. The devils believe this appearance of Christ, but tremble at it; wicked men will behold him, and fear; saints know, believe, and love both Christ and his appearing; and such will wear that crown: the Ethiopic version renders it, "who love him at his coming"; all that love him now, will love him then.

Gill: 2Ti 4:9

Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. From Ephesus, where Timothy was, to Rome, where the apostle was; and this request did not arise purely from a desire of seeing Timothy, as in 2Ti 1:4 but rather because he had some things to say to him, relating to the care of the churches and the good of the interest of Christ, which he chose not to write with ink and paper; and he desires the rather that he would use diligence, and hasten his coming to him; partly because winter was coming on, when travelling would not be so safe and comfortable, 2Ti 4:21 and partly because the time of his death was at hand, 2Ti 4:7 and also because he was almost alone.

Gill: 2Ti 4:10

For Demas hath forsaken me,.... Of this person; see Gill on Col 4:14. It does not appear by what is said in this clause, and in the following, that he entirely apostatized; he might forsake the apostle, and yet not forsake Christ and his interest, or make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience: his faith might be right, though low, and his love sincere, though not fervent; and through a fear of persecution, and loss of life, he might be tempted to leave the apostle, and withdraw from Rome, for his own safety; which though it was far from being commendable in him, yet may be accounted for in this state of frailty and imperfection, consistent with the grace of God; and it should seem that he afterwards was delivered from this temptation, and returned to the apostle, Col 4:14 for when those epistles were written, both Timothy and Mark, who are here wrote for, 2Ti 4:9 were with the apostle, Col 1:1 and Phm 1:1 and especially he ought to be thought very well of after all this, if Demas is only a contraction of Demetrius, and he is the same who is so much commended many years after this, in 3Jo 1:12,

having loved this present world, not the sins and corruptions of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; such a love is inconsistent with the love of the Father and the grace of God; nor an immoderate love of worldly substance, or of money, which is the root of all evil; but a love of life, or of a longer life in this present world; he was desirous of living longer in this world, and chose not to hazard his life by staying with the apostle, a prisoner at Rome; and therefore left him, and provided for his own safety and security: and is departed unto Thessalonica: which perhaps was his native country; and however he was at a sufficient distance from Rome, where he might judge himself safe; and if he was a worldly and earthly minded man, this was a fit place for him, being a place of trade and business: and this doubtless gave rise to a tradition, that he afterwards became a priest of the idol gods among the Thessalonians. Epiphanius ^a places him among the heretics Ebion and Cerinthus, as if he was one of them.

Crescens to Galatia; he might not depart on the same account as Demas, but might be sent by the apostle to Galatia, to visit the churches there, to set things in order, and establish them in the faith, and bring an account of their state. Epiphanius ^b, instead of Galatia, reads Gallia, or France; and so does Eusebius ^c and the Ethiopic version; and Jerom asserts, ^d, that Crescens preached in France, and was there buried; though others say he was bishop of Chalcedon in Galatia, and put him among the seventy disciples; See Gill on Luk 10:1. The Syriac version calls him "Crispus", and the Arabic version "Priscus".

Titus to Dalmatia; who Titus was is well known; the place he went to, Dalmatia, is a country in Europe, a part of Illyricum, where the apostle had preached; see Gill on Rom 15:19. Pliny says ^e, that part of Pannonia, which lies to the Adriatic sea, was called Dalmatia; it had its name from Dalmius, a city in it. The Alexandrian copy reads "Dermatia". Here the apostle had doubtless been useful for the conversion of souls, and planting of churches, and therefore sent Titus thither, to assist them in their state and condition, and bring him an account of them. For in the "second" and "third" centuries we read of churches in Dalmatia; and likewise in the "fourth" century; for there were bishops from Dalmatia in the synod at Sardica; and in the "fifth" century, Glycerius was bishop of Salo, a city in this country; and in the "sixth" century, one Malchus was bishop of the Dalmatian church ^f.

Gill: 2Ti 4:11

Only Luke is with me,.... The beloved physician, who wrote the Gospel that bears his name, and "the Acts of the Apostles", and was a constant companion of Paul's in his travels and sufferings:

take Mark, and bring him with thee; who might be at Ephesus, or somewhere in Timothy's way as he came to Rome. This seems to be the same with John Mark of Jerusalem, the son of Mary, the sister of Barnabas, and who was with Paul and Barnabas in their travels, and who parted from them at Pamphylia; on whose account, and for that reason, there was so great a difference between Paul and Barnabas, as to separate upon it; but now the apostle had entertained a better opinion of him, and was reconciled unto him, and was very desirous of his company and assistance; and which he had, Col 4:10.

For he is profitable to me for the ministry; that is, of the Gospel, to assist in preaching it.

Gill: 2Ti 4:12

And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. To supply the place of Timothy, while he came to Rome, and continued there: so careful was the apostle of the church there, that they might not be without the ministry of the word during his absence; see Eph 6:20.

Gill: 2Ti 4:13

The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus,.... About the word here rendered a "cloak", interpreters are not agreed: some take it for a garment, and about this they differ; some would have it to be a dignified robe, such as the Roman consuls and senators of Rome wore; which is not likely, this being not suitable to the apostle's character, state, and circumstances. Others take it to be a courser and meaner garment, wore in cold and rainy weather, to preserve from the inclementencies of it; and winter now coming on, 2Ti 4:21 the apostle sends for it; which he perhaps had left at Troas in the summer season, as he came: but others take it to be a kind of desk or scrutoire, to put papers in, or a chest for books, a book press; and so the Syriac version renders it; and which agrees with what follows. Jerom understands it of a book itself, of the Hebrew volume of the Pentateuch ^g. Troas, where this cloak, or book press, or book was, was a city in Asia Minor, that stood upon, or near the same place where old Troy stood, and from whence it seems to have had its name, and lay in Timothy's way from Ephesus to Rome; See Gill on Act 16:8, Act 20:7 and as for Carpus, he was Paul's host when he was at Troas. Some make him to be first bishop of Laodicea, and then of Crete; he is reckoned among the seventy disciples, and is said to be bishop of Berytus in Thrace; See Gill on Luk 10:1.

When thou comest, bring with thee; he would have him call for it at Troas as he came by, and bring it with him:

and the books; that were in it, or were there, besides the Hebrew Pentateuch: the apostle was a great reader of books, of various sorts, both Gentile and Jewish, as appears by his citations out of the Heathen poets, and his acquaintance with Jewish records, Act 17:28. And though he was now grown old, and near his exit, yet was mindful and careful of his books, and desirous of having them to read; and herein set an example to Timothy and others, and enforced the exhortation he gave him, 1Ti 4:13.

But especially the parchments: which might contain his own writings he had a mind to revise before his death, and commit into the hands of proper persons; or some observations which he had made in his travels, concerning persons and things; though it is most likely that these were the books of the Old Testament, which were written on parchments, and rolled up together; and hence they are called the volume of the book; and these the apostle had a special regard for, that whatever was neglected, he desired that these might not, but be carefully brought unto him.

Gill: 2Ti 4:14

Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil,.... This seems to be the same person that was at Ephesus in the tumult, when the apostle was there, Act 20:33 and whom he afterwards delivered to Satan, along with Hymenaeus, for blasphemy, 1Ti 1:20. It was very likely he had lately been at Rome, though now returned to Ephesus, and had done great injury to the apostle's character, and had reproached and reviled him as a man of bad principles and practices; his business is mentioned, to distinguish him from any other of that name, and to show the insolence of the man, that though he was an illiterate person, and in such a mean station of life, yet took upon him to resist the apostle and his doctrine.

The Lord reward him according to his works; which may be considered either as an imprecation upon him, as knowing him to be a wicked blasphemer, and a reprobate person; and which arose, not from private resentment, and on account of the private injury he had done to him; but from a pure zeal for the glory of God, and the honour of his name, without mingling his own spirit and passions with it: or as a prophecy, or declaration of what would be; and so the Alexandrian copy, and the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions, read, "the Lord will render to him", &c.

Gill: 2Ti 4:15

Of whom be thou ware also,.... For he was now at Ephesus; and since he was such a malicious, ill natured, and troublesome person, as well as a blasphemer, an heretic, and had been delivered up to Satan, it was very advisable to shun his company, and have no conversation with him, and be upon the guard against him, that he might have no opportunity of doing hurt to him, or to the church at Ephesus:

for he hath greatly withstood our words: or doctrines; the truths of the Gospel preached by Paul and Timothy, which he opposed himself to, and resisted with all his might, and endeavoured to confute and overthrow; and wherein he was deficient in argument, he made up with railing and blasphemy; and this was the true reason of the apostle's imprecations on him, and why he would have Timothy beware of him, and avoid him, and not the personal injury he had done him.

Gill: 2Ti 4:16

At my first answer no man stood with me,.... Meaning, that when he made his first defence against the charges laid unto him in one of the courts of judicature in Rome, no man appeared in his cause, to speak to his character, to be a witness for him, or plead his cause:

but all men forsook me; all his friends, all that came with him from Judea, or from Asia; see 2Ti 1:15 being timorous of coming into danger, and of the loss of their lives; as the disciples of Christ were, when he was apprehended, who all at that time forsook him and fled:

I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge; that this sin may not be imputed to them, or they be punished for it, but that it might be pardoned; so differently does he express himself on the account of these, than on the account of the coppersmith; he sinning through malice, wilfully and obstinately, these through surprise, temptation, and weakness.

Gill: 2Ti 4:17

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me,.... Either personally appearing to him, as in Act 23:11 or by the ministry of an angel, Act 27:23 or else by granting him his gracious presence, which was what Christ had not when he was forsaken by his disciples: the presence of God or Christ is more than all friends whatever, and is often enjoyed by the believer, when they drop him; and is a bulwark against all enemies and fears of them; if God is with him, and on his side, though friends fail, and enemies rage, he has nothing to fear:

and strengthened me; inwardly with strength in his soul, with might in his inward man, unto all longsuffering with joyfulness: he was weak in himself, and could do nothing without Christ; Christ was his strength, in him it lay, and to him he looked for it; of which he often had experience, and now afresh; he strengthened him to plead his own cause, to make his defence without fear; he gave him presence of mind, boldness, courage, and intrepidity, freedom of thought and expression; and put it into his heart what he should say, and gave him a mouth and wisdom, which his adversaries could not resist. All which he takes notice of with thankfulness, admiring the divine goodness to him, and taking nothing to himself: and the end of this was,

that by me the preaching might be fully known; that is, that the doctrine of the Gospel, preached by him, might be made fully known by him; as to the author and original of it, to be of God, and not of men; and as to the matter of it, to be spiritual, and not concerning the things of the world; and as to the effects and consequences of it, to have no tendency to raise sedition and disturbances in commonwealths, but, on the contrary, promote peace and love:

and that all the Gentiles might hear; in Caesar's palace, or in the courts of judicature at Rome, and all over Rome, and from thence in other parts of the empire, what a Gospel it was that was preached by the apostle; and if not by his personal ministry, at least by his epistles he afterwards wrote in prison: however, the effect of his defence, the Lord being with him, and strengthening him, was his deliverance:

and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion; from death he was threatened with, which, like a lion, gaped upon him to devour him; or from Satan the roaring lion, who desired to have had him, and sought to have intimidated him, and brought him to have denied his Lord, to have deserted his cause, and blasphemed his name; or else from Nero the Roman emperor, so called from his power and fierceness. So Tiberius is called by Marsyas, Agrippa's freeman, when he brought the news of his death to his master ^g; and Ahasuerus by Esther ^h; and Nero himself is called a civil beast by Apollonius Tyanaeus ⁱ; though some think that not Nero, but Helius, whom he had appointed governor in his room, he being at this time in Greece, is here meant, before whom Paul was tried, and out of whose hands he was delivered.

Gill: 2Ti 4:18

And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work,.... From wicked and unreasonable men, and all their attempts upon him, and from all afflictions by them; not but that he expected afflictions as long as he was in the world, but he knew that God would support him under them; and in his own time and way deliver out of them; and at last entirely by death, when he should be no more attended with them; and from all the temptations of Satan, and his evil designs upon him, and from sin and iniquity; not that he expected to live free of Satan's temptations, or without sin, but he believed that he should be kept from sinking under the former, and from being under the dominion of the latter; and should not be left to deny his Lord, desert his cause, blaspheme his name, and apostatize from him:

and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, the ultimate glory and happiness of the saints in heaven; so called, both because of its nature and place, and to distinguish it from the church, which is Christ's kingdom in this world, though it is not of it; and from his personal reign with his saints on earth, for the space of a thousand years; whereas this will be for ever: and unto this the apostle believed he should be preserved, as all the saints will be, notwithstanding the persecutions of the world, the temptations of Satan, and their own corruptions; for they are secured in an everlasting covenant, and in the hands of Christ; and have not only angels to encamp about them, and salvation, as walls and bulwarks to them, but God himself is a wall of fire around them, and they are kept by his power unto salvation: and besides, this heavenly kingdom is prepared for them, and given to them; they are chosen to be heirs and possessors of it; they are called unto it, and Christ is gone to receive it in their name, to prepare it for them, and will come again and introduce them into it:

to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen: of the present deliverance, and of all others he had, or should receive, as well as of the provision of the heavenly kingdom for him, and of his preservation to it.

Gill: 2Ti 4:19

Salute Prisca and Aquila,.... The same with Priscilla and Aquila: and so the Complutensian edition, and some copies, read here; who were of the same occupation with the apostle, and with whom he wrought at Corinth, and whom he left at Ephesus; and who seem by this salutation to have continued there, Act 18:2.

And the household of Onesiphorus: who also lived at Ephesus, and whose kindness to the apostle, when he was at Rome, is before mentioned, 2Ti 1:16.

Gill: 2Ti 4:20

Erastus abode at Corinth,.... He was chamberlain of that city, Rom 16:23 who being sent along with Timothy into Macedonia, Act 19:22 very probably went from thence into Achaia, to Corinth, his native place, where he stayed.

But Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick. Trophimus was an Asian, of the city of Ephesus, the same that is spoken of in Act 20:4. Some say he suffered martyrdom the same day the Apostle Paul did; but others say, that after that time he was bishop of Arles in France. This man went with the apostle into Asia, and from thence to Jerusalem, and came along with him in his voyage to Rome, but falling sick by the way, was left at Miletum. Some, instead of Miletum, would read Melita, that being the island Paul, and the ship's company, escaped to, when they were shipwrecked, Act 28:1 here it is supposed Trophimus was left sick. Others have observed, that there was a city called Miletus in the island of Crete, under which Paul sailed, Act 27:7, see footnote ^j, and is the place intended; but there is no need to suppose either of these; no doubt Miletum, near to Ephesus, is meant; and as the apostle sailed by the coast of Asia, Act 27:7, on which shore Miletum was, there is no difficulty in supposing him put ashore there. The Alexandrian copy reads "Melotus".

Gill: 2Ti 4:21

Do thy diligence to come before winter,.... When travelling would not be so safe and comfortable: the apostle consults Timothy's good, as well as his own advantage.

Eubulus greeteth thee. Eusebius ^k makes mention of one of this name of Manganaea, who suffered martyrdom with one Adrian at Caesarea; but he cannot be thought to be the same with this, since he suffered in the times of Dioclesian.

And Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia; the first of these is said to be a person of note at Rome, and of the senatorial order, and the father of two pious virgins, Praxis and Pudentiana. He is put among the seventy disciples; See Gill on Luk 10:1. Mention is made by Pliny the younger ^l, of Servilius Pudens, a Roman; and Martial, a poet of those times, speaks ^m of the marriage of Pudens and Claudia, and of Aulus Pudens. Linus is said to be the first bishop of Rome after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul ⁿ. Though some will have it, that he was bishop of Rome in the time of Peter, and that he and one Cletus were co-pastors with Peter; and Platina, who wrote the "Lives of the Popes", first makes Peter to consecrate Clement his successor, and to commend the chair, and the church of God, to him, and yet afterwards places Linus, and not Clement, as his immediate successor; yea, puts Cletus also before Clement; so much are the Papists at a loss about, and so little account can they give of the boasted succession of their popes from Peter, that they are not agreed about his immediate successor. This Linus is said to be born at Volterra in Tuscany, and to be of the family of the Moors, whose father was one Herculaneus, who sent him at twenty two years of age to Rome, for the sake of his studies; at which time, as is pretended, Peter came thither, by whom he was converted, and with whom he continued as a fellow helper in the Gospel. He is moreover said to be bishop of Rome ten years, (Platina says eleven,) three months, and twelve days, and to have suffered martyrdom under Saturninus the consul, whose daughter he had delivered from a diabolical possession, and was buried in the Vatican. He is reckoned among the seventy disciples of Christ, but very wrongly; See Gill on Luk 10:1. The name is a Latin one, and is often mentioned by Martial the poet. And Claudia is the name of a woman, very likely of considerable note. Some think she was the wife of Pudens, the same Martial speaks of, and is said to be a Briton.

And all the brethren: that is, of the church of Rome, these all sent greeting to Timothy.

Gill: 2Ti 4:22

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit,.... To counsel and advise in every difficult matter; to comfort under every distress; to supply with all grace in every time of need; and to strengthen and fit for every part and branch of duty.

Grace be with you, Amen: which is the apostle's common salutation in all epistles. The Syriac version renders it, "grace be with thee"; but the Greek copies read in the plural, "with you"; which shows that the epistle was designed for the use of the whole church, as well as of Timothy. The subscription follows, which is not in many ancient copies, and is not to be depended on.

The second epistle unto Timotheus; so far is right; this is certainly the second epistle to Timothy:

ordained the first bishop of the church of the Ephesians: this is omitted in the Syriac version; nor is it likely, much less certain, that he ever was bishop of Ephesus, or ordained as a bishop of any place, but was rather an evangelist, 2Ti 4:5,

was written from Rome: this is evident from his being a prisoner when he wrote it, 2Ti 1:8. And yet in the Alexandrian copy it is said to be written from Laodicea:

when Paul was brought before Nero the second time; but whether he was before Nero at all is a question, or only before a Roman governor or judge.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:6

¹ tn Grk “of my departure.”

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:7

¹ sn The expression I have competed well (Grk “I have competed the good competition”) uses words that may refer to a race or to a boxing or wrestling match: “run the good race” or “fight the good fight.” The similar phrase in 1 Tim 1:18 uses a military picture and is more literally “war the good warfare.”

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:8

¹ tn Grk “all who have loved.”

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:10

¹ tn Grk “having loved.”

² map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:11

¹ tn Grk “useful.”

² tn Or “in serving me.”

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:12

¹ map For location see JP1 D2; JP2 D2; JP3 D2; JP4 D2.

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:14

¹ tn Grk “showed me much evil.”

² sn An allusion to Ps 28:4.

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:15

¹ tn Grk “against whom,” as a continuation of the previous clause. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:17

¹ tn Or “the preaching.”

² tn Grk “might be completely fulfilled.”

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:18

¹ tn Grk “save me.”

² tn Grk “to whom.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

³ tn Grk “unto the ages of the ages,” an emphatic way of speaking about eternity in Greek.

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:19

¹ tn Grk “greet.”

² sn On Prisca and Aquila see also Acts 18:2, 18, 26; Rom 16:3-4; 1 Cor 16:19. In the NT “Priscilla” and “Prisca” are the same person. The author of Acts uses the full name Priscilla, while Paul uses the diminutive form Prisca.

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:20

¹ map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:21

¹ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

NET Notes: 2Ti 4:22

¹ tc The reading ὁ κύριος (Jo kurio", “the Lord”) is well supported by א* F G 33 1739 1881 sa, but predictable expansions on the text have occurred at this point: A 104 614 pc read ὁ κύριος ᾿Ιησοῦς (Jo kurio" Ihsou", “the Lord Jesus”), while א² C D Ψ Ï sy bo have ὁ κύριος ᾿Ιησοῦς Χριστός (Jo kurio" Ihsou" Cristo", “the Lord Jesus Christ”). As B. M. Metzger notes, although in a late book such as 2 Timothy, one might expect the fuller title for the Lord, accidental omission of nomina sacra is rare (TCGNT 582). The shorter reading is thus preferred on both external and internal grounds.

² tc Most witnesses (א² D Ψ Ï lat sy) conclude this letter with ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”). Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, there are several excellent witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א* A C F G 6 33 81 1739* 1881 sa) that lack the particle, rendering the omission the preferred reading.

Geneva Bible: 2Ti 4:6

^{( 4 )} For I am now ready to be ^{( c )} offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

^{( 4 )} He foretells his death to be at hand, and sets before them an excellent example, both of invincible constancy, and sure hope.

^{( c )} To be offered for a drink offering: and he alludes to the pouring out of blood or wine which was used in sacrifices.

Geneva Bible: 2Ti 4:9

^{( 5 )} Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:

^{( 5 )} The last part of the epistle, setting forth grievous complaints against certain ones, and examples of singular godliness in every place, and of a mind never wearied.

Geneva Bible: 2Ti 4:10

For Demas hath forsaken me, having ^{( d )} loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

^{( d )} Contented himself with this world.

Geneva Bible: 2Ti 4:17

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and [that] all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the ^{( e )} lion.

^{( e )} Of Nero.

Geneva Bible: 2Ti 4:18

And the Lord shall deliver me from every ^{( f )} evil work, and will preserve [me] unto his ^{( g )} heavenly kingdom: to whom [be] glory for ever and ever. Amen.

^{( f )} Preserve me pure from committing anything unworthy of my apostleship.

^{( g )} To make me partaker of his kingdom.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: 2Ti 4:1-22

1 He exhorts him to do his duty with all care and diligence;

6 certifies him of the nearness of his death;

9 wills him to come speedily unto him, and to bring Marcus with him, and certain things which he wrote for;

14 warns him to beware of Alexander the smith.

16 informs him what had befallen him at his first answering;

19 and soon after he concludes.

Maclaren: 2Ti 4:6-8

A Prisoner's Dying Thoughts

I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.--2 Tim. 4:6-8.

PAUL'S long day's work is nearly done. He is a prisoner in Rome, all but forsaken by his friends, in hourly expectation of another summons before Nero. To appear before him was, he says, like putting his head into the mouth of the lion.' His horizon was darkened by sad anticipations of decaying faith and growing corruptions in the Church. What a road he had travelled since that day when, on the way to Damascus, he saw the living Christ, and heard the words of His mouth!

It had been but a failure of a life, if judged by ordinary standards. He had suffered the loss of all things, had thrown away position and prospects, had exposed himself to sorrows and toils, had been all his days a poor man and solitary, had been hunted, despised, laughed at by Jew and Genthe, worried and badgered even by so-called brethren, loved the less, the more he loved. And now the end is near. A prison and the headsman's sword are the world's wages to its best teacher. When Nero is on the throne, the only possible place for Paul is a dungeon opening on to the scaffold. Better to be the martyr than the Caesar!

These familiar words of our text bring before us a very sweet and wonderful picture of the prisoner, so near his end. How beautifully they show his calm waiting for the last hour and the bright forms which lightened for him the darkness of his cell? Many since have gone to their rest with their hearts stayed on the same thoughts, though their lips could not speak them to our listening ears. Let us be thankful for them, and pray that for ourselves, when we come to that hour, the same quiet heroism and the same sober hope mounting to calm certainty may be ours.

These words refer to the past, the present, the future. I have fought--the time of my departure is come--henceforth there is laid up.'

I. So We Notice, First, The Quiet Courage Which Looks Death Full In The Face Without A Tremor.

The language implies that Paul knows his death hour is all but here. As the Revised Version more accurately gives it, I am already being offered'--the process is begun, his sufferings at the moment are, as it were, the initial steps of his sacrifice--and the time of my departure is come.' The tone in which he tells Timothy this is very noticeable. There is no sign of excitement, no tremor of emotion, no affectation of stoicism in the simple sentences. He is not playing up to a part, nor pretending to be anything which he is not. If ever language sounded perfectly simple and genuine, this does.

And the occasion of the whole section is as remarkable as the tone. He is led to speak about himself at all, only in order to enforce his exhortation to Timothy to put his shoulder to the wheel, and do his work for Christ with all his might. AH he wishes to say is simply, do your work with all your might, for I am going off the field. But having begun on that line of thought, he is carried on to say more than was needed for his immediate purpose, and thus inartificially to let us see what was filling his mind.

And the subject into which he subsides after these lofty thoughts is as remarkable as either tone or occasion. Minute directions about such small matters as books and parchments, and perhaps a warm cloak for winter, and homely details about the movements of the little group of his friends immediately follow. All this shows with what a perfectly unforced courage Paul fronted his fate, and looked death in the eyes. The anticipation did not dull his interest in God's work in the world, as witness the warnings and exhortations of the context. It did not withdraw his sympathies from his companions. It did not hinder him from pursuing his studies and pursuits, nor from providing for small matters of daily convenience. If ever a man was free from any taint of fanaticism or morbid enthusiasm, it was this man waiting so calmly in his prison for his death.

There is great beauty and force in the expressions which he uses for death here. He will not soil his lips with its ugly name, but calls it an offering and a departure. There is a widespread unwillingness to say the word Death,' It falls on men's hearts like clods on a coffin. So all people and languages have adopted euphemisms for it, fair names which wrap silk round its dart and somewhat hide its face. But there are two opposite reasons for their use--terror and confidence. Some men dare not speak of death because they dread it so much, and try to put some kind of shield between themselves and the very thought of it, by calling it something less dreadful to them than itself. Some men, on the other hand, are familiar with the thought, and though it is solemn, it is not altogether repellent to them. Gazing on death with the thoughts and feelings which Jesus Christ has given them concerning it, they see it in new aspects, which take away much of its blackness. And so they do not feel inclined to use the ugly old name, but had rather call it by some which reflect the gentler aspect that it now wears to them. So sleep,' and rest' and the like are the names which have almost driven the other out of the New Testament--witness of the fact that in inmost reality Jesus Christ' has abolished death,' however the physical portion of it may still remain master of our bodies.

But looking for a moment at the specific metaphors used here, we have first, that of an offering, or more particularly of a drink offering, or libation, I am already being poured out.' No doubt the special reason for the selection of this figure here is Paul's anticipation of a violent death. The shedding of his blood was to be an offering poured out like some costly wine upon the altar, but the power of the figure reaches far beyond that special application of it. We may all make our deaths a sacrifice, an offering to God, for we may yield up our will to God's will, and so turn that last struggle into an act of worship and self surrender. When we recognise His hand, when we submit our wills to His purposes, when we live unto the Lord,' if we live, and die unto Him,' if we die, then Death will lose all its terror and most of its pain, and will become for us what it was to Paul, a true offering up of self in thankful worship. Nay, we may even say, that so we shall in a certain subordinate sense be made conformable unto His death' who committed His spirit into His Father's hands, and laid down His life, of His own will. The essential character and far-reaching effects of this sacrifice we cannot imitate, but we can so yield up our wills to God and leave life so willingly and trustfully as that death shall make our sacrifice complete.

Another more familiar and equally striking figure is next used, when Paul speaks of the time of his departure.' The thought is found in most tongues. Death is a going away, or, as Peter calls it (with a glance, possibly, at the special meaning of the word in the Old Testament, as well as at its use in the solemn statement of the theme of converse on the Mountain of Transfiguration), an Exodus. But the well-worn image receives new depth and sharpness of outline in Christianity. To those who have learned the meaning of Christ's resurrection, and feed their souls on the hopes which it warrants, Death is merely a change of place or state, an accident affecting locality, and little more. We have had plenty of changes before. Life has been one long series of departures. This is different from the others mainly in that it is the last, and that to go away from this visible and fleeting show, where we wander aliens among things which have no true kindred with us, is to go home, where there will be no more pulling up the tent-pegs, and toiling across the deserts in monotonous change. How strong is the conviction, spoken in this name for death, that the essential life lasts on quite unaltered through it all! How slight the else formidable thing is made! We may change climates, and for the stormy bleakness of life may have the long still days of heaven, but we do not change ourselves. We lose nothing worth keeping when we leave behind the body, as a dress not fitted for home, where we are going. We but travel one more stage, though it be the last, and part of it be in pitchy darkness. Some pass over it as in a fiery chariot, like Paul and many a martyr. Some have to toil through it with slow steps and bleeding feet and fainting heart; but all may have a Brother with them, and, holding His hand, may find that the journey is not so hard as they feared, and the home from which they shall remove no more, better than they hoped when they hoped the most.

II. We Have Here, Too, The Peaceful Look Backwards.

There is something very noteworthy in the threefold aspect under which his past life presents itself to the Apostle who is so soon to leave it. He thinks of it as a contest, as a race, as a stewardship. The first image suggests the tension of a long struggle with opposing wrestlers who have tried to throw him, but in vain. The world, both of men and things, has had to be grappled with and mastered. His own sinful nature and especially his animal nature has had to be kept under by sheer force, and every moment has been resistance to subtle omnipresent forces that have sought to thwart his aspirations and hamper his performances. His successes have had to be fought for, and everything that he has done has been done after a struggle. So is it with all noble life; so will it be to the end.

He thinks of life as a race. That speaks of continuous advance in one direction, and more emphatically still, of effort that sets the lungs panting and strains every muscle to the utmost. He thinks of it as a stewardship. He has kept the faith (whether by that word we are to understand the body of truth believed or the act of believing) as a sacred deposit committed to him, of which he has been a good steward, and which he is now ready to return to his Lord. There is much in these letters to Timothy about keeping treasures entrusted to one's care. Timothy is bid to keep that good thing which is committed to thee,' as Paul here declares that he has done. Nor is such guarding of a precious deposit confined to us stewards on earth, but the Apostle is sure that his loving Lord, to whom he has entrusted himself, will with like tenderness and carefulness keep that which he has committed unto Him against that day.' The confidence in that faithful Keeper made it possible for Paul to be faithful to his trust, and as a steward who was bound by all ties to his Lord, to guard His possessions and administer His affairs. Life was full of voices urging him to give up the faith. Bribes and threats, and his own sense-bound nature, and the constant whispers of the world had tempted him all along the road to fling it away as a worthless thing, but he had kept it safe; and now, nearing the end and the account, he can put his hand on the secret place near his heart where it lies, and feel that it is there, ready to be restored to his Lord, with the thankful confession, Thy pound hath gained ten pounds.'

So life looks to this man in his retrospect as mainly a field for struggle, effort, and fidelity. This world is not to be for us an enchanted garden of delights, any more than it should appear a dreary desert of disappointment and woe. But it should be to us mainly a palaestra, or gymnasium and exercising ground. You cannot expect many flowers or much grass in the place where men wrestle and run. We need not much mind though it be bare, if we can only stand firm on the hard earth, nor lament that there are so few delights to stay our eyes from the goal. We are here for serious work; let us not be too eager for pleasures that may hinder our efforts and weaken our vigour, but be content to lap up a hasty draught from the brooks by the way, and then on again to the fight.

Such a view of life makes it radiant and fair while it lasts, and makes the heart calm when the hour comes to leave it all behind. So thinking of the past, there may be a sense of not unwelcome lightening from a load of responsibility when we have got all the stress and strain of the conflict behind us, and have at any rate not been altogether beaten. We may feel like a captain who has brought his ship safe across the Atlantic, through foul weather and past many an iceberg, and gives a great sigh of relief as he hands over the charge to the pilot, who will take her across the harbour bar and bring her to her anchorage in the landlocked bay where no tempests rave any more for ever.

Prosaic theologians have sometimes wondered at the estimate which Paul here makes of his past services and faithfulness, but the wonder is surely unnecessary. It is very striking to notice the difference between his judgment of himself while he was still in the thick of the conflict, and now when he is nearing the end. Then one main hope which animated all his toils and nerved him for the sacrifice of life itself was that I might finish my course with joy.' Now in the quiet of his dungeon, that hope is fulfilled, and triumphant thoughts, like shining angels, keep him company in his solitude. Then he struggled, and wrestled, touched by the haunting fear lest after that he has preached to others he himself should be rejected. Now the dread has passed, and a meek hope stands by his side.

What is this change of feeling but an instance of what, thank God, we so often see, that at the end the heart, which has been bowed with fears and self-depreciation, is filled with peace! They who tremble most during the conflict are most likely to look back with solid satisfaction, while they who never knew a fear all along the course will often have them surging in upon their souls too late, and will see the past in a new lurid light, when they are powerless to change it. Blessed is the man who thus feareth always. At the end he will have hope. The past struggles are joyful in memory, as the mountain ranges, which were all black rock and white snow while we toiled up their inhospitable steeps, lie purple in the mellowing distance, and burn like fire as the sunset strikes their peaks. Many a wild winter's day has a fair, cloudless close, and lingering opal hues diffused through all the quiet sky. At eventide it shall be light.' Though we go all our lives mourning and timid, there may yet be granted us ere the end some vision of the true significance of these lives, and some humble hope that they have not been wholly in vain.

Such an estimate has nothing in common with self-complacency. It co-exists with a profound consciousness of many a sin, many a defeat, and much unfaithfulness. It belongs only to a man who, conscious of these, is looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life,' and is the direct result, not the antagonist, of lowly self-abasement, and contrite faith in Him by whom alone our stained selves and poor broken services can ever be acceptable. Let us learn too that the only life that bears being looked back upon is a life of Christian devotion and effort. It shows fairer when seen in the strange cross lights that come when we stand on the boundary of two worlds, with the white radiance of eternity beginning to master the vulgar oil lamps of earth, than when seen by these alone. All others have their shabbiness and their selfishness disclosed then. I remember once seeing a mob of revellers streaming out from a masked ball in a London theatre in the early morning sunlight; draggled and heavy-eyed, the rouge showing on the cheeks, and the shabby tawdriness of the foolish costumes pithessly revealed by the pure light. So will many a life look when the day dawns, and the wild riot ends in its unwelcome beams.

The one question for us all, then, will be, Have I lived for Christ, and by Him? Let it be the one question for us now, and let it be answered, Yes. Then we shall have at the last a calm confidence, equally far removed from presumption and from dread, which will let us look back on life with peace, though it be full of failures and sins, and forward with humble hope of the reward which we shall receive from His mercy.

III. The Climax Of All Is The Triumphant Look Forward.

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.' In harmony with the images of the conflict and the race, the crown here is not the emblem of sovereignty, but of victory, as indeed is almost without exception the case in the New Testament. The idea of the royal dignity of Christians in the future is set forth rather under the emblem of association with Christ on His throne, while the wreath on their brows is the coronal of laurel, meed of mighty conquerors,' or the twine of leaves given to him who, panting, touched the goal. The reward, then, which is meant by the emblem, whatever be its essence, comes through effort and conflict. A man is not crowned, except he strive.'

That crown, according to other words of Scripture, consists of life,' or glory'--that is to say, the issue and outcome of believing service and faithful stewardship here is the possession of the true life, which stands in union with God, in measure so great, and in quality so wondrous that it lies on the pure locks of the victors like a flashing diadem, all ablaze with light in a hundred jewels. The completion and exaltation of our nature and characters by the illapse of life' so sovereign and transcendent that it is glory' is the consequence of all Christian effort here in the lower levels, where the natural life is always weakness and sometimes shame, and the spiritual life is at the best but a hidden glory and a struggling spark. There is no profit in seeking to gaze into that light of glory so as to discern the shapes of those who walk in it, or the elements of its lambent flames. Enough that in its gracious beauty transfigured souls move as in their native atmosphere. Enough that even our dim vision can see that they have for their companion One like unto the Son of Man.' it is Christ's own life which they share; it is Christ's own glory which irradiates them.

That crown is a crown of righteousness' in another sense from that in which it is a crown of life.' The latter expression indicates the material, if we may say so, of which it is woven, but the former rather points to the character to which it belongs or is given. Righteousness alone can receive that reward. It is not the struggle or the conflict which wins it, but the character evolved in the struggle, not the works of strenuous service, but the moral nature expressed in these. There is such a congruity between righteousness and the crown of life, that it can be laid on none other head but that of a righteous man, and if it could, all its amaranthine flowers would shrivel and fall when they touched an impure brow. It is, then, the crown of righteousness, as belonging by its very nature to such characters atone.

But whatever is the essential congruity between the character and the crown, we have to remember too that, according to this Apostle's constant teaching, the righteousness which clothes us in fair raiment, and has a natural right to the wreath of victory, is a gift, as truly as the crown itself, and is given to us all on condition of our simple trust in Jesus Christ. If we are to be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless,' we must be found in Him, not having our own righteousness, but that which is ours through faith in Christ.' Toil and conflict and anxious desire to be true to our responsibilities will do much for a man, but they will not bring him that righteousness which brings down on the head the crown of life. We must trust to Christ to give us the righteousness in which we are justified, and to give us the righteousness by the working out of which in our life and character we are fitted for that great reward. He crowns our works and selves with exuberant and unmerited honours, but what he crowns is His own gift to us, and His great love must bestow both the righteousness and the crown.'

The crown is given at a time called by Paul at that day,' which is not the near day of his martyrdom, but that of His Lord's appearing. He does not speak of the fulness of the reward as being ready for him at death, but as being henceforth laid up for him in heaven.' So he looks forward beyond the grave. The immediate future after death was to his view a period of blessedness indeed, but not yet full. The state of the dead in Christ was a state of consciousness, a state of rest, a state of felicity, but also a state of expectation. To the full height of their present capacity they who sleep in Jesus are blessed, being still in His embrace, and their spirits pillowed on His heart, nor so sleeping that, like drowsy infants, they know not where they lie so safe, but only sleeping in so much as they rest from weariness, and have closed their eyes to the ceaseless turmoil of this fleeting world, and are lapped about for ever with the sweet, unbroken consciousness that they are present with the Lord.' What perfect repose, perfect fruition of all desires, perfect union with the perfect End and Object of all their being, perfect exemption from all sorrow, tumult, and sin can bring of blessedness, that they possess in over measure unfailingly. And, in addition, they still know the joy of hope, and have carried that jewel with them into another world, for they wait for the redemption of the body,' in the reception of which,' at that day,' their life will be filled up to a yet fuller measure, and gleam with a more lustrous glory.' Now they rest and wait. Then shall they be crowned.

Nor must self-absorbed thoughts be allowed to bound our anticipations of that future. It is no solitary blessedness to which Paul looked forward Alone in his dungeon, alone before his judge when no man stood by' him, soon to be alone in his martyrdom, he leaps up in spirit at the thought of the mighty crowd among whom he will stand in that day, on every head a crown, in every heart the same love to the Lord whose life is in them all and makes them all one. So we may cherish the hope of a social heaven. Man:s course begins in a garden, but it ends in a city. The final condition will be the perfection of human society. There all who love Christ will be drawn together, and old ties, broken for a little while here, be reknit in yet holier form, never to be sundered more.

Ah, friends, the all-important question for each of us is how may we have such a hope, like a great sunset light shining into the western windows of our souls? There is but one answer--Trust Christ. That is enough. Nothing else is. Is your life built on Jesus Christ? Are you trusting your salvation to Him? Are you giving Him your love and service? Does your life bear looking at to-day? Will it bear looking at in death? Will it bear His looking at in Judgment?

If you can humbly say, To me to live is Christ, then is it well. Living by Him we may fight and conquer, may win and obtain. Living by Him, we may be ready quietly to lie down when the time comes, and may have all the future filled with the blaze of a great hope that glows brighter as the darkness thickens. That peaceful hope will not leave us till consciousness fails, and then, when it has ceased to guide us, Christ Himself will lead us, scarcely knowing where we are, through the waters, and when we open our half-bewildered eyes in brief wonder, the first thing we see will be his welcoming smile, and His voice will say, as a tender surgeon might to a little child waking after an operation, It is all over.' We lift our hands wondering and find wreaths on our poor brows. We lift our eyes, and lo! all about us a crowned crowd of conquerors,

And with the morn those angel faces smileWhich we have loved long since, and lost awhile.'

Maclaren: 2Ti 4:10-11

Demas, Luke, Mark

Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world … 11. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.'--2 Tim. 4:10-11.

THIS last of Paul's letters is written, as is generally supposed, in his second imprisonment, and very near his martyrdom. The condition in which it represents him is remarkably contrasted, in several respects, with the conditions of his first imprisonment, as shown in the letters dating from that period. In these--in two of them, at all events--we find him surrounded by troops of friends, among whom the same three names as occur in my text appear as united with him in loyal confidence, and joining with him in greetings to his correspondents. Here they are again, but under what different circumstances! Demas hath forsaken me. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark'--who is also absent--and bring him with thee.' The lonely Apostle has none of the Old Guard around him, except the faithful Luke, and he longs, before he dies, to see once more the familiar faces, and to be ministered to once more by accustomed and tender hands. That touch of humanity brings him very near us.

But what I have chosen my texts for is the sharp contrast which the three prominent names in them present in their attitude to the Apostle--Demas the renegade, Mark the restored runaway, Luke, the ever steadfast and faithful companion. Now of course these three men's relation to Jesus Christ was not identical with their relation to Paul. But at the same time their relation to Paul, one has little doubt, fluctuated with their relation to Jesus. It is scarcely possible to believe that the first of them would have done so base an act as to abandon the Apostle at the very crisis of his fate, unless his attachment to Jesus had become slender, nor that Mark's love to his Lord had not cooled when he went not with Paul and Barnabas to the work.' I take these three names as representations of three different types of character and spiritual experience, and I wish to look at the three portraits in succession; only I venture to alter the order in which they appear in the text. First, then--

I. Demas The Renegade.

We know nothing of him except that in the letters of the earlier imprisonment his name appears, honoured by Paul with the designation of his fellow-worker,' evidently admitted into the inner circle, living in amity and close communion with the other members of it, trusted and honoured, a man of some maturity and advancement, and now guilty of the base act of leaving the Apostle. How deeply that wounded Paul's sensitive heart the language of our text sufficiently shows. It is a sad fate that all the world should know that fact, and only that, about Demas, that he should be cursed and condemned to such an immortality, and go down through the ages branded with he hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.' He was not a monster, but just a man like the rest of us; and he came to his bad eminence by a very well-trodden and familiar path. He hath forsaken me, having loved this present world '--that is to say, he was a religious man who had not religion enough to resist the constant attractions and seductions of this present, and because he loved it, in one or other of its forms--wealth, ease, comfort, a whole skin, reputation, or whatever it may have been--more than he loved Paul's Master, he turned his back upon principle, friendship, honour, duty, everything noble, and buried himself in the far-off Thessalonica. There are a great many Demases amongst us, and a great many different kinds of Thessalonicas to which we run. But we are all exposed to that same danger, and so we may well look at this one soul that fell under its spell, and was too weak to resist its pertinacious solicitations, and say to ourselves: Lord, is it I?'

For there is nothing in human sin that is alien from any of us, and no depth of lapse and apostasy is so profound but that the tendencies towards it, and the possibilities of it, are in us, even us also. So let me translate into less well-worn words the language of the text which, for all its force, is so familiar that it does not appeal to us as it ought to do.

This present world,' what is that? Well, it is Protean, as I have already hinted, in its shapes, and all manner of solicitations come from it, but we may say in general terms that it is the aggregate of things seen and temporal' which, subtle, and certainly corresponding to our own weakest sides, appealing to some of us in the shape of wealth, to some of us in the shape of earthly loves, to some of us in the shape of material advantages, to some of us in the form of the' hollow wraith of dying fame,' to some of us in the nobler guise of scientific pursuits, lie confined within the limits of the phenomenal and the material, but to all of us being essentially the presentation of the visible, the material, the transient as the aim to strain after, and the good to count as our treasure.

Let us remember how persistent and how terribly strong the appeal of this present world' is to us all. Its operation is continual upon us. Here it is, and we are in necessary connection with it, and it is our duty to be occupied with it, and it is cowardice to shirk the duty because of the peril that lies in it. You have to go to your business to-morrow morning, and I have to go to my books or my work; and the task for each of us is--and God knows how hard a task it is--to have our hearts in heaven whilst our hands are busy with the things around us. Christianity enjoins no false asceticism. There is little need to preach that to-day, but still it is to be remembered that it is duty to be occupied with the world, and fatal sin to love it. And just because it is so difficult to keep upon that knife-edge, so difficult to put all our pith and power into our occupation with material things, and yet never to be tempted into the love of them which fights against all nobleness of life, is it incumbent on me, over and over again, to reiterate to you and to myself the old threadbare commonplace, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.' Leave your mark on them, work on them diligently, and with all your heart, bend them to be your servants, and to help you to rise to the things above them, but on your soul's peril keep clear of that bowing down before them, that trusting in them, that longing for them, that despair if you lose them, which together make up the love of the world, and the lust thereof which passes away. There is an enemy within the fortress who is always ready and eager to fling open the gates to the besiegers. For the things seen and temporal' correspond with, and have their ally in, the senses by which we are brought into contact with them. And unless there is a very strong religious impulse dominant in our minds, or to put it into more Christian words, unless the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us,' it cannot be but that we shall follow Demas, and run away to our Thessalonica, and leave Paul, and duty, and Pours Master, and duty's Source, behind us.

For, brethren, if once this love of the world, which is always soliciting each of us, gets a footing in our hearts, it is impossible--as impossible as it is for two bodies to occupy the same place at the same time--for the love of Christ, which is the love of God, to continue dominant there. There cannot be two masters. That is plain common sense. If my head is full of thoughts and schemes, concerned only with the fleeting illusory present, then there is no room in it for His serene, ennobling presence. If my hands are laden with pebbles, I cannot clasp the diamonds that are offered to me.

Unless you fling out the sand-bags the balloon will cleave to the earth, and unless we turn the world out of our hearts, it is no use to say to Him, Come! Lord Jesus.' There is no room for Him. And though He comes through the narrowest opening of the door of the soul, He will not come unless we have to some extent conquered the world, and the love of the world.

If I could get you to translate for yourselves the threadbare theological terminology of this text into the vital facts that it represents, I should thank God. Only, dear brethren, take this with you, either we forsake Christ because we love the world, or we forsake the world because we love Christ. On the one alternative we choose restlessness and feverish desires unsatisfied, and craving, all the misery of mistaking mist for land and cloud-wrack for solid ground; on the other, we choose all the blessedness of having set our love on that which satisfies, of having loved the worthiest, the best, the most loving. Which of the two shall we choose? It may be that the one choice shall mean, as it did for Paul, a prison cell and a martyrdom, and that the other may mean, as it did for Demas, comfort and safety, and many an unmistakably good thing, in some Thessalonica or other. But are we going to vote with Demas, or is it going to be Paul? Whether is it better to love the world, and get what the renegade presumably got for a time, or is it better to get what Paul speaks of in the words before my text, a crown of righteousness laid up for all them that love'--not the world--but His appearing,' like the martyr Apostle.

II. Now Look At That Other Portrait, Mark, The Restored Runaway.

You remember the little that Scripture tells us about him, how he was chosen to be the personal attendant, private secretary, factotum, travelling agent, of Paul and Barnabas on their first journey, how his courage and faith lasted as long as the two missionaries were on familiar ground, on his native soil, in the island of Cyprus; and how when they crossed to the mainland both courage and faith oozed out at his finger ends, and he hurried back to his mother's house in Jerusalem. When Paul would go again with Barnabas, to visit the churches, the latter, with a relative's too great kindness which was cruelty, insisted on taking the runaway with them, and Paul, with hot indignation which was kinder than the misplaced affection of the uncle, steadfastly refused his consent. Then Barnabas and Mark slip out of the narrative and disappear, and long years pass during which we know nothing about them. But in time, somehow or other, things are made up; no doubt Mark was penitent. Therefore it was as right for Paul to forgive then, as it had been right for him before not to forgive.

It is very beautiful to notice that here he desires to have Mark for the very office which he had, in such shameful and cowardly fashion, flung up long years ago. For the book of Acts says, They had also John (Mark) to their minister,' and here Paul says, Bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry.' He was reinstating him in the very position which he had once abandoned.

Now what does Mark's restoration teach us? This great gospel, that from any departure, no matter how far, no matter with what aggravations attended, no matter for how long it has lasted, from any departure from duty and from Christ a man can come back. Those of us professing Christians who know ourselves best, and who fight most vigorously against the creeping encroachments of the love of the world, know best how often and how far we have yielded to them, and gone away from them. Brother, no matter how remote we have made ourselves from Him, we cannot travel beyond the reach of His seeking love. And the wisest thing we can do--and it is a possible thing for us all--is to go back to the beginning, and at the Cross to receive, what is never .withheld, pardon for our lapses. Christ laid down the measure of human forgiveness when He said seventy times seven'--the two perfect numbers multiplied into themselves, and their product again multiplied by perfection; and are His love, and His placability, and His pardoning mercy less than that which He prescribed for us? Surely not. So we all may go back again, however far we have wandered, and must go back if we would not be swept into outer darkness for ever. The possibility of return, and, therefore, the blessed duty of repentance, is preached to all us imperfect Christians by this example before us.

I would also remind you how in the restored runaway, or rather in the Apostle's conduct to him, we see as I have already hinted, an adumbration, because a consequence of the divine forgiveness. Paul trusted this unreliable man at last. As the Acts of the Apostles says, He thought it not good to take him with them who had departed from the work,' and his severity was an instrument of cure far more effectual than Barnabas' flaccid good nature. The shrug of the shoulders that overlooks transgression and says, Oh! it does not matter,' is a much more cruel and a much less curative thing than the hot indignation which says, No, you have been unworthy, and until you repent there is no restoration possible.' That is how God does with us, not because He loves us less, but because He loves us more, and because He seeks to make thorough work, and to purge the bosom of the perilous stuff which, unless it is purged, will ever keep us from union with Him. Inasmuch as the law of the divine forgiveness is here set forth in the severity towards the impenitent, and in the generous confidence towards the penitent, and the restoration to his old office, let us Christian people learn our duty to those who have gone astray, and how there is no surer way of helping them to be reliable and profitable than showing them that we trust them to be both.

Still further, from out of this second of our portraits, there comes the other lesson, that failure in a task may tend to make us successful in it hereafter. Mark shirked the ministry; he became profitable for the ministry.' That is to say, though all sin weakens, yet sin repented and sin cast out may strengthen, because it may drive us nearer to God, because it may lead us to deeper humility, because it may kindle a livelier flame of gratitude, the gas that drives the engine, and because it may set us upon closer examination of our own selves, and putting up barriers at the weak places where the enemy poured in like a flood. So for all these reasons, in a far higher sense than the poet meant it, we may make stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things. There is no fatal entail of sin upon us, by which the past is always to set the time and prescribe the measure for the future. The Israelites fought two battles, on the same field, against the same foes, the fights at Aphek against the Philistines. In one of them they were ignominiously routed and beaten from the field; and in the other, on the same spot, against the same enemy, with the same weapons, the same men triumphed; and reared upon the field a memorial alike of their present victory and of their past defeat, and called it the Stone of Help, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.'

III. Lastly, We Have Here A Third Picture, That Of The Steadfast Companion, Luke.

Only Luke is with me,' and he had been with Paul for years, having joined him first at Troas, on the eve of his first missionary enterprise in Europe, having remained, as it appears, at Philippi whilst the Apostle traversed Greece, having rejoined him at Philippi on his return journey, travelled with him to Jerusalem, Caesarea, in a shipwreck, in Rome in the first imprisonment, presumably during the interval; and now again we find him Paul's only companion, in the second imprisonment. He is a type of the steadfast souls who never stray, but by patient continuance in communion with Paul's Lord, go from strength to strength,' until every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.' Abide with me,' says Paul's Master, and if we keep ourselves in the love of God, and resist the temptations to be drawn aside, steadfastly cleave unto the Lord, then the world will not have power over us, and we shall neither repeat the experience of the renegade, nor of the restored runaway, but find that day by day we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord, and run with unwearied patience and perseverance the race that is set before us. A continuous development as the result of a quiet constancy of abiding with Jesus Christ is possible for us all. And if we do not come to it absolutely and with the completeness of the ideal, in our earthly experience, still we may approximate indefinitely towards it, and interruptions may become fewer and fewer and shorter and shorter, until what were broken dots, as it were, run into a continuous line, and we dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives.

Brethren! are we to be Demas? Are we to be Mark? Are we to be Luke? We may be all three. We have run away; we can go back; and thenceforward we can continue steadfast and immovable, cleaving to the Lord, and loving'--not the world, but--His appearing.'

Maclaren: 2Ti 4:18

Paul's Dying Confidence

The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly Kingdom: to Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.'--2 Tim. 4:18.

IF we leave out of notice for a moment the two or three salutations and personal messages which follow, these are the last words of Paul's last letter. So he disappears from history with this ringing cry of confidence upon his lips. There was enough in his circumstances to breed the very opposite disposition. He was half-way through his trial before Nero, and suspense, we all know, gnaws at the very roots of courage. He was all but absolutely certain that death was near, as he had said a minute before: I have finished my course; I have kept the faith; henceforth there is' nothing but the crown to look for. His heart was wrung by the desertion of friends; Demas had forsaken him, and when the pinch of his trial came, and his head was, as it were, in the lion's open mouth, none of his friends plucked up heart of grace to stand beside him. But in spite of all, indomitable courage and a bright flame of hope, that nothing could blow or batter out, burned in the Apostle's heart still. Therefore he says, even while facing the block, the Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me unto His everlasting Kingdom.' He is so sure of this that he brings his thanks beforehand--to whom be glory for ever and ever. The thing is as good as done; and so I render my praise.'

Note here a very striking trace and echo of--

I. Christ's Words.

I suppose you will often have observed that my text is a variation on the theme of the Lord's Prayer. That said, Deliver us from evil'; Paul says, The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work.' That, according to one form of Matthew's version, ends with the doxology: Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.' Paul echoes that ascription of praise with his to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.' So we have here a little window through which we can see a wide prospect. For the gospels are later in date than Paul's letters, and the text shows that long before they were in existence the' Lord's Prayer' was familiar, so that allusions to it were made tacitly, and would be recognised. This allusion is interesting in another point of view, in so far as it seems to prove that, in Paul's time, at any rate, the doxology was appended to the Lord's Prayer; and that, therefore, the fuller form of that prayer with the doxology is more original than the truncated form without it.

But passing from such considerations, let us note this word of Paul's as an instance of how his mind was saturated with the Lord's utterances. So it should be with us. Christ's words should have so entered into the very substance of our minds and thoughts as that we give them freely forth again, in other shapes and in other connections; and the sweetness of them, like that of some perfume diffused through else scentless air, shall make all our words and thoughts fragrant. Do you so summer and winter with the Master's words that they suggest themselves spontaneously to you often when you scarcely know that they are His, and that you speak them, not with formal quotation marks in front and behind, but in that allusive fashion, which indicates familiarity and the free use, in other combinations, of the great truths which He has spoken?

Notice, too, that Paul turned the prayer into confidence. In the prayer his Master had taught him to say,' Deliver us from evil.' He had offered the petition, and therefore he had no more doubt than he had of his own existence or of Timothy's, that, having asked, he would receive. Therefore he is sure that the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work.' Is that how you treat your prayers? Are they worth treating so? Are they offered with such confidence as that you have any right to be sure that they will be answered? Are they offered with such submission as that you may well be certain of it; and do you wait, as this Apostle did, quietly expecting to have the answers? And are your eyes anointed to see the answers in things that some people might take to be the contradictions of them? Unless we have so moulded our petitions into assurances there is something wrong with them. If we pray aright,' Deliver us from evil,' there will rise up in our hearts the quiet confidence, the Lord will deliver me from every evil work.'

Here we have a beautiful illustration of the true use of--

II. Past Experience. Paul Links Two Clauses Together.

He says, describing how these faint-hearted if not faithless friends had run away from him when the pinch of peril came, They all forsook me, but the Lord stood with me; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.' He looks back to that recent instance of Christ's protecting care and delivering might, and so he changes his tenses, and brings the light of the past to flood the darkness of the present, and to flash into the obscurity of the future, and he says, I was delivered, and the Lord will deliver me, from every evil.'

He has the same collocation of thoughts, as you may remember in another place where, speaking of other kinds of deliverances, he says that the Lord delivered him from so great a death'--that was in the past--and doth deliver'--that is the thrilling consciousness that the same power is in the present as in the past; that to-day is no more prosaic and devoid of God than any yesterday; and then he adds, In whom we trust that He will deliver us.' Such is the true attitude for a Christian man. Experience is not meant only, as is too often its sole effect, to throw light upon the past, but also to flash a cheery beam on the else dim future; just as the eastern sky will sometimes throw a hint of its own glory upon the western heaven. To a Christian, every yesterday is a prophecy of a to-morrow that will be like it, and God's past is a pledge for God's future.

We, if we are truly trusting in Him, may have the prerogative which belongs to His children alone, of being absolutely certain that to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.' For there is nothing in the past, nothing in the miracles of former generations, nothing in the great deeds by which God has vindicated His protecting care over His people in the days that are gone, and nothing in the mercies and blessings and deliverances and immunities which we ourselves have received that is not available for to-morrow's consumption. The psalmist said, As we have heard so have we seen, in the City of our God.' The deeds of ancient days were repeated in the prosaic present.

And that is as true about the individual life as it is about the corporate life of the community. All of us, looking back to what God has done for us, may find therein the basis of the surest confidence that all that is but a specimen and pledge of what He will do. Nobody else but a Christian has the right to say, I have had this, that, and the other good; therefore I shall have it.' Rather, alas! a man that has wrenched himself away from God has to say sadly, I have had; therefore the likelihood is that I shall not have any more.'

Have you ever thought that the belief which we all have, and cannot get rid of, in the uniformity of nature, has no scientific basis? Everybody expects that the sun will rise to-morrow, and for a great many millions of years, perhaps the expectation is right; but there is coming a day when it will not rise. There is a last time1' positively the very last'--for everything in the world, and in the order of nature, and the expectation of permanence by which we guide our lives is, at bottom, absolutely unfounded, and yet there it is, and we have to act upon it. But you can give no rational explanation of it, and it will not always serve. There was once made a calculating machine. You turned a handle, and ground out a succession of Numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc., each increasing on the preceding by one. And after that had gone on for a long series the sequence was broken, and there came out a number which did not stand in the series at all. That is how God has made nature; grinding away for millions of years, and everything going in regular sequence; but then there comes a break, and the old order changeth. A day will come which is the last day. The sun will set and not rise again, and the world, and all there is in it, shall cease to be.

And as with nature, so with our little lives, and with the men that we trust to. We have no right to say,' I have been delivered, and therefore shall be delivered,' unless we have the Lord, who is the same yesterday and to-day and for ever at the back of our confidence. For men's resources fail and men's dispositions change. If I have helped a man a hundred times, that is not a reason for my helping him the hundred and first time, I may get tired, or perhaps I have not the wherewithal or circumstances alter. Continuity does not guarantee permanence. You can weary out the most patient patience, and chill the warmest love. And so we have to turn from all the limited and changeful grounds of confidence in ourselves, in others, in the order of things about us, and to acknowledge that we do not know what to-morrow is going to do for us. We have had a great many blessings, but the future may be beggared and bankrupt of them all, unless we can say, like Paul,' the Lord delivered me, and the Lord will deliver me.' For His past is the parent and the prophecy of His present, and He does not let His resources be exhausted or His patience wearied or His love disgusted. Thou hast been with me in six troubles, says Job--art Thou tired of being with me?--in the seventh Thou wilt not forsake me.' Thy past is the revelation of Thine eternal Self, and as Thou hast been so Thou wilt be. Christ, as the Incarnation of Divinity, lives, if I might use such a phrase, in a region that is high above the tenses of our verbs, in one eternal now, far below which, Past, Present, and Future, as we know them, are like the little partitions in our fields, which from the mountain-top melt away into invisibility, and do not divide the far-reaching plain.

Travellers see, in deserted, ancient cities, half-hewn statues, with one part polished and the rest rough, and the block not detached from the native rock. They were meant to be carried by the subjects of some forgotten king to build up some unfinished and never to-be-finished temple or palace. There are no half-finished works in God's workshop; no pictures begun and uncompleted in Christ's studio: and so we can go to Him with the old prayer of the psalmist: The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever; forsake not the work of Thine own hands.'

Lastly, we have here a great lesson of how--

III. A Man Close To Death May Think Of It, The Lord Will Deliver Me.' Did He?

The Lord will save me into His everlasting kingdom.' Was that a mistake on Paul's part? Very soon after he wrote these words, perhaps even before the winter against the cold of which he asked Timothy to bring his one cloak that he had left at Troas, he was again brought before the Emperor, and then was led outside the walls of Rome, where a gorgeous church now bears his name, and there, according to tradition, was decapitated. Yes; that was just what he expected. For, as I have already pointed out, a verse or two before my text says, I have finished my course.' And yet, with the certainty that Death was close by him, he lifts up this ringing song of triumph, The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me into His heavenly Kingdom.' He expected that deliverance and saving into the Kingdom to be accomplished precisely by the fact of his death.

A man who has a firm grip of Christ's hand sees all things differently from him who has no such stay. If Jesus is standing by us, and strengthening us, we can look with a smile at the worst that Nero can do, and can tell even the executioner: You do not mean it; do you know what you are doing? You think you are inflicting evil upon me. You are delivering me from every evil.' Death is the great emancipator from all manner of evil, be it the evil of sorrows or the evil of their parent sins. And he who rightly understands the operation of that, the last of earthly incidents, understands that it is, in the fullest sense, the smiting off of his chains, and the lifting of him up high into a region where no malaria of evil can ever rise.

Death is not merely to be looked at on the side of what it takes a man away from, but on the side of what it introduces him to. He shall deliver me from every evil'; that is much, but it might be effected by crushing the man's consciousness and annihilating him. Bare exemption and escape from the ills that flesh is heir to are not all the choice gifts with which Death comes laden. In his bony left hand is the gift of deliverance from all evil. In his right there is the positive gift of participation in all good. He shall deliver me from evil, and shall save me into His everlasting Kingdom.' And so that grim form is the porter at the gate, who ushers the man who has hoped in Christ into the royalty of His presence.

Mark that here, for the only time in Scripture, we have the expression, the heavenly Kingdom.' Why? Because Paul knew and felt that he was in the Kingdom already, and so he could not say barely that Christ through death was going to save him into the Kingdom. He was already there, but just because he was, therefore the last enemy assumed this friendly and familiar form to him, and was sure to bring him into the heavenly form of the Kingdom, of whose earthly form he was already a subject. If--and only if--you are in the Kingdom here, can you quietly look forward and be sure that the Lord, when He sends His messenger, will send Him to do the double work of delivering you out of all evil, and ushering you into all glory of good.

THE END

Titus

Alexander Maclaren, D, D., Litt. D.

MHCC: 2Ti 4:6-8

The blood of the martyrs, though not a sacrifice of atonement, yet was a sacrifice of acknowledgment to the grace of God and his truth. Death to a good man, is his release from the imprisonment of this world, and his departure to the enjoyments of another world. As a Christian, and a minister, Paul had kept the faith, kept the doctrines of the gospel. What comfort will it afford, to be able to speak in this manner toward the end of our days! The crown of believers is a crown of righteousness, purchased by the righteousness of Christ. Believers have it not at present, yet it is sure, for it is laid up for them. The believer, amidst poverty, pain, sickness, and the agonies of death, may rejoice; but if the duties of a man's place and station are neglected, his evidence of interest in Christ will be darkened, and uncertainty and distress may be expected to cloud and harass his last hours.

MHCC: 2Ti 4:9-13

The love of this world, is often the cause of turning back from the truths and ways of Jesus Christ. Paul was guided by Divine inspiration, yet he would have his books. As long as we live, we must still learn. The apostles did not neglect human means, in seeking the necessaries of life, or their own instruction. Let us thank the Divine goodness in having given us so many writings of wise and pious men in all ages; and let us seek that by reading them our profiting may appear to all.

MHCC: 2Ti 4:14-18

There is as much danger from false brethren, as from open enemies. It is dangerous having to do with those who would be enemies to such a man as Paul. The Christians at Rome were forward to meet him, Acts 28, but when there seemed to be a danger of suffering with him, then all forsook him. God might justly be angry with them, but he prays God to forgive them. The apostle was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, that is, of Nero, or some of his judges. If the Lord stands by us, he will strengthen us in difficulties and dangers, and his presence will more than supply every one's absence.

MHCC: 2Ti 4:19-22

We need no more to make us happy, than to have the Lord Jesus Christ with our spirits; for in him all spiritual blessings are summed up. It is the best prayer we can offer for our friends, that the Lord Jesus Christ may be with their spirits, to sanctify and save them, and at last to receive them to himself. Many who believed as Paul, are now before the throne, giving glory to their Lord: may we be followers of them.

Matthew Henry: 2Ti 4:1-8

Observe, I. How awfully this charge is introduced (2Ti 4:1): I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Observe, The best of men have need to be awed into the discharge of their duty. The work of a minister is not an indifferent thing, but absolutely necessary. Woe be to him if he preach not the gospel, 1Co 9:16. To induce him to faithfulness, he must consider, 1. That the eye of God and Jesus Christ was upon him: I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, "as thou tenderest the favour of God and Jesus Christ; as thou wilt approve thyself to God and Jesus Christ, by the obligations both of natural and revealed religion; as thou wilt make due returns to the God who made thee and the Lord Jesus Christ who redeemed thee."2. He charges him as he will answer it at the great day, reminding him of the judgment to come, which is committed to the Lord Jesus. He shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, that is, when he appears in his kingdom. It concerns all, both ministers and people, seriously to consider the account that they must shortly give to Jesus Christ of all the trusts reposed in them. Christ shall judge the quick and the dead, that is, those that at the last day shall be found alive, and those who shall be raised to life out of the grave. Note, (1.) The Lord Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead. God hath committed all judgment unto the Son, and hath appointed him the Judge of quick and dead, Act 10:42. (2.) He will appear; he will come the second time, and it will be a glorious appearance, as the word epiphaniea signifies. (3.) Then his kingdom shall appear in its glory: At his appearing and kingdom; for he will then appear in his kingdom, sitting on a throne, to judge the world.

II. What is the matter of the charge, 2Ti 4:2-5. He is charged,

1. To preach the word. This is ministers' business; a dispensation is committed to them. It is not their own notions and fancies that they are to preach, but the pure plain word of God; and they must not corrupt it, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, they speak in Christ, 2Co 2:17.

2. To urge what he preached, and to press it with all earnestness upon his hearers: " Be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort; do this work with all fervency of spirit. Call upon those under thy charge to take heed of sin, to do their duty: call upon them to repent, and believe, and live a holy life, and this both in season and out of season. In season, when they are at leisure to hear thee, when some special opportunity offers itself of speaking to them with advantage. Nay, do it out of season, even when there is not that apparent probability of fastening something upon them, because thou dost not know but the Spirit of God may fasten upon them; for the wind bloweth where it listeth; and in the morning we must sow our seed, and in the evening not withhold our hand, "Ecc 11:6. We must do it in season, that is, let slip no opportunity; and do it out of season, that is, not shift off the duty, under pretence that it is out of season.

3. He must tell people of their faults: " Reprove them, rebuke them. Convince wicked people of the evil and danger of their wicked courses. Endeavour, by dealing plainly with them, to bring them to repentance. Rebuke them with gravity and authority, in Christ's name, that they may take thy displeasure against them as an indication of God's displeasure."

4. He must direct, encourage, and quicken those who began well. " Exhort them (persuade them to hold on, and endure to the end) and this with all long-suffering and doctrine. "(1.) He must do it very patiently: With all long-suffering. "If thou do not see the effect of thy labours presently, yet do not therefore give up the cause; be not weary of speaking to them."While God shows to them all long-suffering, let ministers exhort with all long-suffering. (2.) He must do it rationally, not with passion, but with doctrine, that is, "In order to the reducing of them to good practices, instil into them good principles. Teach them the truth as it is in Jesus, reduce them to a firm belief of it, and this will be a means both to reclaim them from evil and to bring them to good."Observe, [1.] A minister's work has various parts: he is to preach the word, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. [2.] He is to be very diligent and careful; he must be instant in season and out of season; he must spare no pains nor labour, but must be urgent with them to take care of their souls and their eternal concerns.

5. He must watch in all things. "Seek an opportunity of doing them a kindness; let no fair occasion slip, through thy negligence. Watch to thy work; watch against the temptations of Satan, by which thou mayest be diverted from it; watch over the souls of those who are committed to thy charge."

6. He must count upon afflictions, and endure them, make the best of them. Kakopathēson , endure patiently. "Be not discouraged by the difficulties thou meetest with, but bear them with an evenness of spirit. Inure thyself to hardships."

7. He must remember his office, and discharge its duties: Do the work of an evangelist. The office of the evangelist was, as the apostles' deputies, to water the churches that they planted. They were not settled pastors, but for some time resided in, and presided over, the churches that the apostles had planted, till they were settled under a standing ministry. This was Timothy's work.

8. He must fulfil his ministry: Make full proof of it. It was a great trust that was reposed in him, and therefore he must answer it, and perform all the parts of his office with diligence and care. Observe, (1.) A minister must expect afflictions in the faithful discharge of his duty. (2.) He must endure them patiently, like a Christian hero. (3.) These must not discourage him in his work, for he must do his work, and fulfil his ministry. (4.) The best way to make full proof of our ministry is to fulfil it, to fill it up in all its parts with proper work.

III. The reasons to enforce the charge.

1. Because errors and heresies were likely to creep into the church, by which the minds of many professing Christians would be corrupted (2Ti 4:3, 2Ti 4:4): " For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Therefore improve the present time, when they will endure it. Be busy now, for it is seedtime; when the fields are white unto the harvest, put in the sickle, for the present gale of opportunity will be soon over. They will not endure sound doctrine. There will be those who will heap to themselves corrupt teachers, and will turn away their ears from the truth; and therefore secure as many as thou canst, that, when these storms and tempests do arise, they may be well fixed, and their apostasy may be prevented."People must hear, and ministers must preach, for the time to come, and guard against the mischiefs that are likely to arise hereafter, though they do not yet arise. They will turn away their ears from the truth; they will grow weary of the old plain gospel of Christ, and then they will be greedy of fables, and take pleasure in them, and God will give them up to those strong delusions, because they received not the truth in the love of it, 2Th 2:11, 2Th 2:12. Observe, (1.) These teachers were of their own heaping up, and not of God's sending; but they chose them, to gratify their lusts, and to please their itching ears. (2.) People do so when they will not endure sound doctrine, that preaching which is searching, plain, and to the purpose; then they will have teachers of their own. (3.) There is a wide difference between the word of God and the word of such teachers; the one is sound doctrine, the word of truth, the other is only fables. (4.) Those that are turned unto fables first turn away their ears from the truth, for they cannot hear and mind both, any more than they can serve two masters. Nay, further, it is said, They shall be turned unto fables. God justly suffers those to turn to fables who grow weary of the truth, and gives them up to be led aside from the truth by fables.

2. Because Paul for his part had almost done his work: Do thou make full proof of thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered, 2Ti 4:6. And,

(1.) "Therefore there will be the more occasion for thee."When labourers are removed out of the vineyard, it is no time for those to loiter that are left behind, but to double their diligence. The fewer hands there are to work the more industrious those hands must be that are at work.

(2.) "I have done the work of my day and generation; do thou in like manner do the work of thy day and generation."

(3.) The comfort and cheerfulness of Paul, in the prospect of his approaching departure, might encourage Timothy to the utmost industry, and diligence, and seriousness in his work. Paul was an old soldier of Jesus Christ, Timothy was but newly enlisted. "Come,"says Paul, "I have found our Master kind and the cause good; I can look back upon my warfare with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction; and therefore be not afraid of the difficulties thou must meet with. The crown of life is as sure to thee as if it were already upon thy head; and therefore endure afflictions, and make full proof of thy ministry."The courage and comfort of dying saints and ministers, and especially dying martyrs, are a great confirmation of the truth of the Christian religion, and a great encouragement to living saints and ministers in their work. Here the apostle looks forward, upon his death approaching: I am now ready to be offered. The Holy Ghost witnessed in every city that bonds and afflictions did abide him, Act 20:23. He was now at Rome, and it is probable that he had particular intimations from the Spirit that there he should seal the truth with his blood; and he looks upon it now as near at hand: I am already poured out; so it is in the original, ēdē spendomai ; that is, I am already a martyr in affection. It alludes to the pouring out of the drink-offerings; for the blood of the martyrs, though it was not a sacrifice of atonement, was a sacrifice of acknowledgment to the honour of the grace of God and his truths. Observe,

[1.] With what pleasure he speaks of dying. He calls it his departure; though it is probable that he foresaw he must die a violent bloody death, yet he calls it his departure, or his release. Death to a good man is his release from the imprisonment of this world and his departure to the enjoyments of another world; he does not cease to be, but is only removed from one world to another.

[2.] With what pleasure he looks back upon the life he had lived (2Ti 4:7): I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, etc. He did not fear death, because he had the testimony of his conscience that by the grace of God he had in some measure answered the ends of living. As a Christian, as a minister, he had fought a good fight. He had done the service, gone through the difficulties of his warfare, and had been instrumental in carrying on the glorious victories of the exalted Redeemer over the powers of darkness. His life was a course, and he had now finished it; as his warfare was accomplished, so his race was run. " I have kept the faith. I have kept the doctrines of the gospel, and never betrayed any of them."Note, First, The life of a Christian, but especially of a minister, is a warfare and a race, sometimes compared to the one in the scripture, and sometimes to the other. Secondly, It is a good fight, a good warfare; the cause is good, and the victory is sure, if we continue faithful and courageous. Thirdly, We must fight this good fight; we must fight it out, and finish our course; we must not give over till we are made more than conquerors through him who hath loved us, Rom 8:37. Fourthly, It is a great comfort to a dying saint, when he can look back upon his past life and say with our apostle, " I have fought, etc. I have kept the faith, the doctrine of faith and the grace of faith."Towards the end of our days to be able to speak in this manner, what comfort, unspeakable comfort, will it afford! Let it then be our constant endeavour, by the grace of God, that we may finish our course with joy, Act 20:24.

[3.] With what pleasure he looks forward to the life he was to live hereafter (2Ti 4:8): Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, etc. He had lost for Christ, but he was sure he should not lose by him, Phi 3:8. Let this encourage Timothy to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ that there is a crown of life before us, the glory and joy of which will abundantly recompense all the hardships and toils of our present warfare. Observe, It is called a crown of righteousness, because it will be the recompence of our services, which God is not unrighteous to forget; and because our holiness and righteousness will there be perfected, and will be our crown. God will give it as a righteous Judge, who will let none love by him. And yet this crown of righteousness was not peculiar to Paul, as if it belonged only to apostles and eminent ministers and martyrs, but to all those also that love his appearing. Observe, It is the character of all the saints that they love the appearing of Jesus Christ: they loved his first appearing, when he appeared to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Heb 9:26); they love to think of it; they love his second appearing at the great day; love it, and long for it: and, with respect to those who love the appearing of Jesus Christ, he shall appear to their joy; there is a crown of righteousness reserved for them, which shall then be given them, Heb 9:28. We learn hence, First, The Lord is the righteous Judge, for his judgment is according to truth. Secondly, The crown of believers is a crown of righteousness, purchased by the righteousness of Christ, and bestowed as the reward of the saints' righteousness. Thirdly, This crown, which believers shall wear, is laid up for them; they have it not at present, for here they are but heirs; they have it not in possession, and yet it is sure, for it is laid up for them. Fourthly, The righteous Judge will give it to all who love, prepare, and long for his appearing. Surely I come quickly. Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus.

Matthew Henry: 2Ti 4:9-15

Here are divers particular matters which Paul mentions to Timothy, now at the closing of the epistle. 1. He bids him hasten to him, if possible (2Ti 4:9): So thy diligence to come shortly to me. For Timothy was an evangelist, one who was not a fixed pastor of any one place, but attended the motions of the apostles, to build upon their foundation. Paul wanted Timothy's company and help; and the reason he gives is because several had left him (2Ti 4:10); one from an ill principle, namely, Demas, who abides under an ill name for it: Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. He quitted Paul and his interest, either for fear of suffering (because Paul was now a prisoner, and he was afraid o coming into trouble upon his account) or being called off from his ministry by secular affairs, in which he entangled himself; his first love to Christ and his gospel was forsaken and forgotten, and he fell in love with the world. Note, Love to this present world is often the cause of apostasy from the truths and ways of Jesus Christ. He has gone off, has departed to Thessalonica, called thither perhaps by trade, or by some other worldly business. Crescens had gone one way and Titus another way. Luke however remained with Paul (2Ti 4:11, 2Ti 4:12), and was not this enough? Paul did not think it so; he loved the company of his friends. 2. He speaks respectfully concerning Mark: He is profitable to me for the ministry. It is supposed that this Mark was he about whom Paul and Barnabas had contended, Act 15:39. Paul would not take him with him to the work, because he had once flinched and drawn back: but now, says he, Take Mark, and bring him with thee. By this it appears that Paul was now reconciled to Mark, and had a better opinion of him than he had had formerly. This teaches us to be of a forgiving spirit; we must not therefore disclaim for ever making use of those that are profitable and useful, though they may have done amiss. 3. Paul orders Timothy to come to him, bids him as he came through Troas to bring with him thence those things which he had left behind him there (2Ti 4:13), the cloak he had left there, which, it may be, Paul had the more occasion for in a cold prison. It is probable that it was the habit Paul usually wore, a plain dress. Some read it, the roll of parchment I left at Troas; others, the desk that I left. Paul was guided by divine inspiration, and yet he would have his books with him. Whereas he had exhorted Timothy to give attendance to reading, so he did himself, though he was now ready to be offered. As long as we live, we must be still learning. But especially the parchments, which some think were the originals of his epistles; others think they were the skins of which he made his tents, whereby he obtained a livelihood, working with his own hands. 4. He mentions Alexander, and the mischief that he had done him, 2Ti 4:14, 2Ti 4:15. This is he who is spoken of Act 19:33. It should seem, he had been a professor of the Christian religion, a forward professor, for he was there particularly maligned by the worshippers of Diana, and yet he did Paul much evil. Paul was in as much danger from false brethren (2Co 11:26) as from open enemies. Paul foretels that God would reckon with him. It is a prophetical denunciation of the just judgment of God that would befall him: The Lord will reward him according to his works. He cautions Timothy to take heed of him: " Of whom be thou aware also, that he do not, under pretence of friendship, betray thee to mischief."It is dangerous having any thing to do with those who would be enemies to such a man as Paul. Observe, (1.) Some who were once Paul's hearers and admirers did not give him reason to remember them with much pleasure; for one forsook him, and another did him much evil, and greatly withstood his words. Yet, (2.) At the same time he mentions some with pleasure; the badness of some did not make him forget the goodness of others; such as Timothy, Titus, Mark, and Luke. (3.) The apostle has left a brand on the names and memory of two persons; the one is Demas, who forsook him, having loved the present world, and the other is Alexander, who greatly withstood his words. (4.) God will reward evil-doers, particularly apostates, according to their works. (5.) Of such as are of Alexander's spirit and temper we should beware; for they will do us no good, but all the mischief that is in their power.

Matthew Henry: 2Ti 4:16-22

Here, I. He gives Timothy an account of his own present circumstances.

1. He had lately been called to appear before the emperor, upon his appeal to Caesar; and then no man stood with him (2Ti 4:16), to plead his cause, to bear testimony for him, or so much as to keep him in countenance, but all men forsook him. This was strange, that so good a man as Paul should have nobody to own him, even at Rome, where there were many Christians, whose faith was spoken of throughout the world, Rom 1:8. But men are but men. The Christians at Rome were forward to go and meet him (Acts 28); but when it came to the pinch, and they would be in danger of suffering with him, then they all forsook him. He prays that God would not lay it to their charge, intimating that it was a great fault, and God might justly be angry with them, but he prays God to forgive them. See what a distinction is put between sins of presumption and sins of infirmity. Alexander the coppersmith, who maliciously withstood Paul, he prays against: The Lord reward him according to his works; but respecting these Christians, who through weakness shrunk from Paul in time of trial, he says, The Lord lay it not to their charge. Observe, (1.) Paul had his trials in his friends' forsaking him in a time of danger as well as in the opposition made by enemies: all forsook him. (2.) It was their sin not to appear for the good apostle, especially at his first answer; but it was a sin of weakness, and therefore the more excusable. Yet, (3.) God might lay it to their charge, but Paul endeavours to prevent it by his earnest prayers: Let it not be laid to their charge.

2. Notwithstanding this God stood by him (2Ti 4:17), gave him extraordinary wisdom and courage, to enable him to speak so much the better himself. When he had nobody to keep him in countenance, God made his face to shine. - That by me the preaching might be fully known, that is, "God brought me out from that difficulty that I might preach the gospel, which is my business."Nay, it should seem, that he might preach the gospel at that time; for Paul knew how to preach at the bar as well as in the pulpit. And that all the Gentiles might hear; the emperor himself and the great men who would never have heard Paul preach if he had not been brought before them. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, that is, of Nero (as some think) or some other judge. Some understand it only as a proverbial form of speech, to signify that he was in imminent danger. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work. See how Paul improved his experiences: " He that delivered doth deliver, and we trust he will yet deliver, will deliver me from every evil work, from any ill done to me by others. And shall preserve me to his heavenly kingdom. "And for this he gives glory to God, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. Observe, (1.) If the Lord stand by us, he will strengthen us, in a time of difficulty and danger, and his presence will more than supply every one's absence. (2.) When the Lord preserves his servants from great and imminent danger, it is for eminent work and service. Paul was preserved that by him the preaching might be fully known, etc. (3.) Former deliverances should encourage future hopes. (4.) There is a heavenly kingdom, to which the Lord will preserve his faithful witnessing or suffering servants. (5.) We ought to give God the glory of all past, present, and future deliverances: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

II. He sends salutations to Aquila, and Priscilla, and the household of Onesiphorus, 2Ti 4:19. He mentions his leaving Trophimus sick at Miletum (2Ti 4:20), by which it appears that though the apostles healed all manner of diseases miraculously, for the confirmation of their doctrine, yet they did not exert that power upon their own friends, lest it should have looked like a collusion.

III. He hastens Timothy to come to him before winter (2Ti 4:21), because he longed to see him, and because in the winter the journey or voyage would be more dangerous.

IV. He sends commendations to him from Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren. One of the heathen writers at this time mentions one Pudens and his wife Claudia, and says the Claudia was a Briton, whence some have gathered that it was this Pudens, and that Claudia here was his wife, and that they were eminent Christians at Rome.

V. He concludes with a prayer, that the Lord Jesus would be with his spirit. We need no more to make us happy than to have the Lord Jesus Christ with our spirits; for in him all spiritual blessings are summed up. And it is the best prayer we can put up for our friends, that the Lord Jesus Christ may be with their spirits, to sanctify and save them, and at last to receive them to himself; as Stephen the proto-martyr prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, Act 7:59. "Lord Jesus, receive that spirit which thou hast been with while it was united to the body; do not now leave it in its separate state." Grace be with you. Amen. This was our apostle's token in every epistle; so he wrote. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen, 2Th 3:17, 2Th 3:18. And if grace be with us here to convert and change us, to make us holy, to keep us humble, and to enable us to persevere to the end, glory will crown us hereafter: for the Lord is a sun, and a shield; the Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from those that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee, Psa 84:11, Psa 84:12. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God our Saviour, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Barclay: 2Ti 4:6-8

For Paul the end is very near and he knows it. When Erasmus was growing old, he said: "I am a veteran, and have earned my discharge, and must leave the fighting to younger men." Paul, the aged warrior, is laying down his arms that Timothy may take them up.

No passage in the New Testament is more full of vivid pictures than this.

"My life," says Paul, "has reached the point where it must be sacrificed." The word he uses for sacrifice is the verb spendesthai (4689) which literally means to pour out as a libation to the gods. Every Roman meal ended with a kind of sacrifice. A cup of wine was taken and was poured out (spendesthai, 4689) to the gods. It is as if Paul were saying: "The day is ended; it is time to rise and go; and my life must be poured out as a sacrifice to God." He did not think of himself as going to be executed; he thought of himself as going to offer his life to God. Ever since his conversion, he had offered everything to God--his money, his scholarship, his time, the vigour of his body, the acuteness of his mind, the devotion of his heart. Only life itself was left to offer, and gladly he was going to lay it down.

He goes on to say: "The time of my departure is at hand." The word (analusis, 359) he uses for departure is a vivid one. It has many a picture in it and each tells us something about leaving this life. (a) It is the word for unyoking an animal from the shafts of the cart or the plough. Death to Paul was rest from toil. As Spenser had it, ease after toil, port after stormy seas, death after life, are lovely things. (b) It is the word for loosening bonds or fetters. Death for Paul was a release. He was to exchange the confines of a Roman prison for the glorious liberty of the courts of heaven. © It is the word for loosening the ropes of a tent. For Paul it was time to strike camp again. Many a journey he had made across the roads of Asia Minor and of Europe. Now he was setting out on his last and greatest journey; he was taking the road that led to God. (d) It is the word for loosening the mooring-ropes of a ship. Many a time Paul had felt his ship leave the harbour for the deep waters. Now he is to launch out into the greatest deep of all, setting sail to cross the waters of death to arrive in the haven of eternity.

So then, for the Christian, death is laying down the burden in order to rest; it is laying aside the shackles in order to be free; it is striking camp in order to take up residence in the heavenly places; it is casting off the ropes which bind us to this world in order to set sail on the voyage which ends in the presence of God. Who then shall fear it?

Barclay: 2Ti 4:6-8

Paul goes on, still speaking in these vivid pictures of which he was such a master: "I have fought the good fight: I have completed the race: I have kept the faith." It is likely that he is not using different pictures from three different spheres of life, but one picture from the games.

(i) "I have fought the good fight." The word he uses for fight is agon (73), which is the word for a contest in the arena. When an athlete can really say that he has done his best, then, win or lose, there is a deep satisfaction in his heart. Paul has come to the end, and he knows that he has put up a good show. When his mother died, Barrie made a great claim. "I can look back," he said, "and I cannot see the smallest thing undone." There is no satisfaction in all the world like knowing that we have done our best.

(ii) "I have finished the race." It is easy to begin but hard to finish. The one thing necessary for life is staying-power, and that is what so many people lack. It was suggested to a certain very famous man that his biography should be written while he was still alive. He absolutely refused to give permission, and his reason was: "I have seen so many men fall out on the last lap." It is easy to wreck a noble life or a fine record by some closing folly. But it was Paul's claim that he had finished the race. There is a deep satisfaction in reaching the goal.

Perhaps the world's most famous race is the marathon. The Battle of Marathon was one of the decisive battles of the world. In it the Greeks met the Persians, and, if the Persians had conquered, the glory that was Greece would never have flowered upon the world. Against fearful odds the Greeks won the victory, and, after the battle, a Greek soldier ran all the way, day and night, to Athens with the news. Straight to the magistrates he ran. "Rejoice," he gasped, "we have conquered," and even as he delivered his message he fell dead. He had completed his course and done his work, and there is no finer way for any man to die.

(iii) "I have kept the faith." This phrase can have more than one meaning. If we are to keep the background of the games, it is this. The great games in Greece were the Olympics. To these came all the greatest athletes in the world. On the day before the games all the competitors met and took a solemn oath before the gods that they had done not less than ten months training and that they would not resort to any trickery to win. So Paul may be saying: "I have kept the rules: I have played the game." It would be a great thing to die knowing that we had never transgressed the rules of honour in the race of life.

But this phrase may have other meanings. It is also a business phrase. It was the regular Greek for: "I have kept the conditions of the contract; I have been true to my engagement." If Paul used it in that way, he meant that he had engaged himself to serve Christ and had stood by that engagement and never let his Master down. Further, it could mean: "I have kept my faith: I have never lost my confidence and my hope." If Paul used it in that way, he meant that through thick and thin, in freedom and in imprisonment, in all his perils by land and sea, and now in the very face of death, he had never lost his trust in Jesus Christ.

Paul goes on to say there is laid up for him the crown. In the games the greatest prize was the laurel wreath. With it the victor was crowned; and to wear it was the greatest honour which could come to any athlete. But this crown in a few short days would wither. Paul knew that there awaited him a crown which would never fade.

In this moment Paul is turning from the verdict of men to the verdict of God. He knew that in a very short time he would stand before the Roman judgment seat and that his trial could have only one end. He knew what Nero's verdict would be, but he also knew what God's verdict would be. The man whose life is dedicated to Christ is indifferent to the verdict of men. He cares not if they condemn him so long as he hears his Master's "Well done!"

Paul sounds still another note--this crown awaits not only him but all who wait with expectation for the coming of the King. It is as if he said to the young Timothy: "Timothy, my end is near: and I know that I go to my reward. If you follow in my steps, you will feel the same confidence and the same joy when the end comes to you." The joy of Paul is open to every man who also fights that fight and finishes the race and keeps the faith.

Barclay: 2Ti 4:9-15

Paul draws up a roll of honour and of dishonour of his friends. Some are only names to us; of some, as we read the Acts and the Epistles, we get little revealing glimpses. Some of the stories, if we are allowed to use our imagination, we can reconstruct.

The Spiritual Pilgrimage Of Demas

First on the list comes Demas. There are three mentions of him in Paul's letters; and it may well be that they hake in them the story of a tragedy. (i) In Phm 1:24he is listed amongst a group of men whom Paul calls his fellow-labourers. (ii) In Col 4:14he is mentioned without any comment at all. (iii) Here he has forsaken Paul because he loved this present world. First, Demas the fellow-labourer, then, just Demas, and, finally, Demas the deserter who loved the world. Here is the history of a spiritual degeneration. Bit by bit the fellow-labourer has become the deserter; the title of honour has become the name of shame.

What happened to Demas? That we cannot tell for sure, but we can guess.

(i) It may be that he had begun to follow Christ without first counting the cost; and it may be that he was not altogether to blame. There is a kind of evangelism which proclaims: "Accept Christ and you will have rest and peace and joy." There is a sense, the deepest of all senses, in which that is profoundly and blessedly true. But it is also true that when we accept Christ our troubles begin. Up to this time we have lived in conformity with the world and its standards. Because of that life was easy, because we followed the line of least resistance and went with the crowd. But once a man accepts Christ, he accepts an entirely new set of standards and is committed to an entirely new kind of life at his work, in his personal relationships, in his pleasures, and there are bound to be collisions. It may be that Demas was swept into the Church in a moment of emotion without ever thinking things out; and then when unpopularity, persecution, the necessity of sacrifice, loneliness, imprisonment came, he quit because he had never bargained for anything like that. When a man undertakes to follow Christ, the first essential is that he should know what he is doing.

(ii) It may be that there came to Demas the inevitable weariness of the years. They have a way of taking our ideals away, of lowering our standards, of accustoming us to defeat.

Halliday Sutherland tells how he felt when he first qualified as a doctor. If on the street or in any company there came the call: "Is there a doctor here?" he thrilled to it, proud and eager to step forward and help. But as the years went on, a request like that became a nuisance. The thrill was gone.

W. H. Davies, the tramp who was also one of the greatest poets, has a revealing passage about himself. He had walked to see Tintern Abbey which he had last seen twenty-seven years ago. He says: "As I stood there now, twenty-seven years after, and compared that young boy's enthusiasm with my present lukewarm feelings, I was not very well pleased with myself. For instance, at that time I would sacrifice both food and sleep to see anything wonderful; but now in my prime I did not go seeking things of beauty, and only sang of things that came my way by chance."

Dean Inge had a sermon on Psa 91:6--"the destruction that wastes at noonday," which he called "The Peril of Middle Age." There is no threat so dangerous as the threat of the years to a man's ideals; and it can be kept at bay only by living constantly in the presence of Jesus Christ.

(iii) Paul said of Demas that "he loved this present world." His trouble may have been quite simple, and yet very terrible. It may simply be that he loved comfort more than he loved Christ, that he loved the easy way more than he loved the way which led first to a cross and then to the stars.

We think of Demas, not to condemn, but to sympathize, for so many of us are like him.

It is just possible that this is neither the beginning nor the end of the story of Demas. The name Demas is a shortened and familiar form of Demetrius and twice we come upon a Demetrius in the New Testament story. There was a Demetrius who led the riot of the silversmiths at Ephesus and wished to lynch Paul because he had taken their temple trade away (Act 19:25). There was a Demetrius of whom John wrote that he had a good report of all and of the truth itself, a fact to which John bore willing and decisive witness (3Jo 1:12). May this be the beginning and the end of the story? Did Demetrius the silversmith find something about Paul and Christ which twined itself round his heart? Did the hostile leader of the riot become the convert to Christ? Did he for a time fall away from the Christian way and become Demas, the deserter, who loved this present world? And did the grace of God lay hands on him again, and bring him back, and make him the Demetrius of Ephesus of whom John wrote that he was a servant of the truth of whom all spoke well? That we will never know, but it is a lovely thing to think that the charge of being a deserter may not have been the final verdict on the life of Demas.

Barclay: 2Ti 4:9-15

The Gentile Of Whom All Spoke Well

After Paul has spoken of the man who was the deserter, he goes on to speak of the man who was faithful unto death. "Luke alone is with me," he says. We know very little about Luke, and yet even from that little he emerges as one of the loveliest characters in the New Testament.

(i) One thing we know by implication--Luke accompanied Paul on his last journey to Rome and to prison. He was the writer of the Book of Acts. Now there are certain passages of Acts which are written in the first person plural and we can be quite sure that Luke is here describing occasions on which he himself was actually present. Ac 27 describes Paul setting out under arrest for Rome and the story is told in the first person. Therefore we can be sure that Luke was there. From that we deduce something else. It is thought that when an arrested prisoner was on his way to trial at Rome, he was allowed to be accompanied by only two slaves, and it is therefore probable that Luke enrolled himself as Paul's slave in order to be allowed to accompany him to Rome and to prison. Little wonder that Paul speaks of him with love in his voice. Surely devotion could go no farther.

(ii) There are only two other definite references to Luke in the New Testament. In Col 4:14he is described as the beloved physician. Paul owed much to Luke. All his life he had the torturing thorn in his flesh; and Luke must have been the man who used his skill to ease his pain and enable him to go on. Luke was essentially a man who was kind. He does not seem to have been a great evangelist; he was the man who made his contribution in terms of personal service. God had given him healing skill in his hands, and Luke gave back that skill to God. Kindness is the quality which lifts a man out of the luck of ordinary men. Eloquence will be forgotten; mental cleverness may live on the printed page; but kindness lives on enthroned in the hearts of men.

Dr. Johnson had certain contacts with a young man called Harry Hervey. Hervey was rich and more than something of a rake. But he had a London house where Johnson was always welcome. Years later Harry Hervey was being unkindly discussed. Johnson said seriously: "He was a vicious man, but very kind to me. If you call a dog Hervey, I shall love him." Kindness covered a multitude of sins.

Luke was loyal and Luke was kind.

(iii) The other definite reference to Luke is in Phm 1:24; where Paul calls him his fellow-labourer. Luke was not content only to write nor to confine himself to his job as a doctor; he set his hand to the work. The Church is full of talkers and of people who are there more for what they can get than for what they can give; Luke was one of these priceless people--the workers of the Church.

(iv) There is one other possible reference to Luke in the New Testament. 2Co 8:18speaks of "the brother who is famous among all the Churches." From the earliest times that brother has been identified with Luke. He was the man of whom all men spoke well. He was the man who was loyal unto death; he was the man who was essentially kind; he was the man who was dedicated to the work. Such a man will always be one of whom all speak well.

Barclay: 2Ti 4:9-15

There is still another name with an untold, yet thrilling, story behind it in this roll.

The Man Who Redeemed Himself

Paul urges Timothy to bring Mark with him "for he is profitable to me for the ministry." The word ministry is not used in its narrower sense of the ministry of the Church but in its wider sense of service. "Bring Mark," says Paul, "for he is very useful in service." As E. F. Scott puts it; "Bring Mark, for he can turn his hand to anything." Or, as we might put it in our own everyday language: "Bring Mark, for he is a useful man to have about the place."

Mark had a curiously chequered career. He was very young when the Church began, but he lived at the very centre of its life. It was to the house of Mary, Mark's mother, that Peter turned his steps when he escaped from prison, and we may take it that this house was the central meeting place of the Jerusalem Church (Act 12:12).

When Paul and Barnabas set out on their first missionary journey they took Mark with them--John Mark was his full name--to be their assistant (Act 13:5). It looked as if he was earmarked for a great career in the company of Paul and in the service of the Church. Then something happened. When Paul and Barnabas left Pamphylia and struck inland on the hard and dangerous road that led to the central plateau of Asia Minor, Mark left them and went home (Act 13:13). His nerve failed him, and he turned back.

Paul took that defection very hard. When he set out with Barnabas on their second missionary journey, Barnabas--he was related to Mark (Col 4:10) --planned to take Mark with them again. But Paul absolutely refused to have the quitter a second time, and so fierce was the argument and so acute the difference that Paul and Barnabas split company and never, so far as we know, worked together again (Act 15:36-40). So then, there was a time when Paul had no use for Mark, when he looked on him as a spineless deserter and completely refused to have him on his staff.

What happened to Mark after that we do not know. Tradition has it that he went to Egypt and that he was the founder of the Christian Church in that country. But, whatever he did, he certainly redeemed himself. When Paul comes to write Colossians from his Roman prison, Mark is with him, and Paul commends him to the Colossian Church and charges them to receive him. And now, when the end is near, the one man Paul wants, besides his beloved Timothy, is Mark, for he is a useful man to have about. The quitter has become the man who can turn his hand to anything in the service of Paul and of the gospel.

Fosdick has a sermon with the great and uplifting title, "No man need stay the way he is." Mark is proof of that. He is our encouragement and our inspiration, for he was the man who failed and yet made good. Still to this day Jesus Christ can make the coward spirit brave and nerve the feeble arm for fight. He can release the sleeping hero in the soul of every man. He can turn the shame of failure into the joy of triumphant service.

Barclay: 2Ti 4:9-15

Helpers And A Hinderer And A Last Request

So the list of names goes on. Of Crescens we know nothing at all. Titus was another of Paul's most faithful lieutenants. "My true child," Paul calls him (Tit 1:4). When the trouble with the Church at Corinth had been worrying him, Titus had been one of Paul's emissaries in the struggle to mend things (2Co 2:13; 2Co 7:6, 2Co 7:13; 2Co 12:18). Tychicus had been entrusted with the delivery of the letter to the Colossians (Col 4:7), and of the letter to the Ephesians (Eph 6:21). The little group of helpers was being dispersed throughout the Church, for even if Paul was in prison the work had still to go on, and Paul must go lonely that his scattered people might be strengthened and guided and comforted.

Then comes the mention of a man who had hindered instead of helping: "Alexander the coppersmith did me a great deal of harm." We do not know what Alexander had done; but perhaps we can deduce it. The word that Paul uses for did me much evil is the Greek endeiknumi (1731). That verb literally means to display, and was in fact often used for the laying of information against a man. Informers were one of the great curses of Rome at this time. And it may well be that Alexander was a renegade Christian, who went to the magistrates with false information against Paul, seeking to ruin him in the most dishonourable way.

Paul has certain personal requests to make. He wants the cloak he had left behind at the house of Carpus in Troas. The cloak (phainole) was a great circular rug-like garment. It had a hole for the head in the middle and it covered a man like a little tent, reaching right down to the ground. It was a garment for the winter time and no doubt Paul was feeling his Roman prison cold.

He wants the books; the word is biblia (975), which literally means papyrus rolls; and it may well be that these rolls contained the earliest forms of the gospels. He wanted the parchments. They could be one of two things. They might be Paul's necessary legal documents, especially his certificate of Roman citizenship; but more likely they were copies of the Hebrew Scriptures, for the Hebrews wrote their sacred books on parchment made from the skins of animals. It was the word of Jesus and the word of God that Paul wanted most of all, when he lay in prison awaiting death.

Sometimes history has a strange way of repeating itself. Fifteen hundred years later William Tyndale was lying in prison in Vilvorde, waiting for death because he had dared to give the people the Bible in their own language. It is a cold damp winter, and he writes to a friend: "Send me, for Jesus' sake, a warmer cap, something to patch my leggings, a woollen shirt, and above all my Hebrew Bible." When they were up against it and the chill breath of death was on them, the great ones wanted more than anything else the word of God to put strength and courage into their souls.

Barclay: 2Ti 4:16-22

A Roman trial began with a preliminary examination to formulate the precise charge against the prisoner. When Paul was brought to that preliminary examination, not one of his friends stood by him. It was too dangerous to proclaim oneself the friend of a man on trial for his life.

One of the curious things about this passage is the number of reminiscences of Ps 22 . "Why hast thou forsaken me?--all forsook me." "There is none to help--no one was there to stand by me." "Save me from the mouth of the lion--I was rescued from the mouth of the lion." "All the ends of the earth shall turn to the Lord--that the Gentiles might hear it." "Dominion belongs to the Lord--The Lord will save me for his heavenly kingdom." It seems certain that the words of this psalm were running in Paul's mind. And the lovely thing is that this was the psalm which was in the mind of Jesus when he hung upon his Cross. As Paul faced death, he encouraged his heart with the same psalm as his Lord used in the same circumstances.

Three things brought Paul courage in that lonely hour.

(i) All men had forsaken him but the Lord was with him. Jesus had said that he would never leave his own or forsake them and that he would be with them to the end of the world. Paul is a witness that Jesus kept his promise. If to do the right means to be alone, as Joan of Arc said, "It is better to be alone with God."

(ii) Paul would use even a Roman court to proclaim the message of Christ. He obeyed his own commandment; in season and out of season he pressed the claims of Christ on men. He was so busy thinking of the task of preaching that he forgot the danger. A man who is immersed in his task has conquered fear.

(iii) He was quite certain of the ultimate rescue. In time he might seem to be the victim of circumstances and a criminal condemned at the bar of Roman justice; but Paul saw beyond time and knew that his eternal safety was assured. It is always better to be in danger for a moment and safe for eternity, than to be safe for a moment and jeopardize eternity.

Barclay: 2Ti 4:16-22

Finally there come greetings sent and given. There is a greeting to Priscilla and Aquila, that husband and wife whose home was ever a church, wherever it might be, and who had at some time risked their lives for Paul's sake (Act 18:2; Rom 16:3; 1Co 16:19). There is a greeting to the gallant Onesiphorus, who had sought out Paul in prison in Rome (2Ti 1:16) and who, it may be, had paid for his loyalty with his life. There is a greeting to Erastus, whom once Paul sent as his emissary to Macedonia (Act 19:22), and who, it may be, was afterwards within the Church at Rome (Rom 16:23). There is a greeting to Trophimus, whom Paul had been accused of bringing into the Temple precincts in Jerusalem, although a Gentile, an incident for which Paul's last imprisonment began (Act 20:4; Act 21:29). Finally there are greetings from Linus, Pudens and Claudia. In the later lists Linus stands as the first bishop of Rome.

Around the names of Pudens and Claudia a romance has been woven. The story may be impossible, or at least improbable, but it is too interesting not to quote. Martial was a famous Roman poet, a writer of epigrams, who flourished from A.D. 66 to A.D. 100. Two of his epigrams celebrate the marriage of a highborn and distinguished Roman called Pudens to a lady called Claudia. In the second of them Claudia is called a stranger in Rome, and it is said that she came from Britain. Now Tacitus tells us that in A.D. 52, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, certain territories in south-east Britain were given to a British king called Cogidubnus, for his loyalty to Rome; and in 1723 a marble tablet was dug up in Chichester which commemorates the erection of a heathen temple by Cogidubnus, the king, and by Pudens, his son. In the inscription the full name of the king is given and, no doubt in honour of the Roman Emperor, we find that the British king had taken the name of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. If that king had a daughter her name must have been Claudia, for that is the name that she would take from her father. We can carry the story further. It may be that Cogidubnus would send his daughter Claudia to stay in Rome. That he should do so would be almost certain, for when a foreign king entered into an alliance with Rome, as Cogidubnus had done, some members of his family were always sent to Rome as pledges of keeping the agreement. If Claudia went to Rome, she would certainly stay in the house of a Roman called Aulus Plautius, who had been the governor in Britain from A.D. 43-52, and to whom Cogidubnus had rendered his faithful service. The wife of Aulus Plautius was a lady called Pomponia, and we learn from Tacitus that she had been arraigned before the Roman courts in A.D. 57 because she was "tainted with a foreign superstition." That "foreign superstition" may well have been Christianity. Pomponia may have been a Christian, and from her Claudia, the British princess, may have learned of Jesus also.

We cannot say whether the guesses in that story are true. But it would be wonderful to think that this Claudia was actually a British princess who had come to stay in Rome and become a Christian, and that Pudens was her husband.

Paul comes to the end by commending his friends to the presence and the Spirit of his Lord and theirs, and, as always, his last word is grace.

Constable: 2Ti 3:14--4:6

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

Paul identified two of Timothy's duties in the last days to impress him with what was of highest priority.

Constable: 2Ti 4:6-8

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

Paul revealed that he was about to die to impress on Timothy further the importance of remaining faithful to the Lord.

4:6 Paul believed that he would die very soon. He used two euphemistic expressions to describe his death. First, his life was presently being "poured out" as a sacrifice to God like the daily drink offerings in Judaism (Num. 15:1-10; cf. Num. 28:4-7; Phil. 2:17). Soon there would be nothing left. After the Jewish priest offered the lamb, ram, or bull in this ritual, he poured wine beside the altar. This was the last act in the sacrificial ceremony all of which symbolized the dedication of the believer to God in worship. The pouring out of the wine pictured the gradual ebbing away of Paul's life that had been a living sacrifice to God since the apostle's conversion.⁸⁷

Second, Paul was getting ready to depart this earth as a traveler leaves one country for another or as a soldier breaks camp. The apostle believed that Nero would not release him from prison but would execute him. Christian tradition confirms that Paul died as a martyr in Rome.⁸⁸

4:7 Paul used three more figures to describe his life as he reviewed it. The first two are athletic metaphors (cf. 2:5) describing a boxer or wrestler and a runner (cf. Acts 20:24). The third is that of a faithful steward who has kept (guarded) his charge (cf. 1 Cor. 4:2; Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27).⁸⁹ Verses 6 and 7 constitute Paul's epitaph.

Paul probably meant that he had run in the most noble race of all, namely the ministry of the gospel, not that he had done his best in the contest.⁹⁰

4:8 Because he had been faithful Paul did not dread dying but looked forward to seeing His Lord. On the day of rewards for Christians (the judgment seat of Christ; 1:12, 18; 2 Cor. 5:10) Paul was confident that the Lord would give him a reward that was proper.

". . . Paul means the righteousness that God bestows (on the basis of faith), envisaged here as the reward for faithfulness to Christ."⁹¹

The "crown of righteousness" may be either the fullness of righteousness as a reward or some unspecified reward for righteous conduct on earth (cf. James 1:12; Rev. 2:10). This seems to be a metaphorical crown (i.e., a reward) rather than a literal material crown. This reward (victor's crown, Gr. stephanos) will go to all Christians like Paul who by the way they lived demonstrated a longing for the Lord's return. Not all Christians are anxious for the Lord to return since some know they need to change their way of living.

Clearly Paul was thinking of the judgment seat of Christ in verses 1-8. He referred to his Judge in verses 1 and 8. Note that it will be the righteous Judge who will bestow the crown of righteousness.

"An expectation of reward is also a recognition of God's grace. Those who anticipate reward will not be able to boast, Look at my accomplishments.' They should be able to offer praise to God by saying, Thank you, Lord, for what you have produced in me.' The very expectation of reward is an acknowledgment of God's grace."⁹²

Constable: 2Ti 4:9-22

V. CONCLUDING PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATION 4:9-22

Paul concluded his last inspired epistle by giving Timothy personal instructions and information to enable him to carry out the apostle's last wishes.

Constable: 2Ti 4:9-15

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

4:9-10 Paul urged Timothy to join him in Rome soon. He did not expect to live much longer (cf. v. 6).

"The constitutional method of inflicting capital punishment on a Roman citizen was by the lictor's axe. The criminal was tied to a stake; cruelly scourged with the rods, and then beheaded."⁹³

Demas, a short form of Demetrius, Paul's fellow worker, had succumbed to the allurements of the world (instead of loving Christ's appearing; cf. Gal. 1:4; Eph. 1:21; 1 Tim. 4:8; Titus 2:12). He had departed from Paul and had gone to live in Thessalonica (cf. Col. 4:14; Phile. 24). He, like Hymenaeus and Philetus (2:17), Alexander (1 Tim. 1:20), and others had not continued to follow Christ faithfully.

"He was not willing to pay the price of hardship and suffering that Paul was paying."⁹⁴

Crescens had gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia (i.e., Illyricum, modern Bosnia-Herzegovina) presumably in the Lord's service.

4:11-13 Luke was Paul's only companion. Timothy was to pick up Mark (Acts 15:36-40) and bring him with him because Paul believed Mark could be useful to him (cf. Phile. 11). Tychicus had gone to Ephesus, or was about to go, if the aorist apesteila ("I sent") is epistolary, perhaps to relieve Timothy (Acts 20:4; Eph. 6:21-22; Col. 4:7-9). Timothy should also bring Paul a certain cloak perhaps for his comfort as colder weather set in (v. 21). Paul also asked him to bring certain unidentified books and especially "the parchments." The parchments may have been copies of Old Testament books and or inspired New Testament writings.

"Even as an old man facing certain death, the apostle has not lost his interest for study and mental pursuits. It presents a standing challenge to the minister to be an indefatigable student, especially of the Word of God."⁹⁵

"There is an interesting historical parallel to Paul's request. William Tyndale, who translated the first NT printed in English, was imprisoned in Vilvorde Castle near Brussels before his execution in 1536. In the year preceding his death he wrote to the governor, begging for warmer clothing, a woolen shirt, and above all his Hebrew Bible, grammar, and dictionary."⁹⁶

4:14-15 The Alexander Paul warned Timothy about may have been the same man he mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:20 (cf. Acts 19:33-34), though Alexander was a common name. Paul did not want Timothy to retaliate against him. The Lord would take care of that (Ps. 62:12). Timothy should simply beware of him.

Constable: 2Ti 4:16-18

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

4:16 It was customary under Roman law for accused prisoners to have a preliminary hearing before their trial. At this hearing, witnesses could speak on behalf of the accused. In Paul's case no one had come to his defense. This was probably because when Rome burned in July of 64 A.D. Nero blamed the Christians. From then on it was dangerous to be a known Christian in Rome. Local Christians nor Paul's fellow workers were willing to stand with the apostle (cf. Matt. 26:56). Paul hoped the Lord would not hold their failure against them (cf. Luke 23:34).

4:17 The Lord, however, had not abandoned His faithful servant on that occasion but had strengthened Paul. Evidently Paul was able to give a word of witness at his hearing that furthered his mission to the Gentiles. He had so far escaped death, though he was ready to die as a martyr. The "lion's mouth" may be a reference to the lions in the Roman Coliseum that were then devouring Christians. However the Romans would have beheaded Paul rather than throwing him to the lions since he was a Roman citizen. This phrase may be a veiled reference to Nero or probably a more general allusion to Satan's instruments of evil that have always sought to destroy God's faithful servants (cf. Dan. 6:22; Ps. 22:21; Matt. 6:13; 1 Pet. 5:8).

4:18 Paul knew he would die a martyr's death (vv. 6-8), but he saw death as God's vehicle to deliver him from an evil deed (his execution) and to bring him into his Lord's presence. For this prospect he glorified God.

Thoughts of the coming kingdom that Paul was about to enter lay behind all the apostle wrote in verses 1-18. He referred to Christ's kingdom in verses 1 and 18 specifically. I believe Paul was speaking of Christ's rule in which all Christians will participate when we enter His presence part of which will include His millennial reign on the earth.

"Three features of Paul's attitude can provide us help and encouragement for today. First, Paul avoided indulging his disappointments. . . . Second, Paul could rejoice in the victory won in the life of Mark. . . . Third, Paul found no room for vindictiveness toward those who hurt or opposed him."⁹⁷

Constable: 2Ti 4:19-21

C. Additional greetings and instructions 4:19-21

4:19 Paul sent greetings to his old friends Prisca (Priscilla) and Aquila who then lived in Ephesus (cf. Acts 18:2, 18, 26; Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19). He also greeted the loyal family of Onesiphorus of whom he had written earlier (1:16).

4:20 Erastus and Trophimus were old associates of Timothy (Acts 19:22; 20:4; 21:29). Paul sent news of them. Some authorities believe that Paul's ability to heal people physically had ended. Many of them believe that God gave the gift of healing to the church only in its infancy to help authenticate the apostles as they ministered to the Jews (Eph. 2:20; Heb. 2:3-4).⁹⁸ A better explanation, I think, is that, though the gift of healing did decline, Jesus' and the apostles' ability to heal always depended on the sovereign will of God (Luke 5:17; Acts 3:12-13). Evidently it was not God's will for Trophimus to experience miraculous healing then.

4:21 Winter severely restricted travel in some parts of the Roman world. Timothy needed to leave Ephesus soon so he could reach Rome without undue difficulty. Paul relayed the greetings of four other brethren, probably local, whom Timothy evidently knew, as well as the greetings of all the local Christians.

"Linus is mentioned by Irenaeus (Against Heresies, iii.3) as the first bishop of Rome after the death of Peter and Paul."⁹⁹

Constable: 2Ti 4:22

D. Benediction 4:22

In conclusion Paul first wished the Lord's ministry of grace on Timothy's spirit perhaps to encourage him to remain faithful. Then he wished God's grace for all the readers (plural "you" in the Greek text) of this epistle.

College: 2Ti 4:1-22

2 TIMOTHY 4

E. A FINAL CHARGE TO TIMOTHY (4:1-8)

¹ In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ² Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. ³ For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵ But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

⁶ For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Paul now brings to a conclusion his appeal to Timothy. He began that appeal in 1:6 and then picked it up again in 3:10. The appeal in this section takes the form of a solemn charge, almost an oath which Timothy is to take. In vv. 1-5 alone, Paul uses nine imperatives concerning Timothy's ministry and his commitment to the Lord. Paul is certain that he is about to die. He is now handing the gauntlet to Timothy. He must carry on the ministry which is everything to Paul.

4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:

Paul begins his final charge to Timothy with the single Greek word (diamartuvromai , diamartyromai ; literally "I testify") rendered "I give you this charge" (cf. 1 Tim 5:21; 2 Tim 2:24). The language of a "charge" in this verse is very similar to the language in 1 Tim 5:21 and 6:13. Although the NIV makes it difficult for the modern reader to discern, the basis of the charge is fourfold: "in the presence" (or "in view") (1) "of God," (2) "of Christ Jesus," (3) "of his appearing" (1:10; 4:8; Titus 2:13), and "of his kingdom." To emphasize the eternal nature and significance of the charge, Paul describes Christ Jesus as the one "who will judge" (literally "is going to judge") "the living and the dead" (cf. Acts 10:42; 1 Pet 4:5). The reference to the judgment of "the living and the dead," the two classes of people at the second coming, provides a very natural link to the third witness of his appearing and his reign.

4:2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;

The first imperative in the charge is "preach" ("herald" or "publicly proclaim") "the Word" (a reference to the gospel; see the discussion at 1 Tim 4:5). Next Paul charges Timothy to "be prepared in season and out of season." "Be prepared" is the rendering of a Greek word (ejfivsthmi , ephistçmi ) which literally means "stand by" or "be at hand." In v. 6 the perfect tense of the verb is rendered "has come." Kelly suggests that the word be translated "keep at it." Guthrie elucidates the meaning when he says, "the Christian minister must always be on duty." The phrase "in season and out of season" may refer to either Timothy's circumstance or his audience or perhaps to both. It indicates that Timothy must be ready to minister whether or not circumstances are favorable, whether or not the audience is receptive.

correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction.

Kelly suggests that the next three imperatives illustrate the preacher's appeal to reason, conscience, and will. Timothy is to "correct" (e[legxon , elengxon , perhaps better "rebuke" as in 3:16; Titus 1:13; 2:15), "rebuke" (ejpitivmhson , epitimçson , a near synonym to the last word; perhaps "censure"; Fee suggests "warn"), and "encourage" (parakavleson , parakaleson , better "exhort" or "urge"; see the discussion at 1 Tim 2:1; 5:1; 6:2). These three tasks are to be done "with great" (literally "all" which goes with both objects) "patience" (a quality especially needed by Timothy toward those who do not respond to his message; cf. 3:10; 1 Tim 1:16) "and careful" (literally "all") "instruction" (literally "teaching").

4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.

With the "for" of v. 3, Paul indicates that he is about to give the reason for the urgency of his charge in vv. 1-2. Again Paul contrasts the gospel message with the teaching of the false teachers. "For the time will come when men will not put up with" (literally "will not hold up") "sound doctrine" (literally "healthy teaching"; see discussion at 1 Tim 1:10).

Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

In the place of healthy teaching, these people "will heap up a great number of teachers" according to "their own desires." As Knight has said, "In other words, they have made themselves the measure of who should teach them and what teaching is acceptable." These teachers will "say what their itching ears want to hear" (literally "being tickled or scratched with reference to their hearing"; cf. the "weak-willed women" of 3:6-7). The latter metaphor expresses a "curiosity, that looks for interesting and spicy bits of information" (BAGD).

4:4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Instead of seeking "healthy teaching," these people "will turn their ears away from the truth," i.e., the gospel (cf. 1 Tim 3:15; 6:5; Titus 1:14; 2 Tim 2:18; 3:7-8). They will "turn aside to myths" (cf. 1 Tim 1:4-6; 4:7; Titus 1:14).

4:5 But you, keep your head in all situations,

As he does throughout his epistles to Timothy, Paul makes the transition from instructions about the false teachers back to instructions for Timothy with "but you" (suΙ dev , su de ; cf. 2:1; 3:10, 14; 1 Tim 6:11). Paul now resumes his final "charge" with four more imperatives. First, Timothy must "keep [his] head in all situations" (literally "be sober in everything"; see cognate word in qualifications of overseers and deacons in 1 Tim 3:2, 11).

endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

He must "endure hardship." This represents an important theme in 2 Timothy (cf. 1:8; 2:3; 3:10, 12). He must also "do the work of an evangelist." The noun "evangelist" (eujaggelivsth" , euangelistçs ) appears only here, and in Eph 4:11 and Acts 21:8. Paul began his charge to Timothy in v. 2 with words which carry the same idea: "preach the Word." Finally, he must "discharge all the duties of" (literally simply "fulfill") his "ministry" (diakoniva , diakonia ).

4:6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.

Up to this point Paul has not indicated his expectations with regard to his imprisonment. He has indicated that he is a prisoner in chains and that he is suffering like a criminal (1:8, 12, 16; 2:9). In this paragraph (vv. 6-8) and in the final section (vv. 9-22), Paul says that he expects this imprisonment to result in his death. He is aware that his ministry is coming to an end. Timothy must carry on the work.

Paul uses two metaphors to describe his expected death. First, he says that he is "already being poured out like a drink offering." Libations or drink offerings are taken from OT sacrificial imagery of pouring out wine (cf. Exod 29:40-41; Lev 23:13; Num 15:1-10; 28:4-8). Paul had used the same metaphor in Phil 2:17 where he says that, even if this were to happen in his service to the Philippians, he would still rejoice. The use of the present tense verb and the word "already" indicates that Paul was aware that the wheels were already in motion that would lead to his death. The second metaphor is that of a ship lifting its anchor to leave harbor or of a group of soldiers breaking camp: "the time has come for my departure." Interestingly, in Phil 1:23, Paul had used the cognate verb "to depart." "Departure" was a common euphemism for death.

4:7 I have fought the good fight,

Paul uses three very graphic expressions to describe what he perceives as the conclusion to his ministry. The first two represent athletic metaphors. "I have fought the good fight" (ajgw'na , agôna ) does not, as the English translation might suggest, refer to a military conflict. It is rather a metaphor from athletic competition. See 1 Tim 6:12 where Paul used the same figure. Paul's designation of the "fight" or "contest" as "good" (or "noble") in no way indicates that his effort has been good, but rather that the task, namely his ministry, is a noble one.

I have finished the race,

Paul continues by saying that he has "finished the race" (cf. Acts 20:24), indicating that his life, and more particular his ministry, is almost over. Both verbs in the first two metaphors are in the perfect tense indicating a completed task and an ongoing effect. The contest and the race are over, and Paul is ready to enjoy the rewards of the competition.

I have kept the faith.

Finally, Paul says that he has "kept the faith." Paul's keeping "the faith" in this final statement can either mean that Paul has "kept on believing" (a subjective use of the word "faith") or that he has kept "the faith" (this body of material believed, i.e., the gospel). The latter choice fits the most frequent usage of "faith" in the Pastoral Epistles (see comments at 1 Tim 1:19). It also would make this final statement by Paul match the first two where the object of the verb refers to his ministry in and for the gospel. It also fits very well the context of 2 Timothy with Paul's call for Timothy to remain true to the gospel and to refute those who do not. Paul has again, as with the first two metaphors, used the perfect tense of the verb. He is saying, "I have loyally held on to the gospel which has been entrusted to me and the consequences of that are ongoing. I know the final result." Some have sought to see Paul's third statement as a metaphor after the sort of the first - either an athlete's promise to compete by the rules, a soldier's oath of fidelity, or a steward's care for the deposit he has received. It is better to see the final statement as an explanation or clarification of the first two analogies.

4:8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness,

Because Paul has competed in this noble contest, "finished the race," and "kept the faith, there now is in store for me the crown of righteousness." The word "now" in the NIV represent a Greek word (loipovn , loipon ) which indicates what remains or is left, drawing a contrast between what Paul has already accomplished and what is to come. The "crown" (stevfano" , stephanos ) refers not to a royal diadem (diavdhma , diadçma ) but to a victor's crown or garland reserved for those who compete victoriously in athletic events, who return victorious from battle, or who have done something noble for a sovereign. With the two athletic analogies which precede this statement, it would seem that Paul is continuing the illustration. There are two ways of understanding the phrase "the crown of righteousness." "Righteousness" may stand in apposition to "crown," i.e., "the crown which is righteousness" (or "right standing before God"), much like the phrase "crown of life" in Jas 1:12 and Rev 2:10. One may also understand "righteousness" as a simple possessive, i.e., "the crown which belongs to righteousness" (or "right living"). This final option results in Paul's discussion of a crown which belongs to those who have lived righteous lives. Although the final choice is possible, the first option best fits Paul's argument and his usage of the victor's crown elsewhere in his writings (cf. 1 Cor 9:24-25; Phil 4:1; 1 Thess 2:19).

which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

This crown is to be awarded by "the Lord, the righteous Judge." Some have seen a reference to the judges or referees in athletic events, people who are not always impartial. Others have suggested a reference to the wrong and perverted judgments of the emperor Nero. There is a certain pun on the words "righteousness" and "righteous." If Paul does intend Timothy to see a continuation of the Olympic metaphor, there is a major difference. The reward will not be immediate but must wait for "that day," a clear reference to the second coming or "appearing" of Jesus in v. 1. With this Paul concludes his admonition to Timothy and perhaps sets up the contrast in v. 9 with Demas who has "loved this [present] world."

V. PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS (4:9-18)

⁹ Do your best to come to me quickly, ¹⁰ for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. ¹¹ Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. ¹² I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. ¹³ When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.

¹⁴ Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. ¹⁵ You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.

¹⁶ At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. ¹⁷ But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. ¹⁸ The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

This section of Paul's epistle follows the normal pattern of a Hellenistic letter. One would expect final greetings and personal instructions at the end of the letter before the final farewell. Paul's appeal for Timothy's loyalty to the gospel and to him take on special meaning with the final information. Tychicus is likely carrying this letter (v. 12) and will replace Timothy. Paul had earlier indicated his desire for Timothy to join him in the thanksgiving section at the beginning of the epistle (1:4).

4:9 Do your best to come to me quickly,

After announcing his impending death in vv. 6-8, Paul makes a heartfelt and urgent request for Timothy to "do [his] best" (spouvdason , spoudason , the word rendered "study" in KJV of 2:15; cf. 2:15; 4:21; Titus 3:12) "to come quickly" (cf. Paul's intense desire to see Timothy in 1:4). Paul will repeat the request in v. 21. Paul's request for Timothy to "come quickly" may well indicate his concern that, if Timothy did not hurry, he would never again see him. At best, several months would elapse between the time this letter was dispatched to Timothy and the time it would require for Timothy to make his way to Rome. Paul's mention of his first defense in vv. 16-17 indicates that he is well aware of the slowness of the political processes in Rome.

4:10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.

Paul is anxious for Timothy to join him because all of his co-workers except Luke have left him - one dishonorably and others for various reasons. The departure of Demas was a sad one for Paul. He had been a close associate of Paul during his first imprisonment in Rome (Col 4:14; Phlm 24). Demas is described as one who "loved this world" (aijw'na , aiôna , literally "the now world" or "age"). Paul may be purposefully contrasting Demas with "all who have longed for his appearing," i.e., the age to come. He has now "deserted" (or "forsaken"; cf. Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34) Paul and gone on to Thessalonica. There is no indication as to why Demas chose Thessalonica. Perhaps that was home for him.

Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

After mentioning the departure of Demas, Paul turns to two other co-workers who have left. There is no indication of any ill motives for these two men. They have likely gone on to other ministry efforts. The modern reader knows nothing more from the biblical text of Crescens. Some traditions connect him with churches in Vienne and Mayence in Gaul, probably due to a textual variant that has "Gaul" rather than "Galatia" in v. 10. In all likelihood he went to minister to the churches in the province of Galatia in central Asia Minor, a major emphasis in the Pauline mission. Titus had gone "to Dalmatia," the coastal region of ancient Illyricum, just up the Adriatic from Nicopolis (cf. Titus 3:12).

4:11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.

Only Luke ("the beloved physician" of Col 4:14; cf. Phlm 24 and the "we" sections of Acts) has remained with Paul. Timothy is to bring along Mark. Here as in Col 4:10 during Paul's earlier imprisonment in Rome, John Mark is a part of the Pauline circle. Both texts provide interesting insights into a relationship that had earlier caused dissension between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:37-41). Mark is now described as one who "is helpful" to Paul in his "ministry" (or "service," diakoniva , diakonia ). It is interesting that, despite his impending death, Paul saw his "ministry" as ongoing.

4:12 I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

Paul tells Timothy that he has sent Tychicus to Ephesus, presumably to deliver this letter and to relieve Timothy. Tychicus appears frequently in Pauline epistles as a trusted co-worker and messenger (Eph 6:21; Col 4:7; Titus 3:12; cf. Acts 20:4).

4:13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.

Paul's request for his "cloak," "scrolls," and "parchments" is such an incidental and personal note that it speaks against pseudonymity. Paul likely left his things at the house of Carpus in Troas as he was on his way back to Ephesus, apparently being arrested either in Miletus (v. 20) or in Troas. Paul assumes that Timothy will be traveling the same basic route as he comes to Rome. Paul's "cloak" would have been a warm woolen garment, used especially by travelers and now of special value to Paul in a cold, dark, damp prison. There has been considerable debate as to the nature of Paul's "scrolls" (bibliva , biblia ) and "parchments" (membravna" , membranas ). The two words may represent two different classes of documents or writing materials. On the other hand, the NIV translation, by the rendering "especially (mavlista , malista ) the parchments," makes the second term a narrower class of the first. Another option is to see the term translated "especially" as "an equating-defining term" - "the books, I mean by that the parchment notebooks." Skeat has provided substantial information from the Pastoral Epistles as well as other literature that makes the final option most likely. The content of these materials is still open to debate. The terms could refer to sacred Scripture (i.e., the OT), to written accounts of the Jesus' sayings and doings, or to Paul's legal papers (e.g., his certificate of Roman citizenship). Any of the above conjectures or even a combination of those conjectures is possible. Whatever their contents, they were especially valued by Paul.

4:14 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done.

Now Paul moves to warn Timothy of an opponent, "Alexander the metalworker" (a term which may well indicate that he was a "coppersmith"), who had done "a great deal of harm" to Paul. This man "strongly opposed" (cf. 3:8 where the verb is used of Jannes and Jambres) the "message" of Paul and his co-workers. Exactly who "Alexander the metalworker" was has been a matter of some debate. Is he (1) the Alexander of 1 Tim 1:19-20 who was linked with Hymenaeus, (2) the Jew who tried to end the riot in Ephesus (Acts 19:33-34), or (3) some otherwise unknown metalworker? It is likely that the third alternative is best.

4:15 You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.

Timothy may well meet up with this character in Troas when he stops to gather Paul's cloak and parchments. Therefore, Timothy "too should be on [his] guard against him." Paul has complete confidence that God can handle the wrongdoer and his sins, either in this life or in the life to come - "the Lord will repay (cf. v. 8) him for what he has done."

4:16 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.

Paul's urgency in his request for Timothy to come is explained in v. 16. At his "first defense, no one" has come to his "support, but everyone deserted" him. It is unlikely that the "first defense" would refer to Paul's earlier imprisonment in Rome at the end of Acts since Timothy would have been well aware of that situation. Rather Paul must be referring to a preliminary hearing, a prima actio of the Roman judicial system, during this imprisonment. After this hearing, Paul would then face the trial. During Paul's first imprisonment in Rome (Acts 28:16, 30), this period stretched out for two years. During that time Paul was held under house arrest. Despite his being "rescued from the lion's mouth" (v. 17), he is now in chains (1:16; 2:9) and expects to die. Paul's claim that "no one came to [his] support" (from paragivnomai , paraginomai , literally "became beside" him) and that "everyone deserted" him may well be seen as a slight hyperbole allowing for Tychicus and Luke to still be at his side. Whatever the case, Paul felt very much alone. Paul's language, "May it not be held against them," is reminiscent of the words of Jesus from the cross in Luke 23:34 (cf. the words of Stephen in Acts 7:60).

4:17 But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

While others may have deserted Paul (notice the adversative but, dev , de ), "the Lord stood at [his] side and gave [him] strength" (1 Tim 1:12). The "strength" which he had received Timothy would need (2:1). God had given Paul strength in order that through him "the preaching might be fulfilled." Paul saw himself as the agent by which God would accomplish this most important proclamation. Also through him "all the Gentiles might hear it." There is little question that Paul saw his ministry as clearly to "the Gentiles." Now even his imprisonment had become the means through which God could catch the ears of the Gentiles in the chief city of the empire.

And I was delivered from the lion's mouth.

Paul proclaims that he had been "delivered from the lion's mouth." Interpreters have been divided regarding whether the lion of v. 17 represents the literal lions of Nero's amphitheater or Satan. Paul may well be reflecting on Psalm 22. There the psalmist pleads with God to rescue him "from the lion's mouth" (Ps 22:21). The context here (vv. 9-18) bears several similarities to that psalm. Paul was "deserted" (vv. 10, 16), and the psalmist feels "forsaken" or deserted by God (Ps 22:1). Paul has been "delivered" (v. 17) and indeed will be brought to safety (v. 18), and the psalmist proclaims that God has "delivered" those who put their trust in him and will save them (Ps 22:4-5). "The lion's mouth" it would seem is a simple metaphor for death; God has delivered him from death.

4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.

Reflecting on the deliverance which the Lord has recently given, Paul moves to the larger significance of that fact. "The Lord will rescue [him] from every evil attack" (literally "every evil deed"). Since Paul fully expects the current situation to lead to his death, it seems likely that he is here expressing his confidence that he will triumphantly overcome all the forces of evil in the end. As Kelly puts it, "[Paul] is affirming his confidence that no assault of his enemies will undermine his faith or his courage, or cause him to lapse into disastrous sin." Put another way, if he endures and remains faithful to God who has called him, God will take care of the rest. Paul goes on to declare that God "will bring [him] safely to his heavenly kingdom." God will complete the work that he has begun in Christ.

To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

In typical fashion the note of final victory and triumph leads Paul to break into a doxology (cf. 1 Tim 1:17; 6:15-16). "To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen" (see especially Phil 4:20).

VI. FINAL SALUTATIONS (4:19-22)

¹⁹ Greet Priscilla ^a and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. ²⁰ Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus. ²¹ Do your best to get here before winter. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers.

²² The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

^a 19 Greek Prisca , a variant of Priscilla

Paul concludes his letter with greetings to Timothy and others in Ephesus. He cannot close without making one more appeal for Timothy to come to him in haste. He then sends final greetings from those with him to Timothy and closes with a simple benediction.

4:19 Greet Priscilla and Aquila

Paul begins by sending greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, two old friends and co-workers, both in the tent-making business and in the cause of Christ. Despite the rendering of the NIV, in reality Paul follows his normal custom and addresses Priscilla here as "Prisca," the more formal name. It is Luke who consistently calls her "Priscilla." It is striking that Priscilla and Aquila are now back in Ephesus. Paul had first met them in Corinth after they had been expelled from Rome under the edict of Claudius (Acts 18:1-3). They then accompany Paul to Ephesus (Acts 18:18-26), and the church meets in their home (1 Cor 16:19). By the time Paul writes Romans, they are in Rome, and again a church meets in their home (16:3-4).

The exact circumstances that have brought them back to Ephesus are uncertain. Aquila is clearly a Jew from Pontus. We know nothing for certain of Priscilla's origin. Fee assumes that she was also Jewish. Ramsey has argued that by Luke's emphasizing that Aquila was a Jew, he has implied that Priscilla was not (Acts 18:2). It is noteworthy that, in four out of the six times when her name is mentioned, her name precedes her husband's, a phenomenon unusual in the ancient world. Ramsey has assumed that this may be due to her being of noble birth. He argues that, while her name was that of a prominent Roman family, the name Aquila was frequently used of freemen. Others have assumed that she may well have been the more dominant personality. Whatever the case, Paul cannot pass up the opportunity to greet this special couple.

and the household of Onesiphorus.

Paul also sends greetings to "the household of Onesiphorus." Paul had earlier mentioned Onesiphorus in 1:16-18. The fact that Paul does not mention him in connection with his family indicates that he is not with them and may indicate that he has died (see the discussion at 1:16-18).

4:20 Erastus stayed in Corinth,

At this point Paul stops to give some information about some mutual friends. Erastus is the name of one of Timothy's companions in Acts 19:22. It is also the name of a city offical in Corinth in the mid-fifties (Rom 16:23). It is unlikely that the two accounts refer to the same man. While one cannot say with certainty that either of these men is the Erastus of 2 Tim 4:20, the Erastus of Acts 19 is the better candidate. He was, after all, well known to Timothy. Paul could be simply trying to catch Timothy up on his whereabouts and his ministry. Paul informs Timothy that Erastus had "stayed in Corinth." Perhaps Timothy had expected him to join Paul in Rome, and Paul was explaining where he was.

and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.

Next Paul mentions Trophimus whom he had "left sick in Miletus." If Erastus was the former associate of Acts 19, then the mention of Trophimus which follows is logial. Trophimus was also an old associate. He had been a part of the group who brought the Gentile contribution to Jerusalem and the mistaken supposition that Paul had taken him into the temple was the reason for Paul's seizure by a mob there (Acts 20:4; 21:29). The reason for Paul's visit to Miletus which resulted in Trophimus's being left there is unknown. As Lea and Griffin have indicated, the passage provides some insights into the nature of miraculous healings in the NT: "The passing reference to Trophimus's sickness indicates that miracles of healing were not produced at the demand of an apostle but were evidences of divine power carried out by the will of God."

4:21 Do your best to get here before winter.

Paul makes a final request of Timothy: "Do your best to get here before winter." Transportation on the Mediterranean stopped from November until March. Paul is likely writing this letter in the late spring or early summer. If Timothy missed the window of opportunity, there was no guarantee that he would arrive in time to see his father in the faith alive. Missing the window might well mean nearly a year's delay in arriving in Rome.

Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers.

Paul sends greetings to Timothy from Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and "all the brothers." All of the names in the list except Eubulus are Latin names. There is no further information available about Eubulus. Tradition, however, provides some interesting conjectural data regarding the others. The only one about whom this data has any likely validity is Linus. Irenaeus said that, after the death of Peter and Paul, Linus became an important leader in the church at Rome. According to less reliable legends, Pudens was a Roman senator converted by Peter, and Claudia was the mother of Linus. There is really no reliable data to provide additional information regarding these Roman Christians. Paul concludes the list of those who send greetings with "and all the brothers." The term "brothers" need not be taken as sexually exclusive. The NRSV conveys the correct understanding in rendering the text "all the brothers and sisters." It is Paul's way of saying "all the Christians here."

4:22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

Paul closes with a brief benediction - "The Lord be with your spirit" - and a closing salutation - "Grace be with you." The "your" of the benediction is singular and is a personal reference to Timothy. It is Paul's prayer that "the Lord" will grant him strength to stand and strength to endure suffering (cf. Gal 6:18; Phil 4:23; Phlm 25). In the closing salutation, Paul broadens his audience. The "you" is there plural. Paul apparently expects the church at Ephesus also to read and learn from his letter.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

Commentary -- Other

Evidence: 2Ti 4:17

For how to use gospel tracts, see 1Co 9:22 footnote.

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 4 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

2Ti 4:1, He exhorts him to do his duty with all care and diligence; 2Ti 4:6, certifies him of the nearness of his death; 2Ti 4:9, wills him to come speedily unto him, and to bring Marcus with him, and certain things which he wrote for; 2Ti 4:14, warns him to beware of Alexander the smith; 2Ti 4:16, informs him what had befallen him at his first answering; 2Ti 4:19, and soon after he concludes.

Poole: 2 Timothy 4 (Chapter Introduction)

TIMOTHY CHAPTER 4

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 4 (Chapter Introduction)

(2Ti 4:1-5) The apostle solemnly charges Timothy to be diligent, though many will not bear sound doctrine.

(2Ti 4:6-8) Enforces the charge from his own martyrdom, then at hand.

(2Ti 4:9-13) Desires him to come speedily.

(2Ti 4:14-18) He cautions, and complains of such as had deserted him; and expresses his faith as to his own preservation to the heavenly kingdom.

(2Ti 4:19-22) Friendly greetings and his usual blessing.

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 4 (Chapter Introduction)

In this chapter, I. Paul with great solemnity and earnestness presses Timothy to the diligent and conscientious discharge of his work and office as an evangelist; and the charge given to him all gospel ministers are to take to themselves (2Ti 4:1-5). II. The reason of his concern in this case, Why must Timothy now be instant in season, etc., in a particular manner? Because the church was likely to be deprived of the apostle's labours, for his departure was at hand (2Ti 4:6-8). III. Divers particular matters, with a hint and caution, about Alexander the coppersmith (2Ti 4:9-15). IV. He informs him of what befell him at his first answer; though men forsook him, the Lord stood by him, and this encouraged him to hope for future deliverance (2Ti 4:16-18). And then he concludes with salutations and a benediction (2Ti 4:19 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 4 (Chapter Introduction)

Paul's Grounds Of Appeal (2Ti_4:1-5)

The Christian's Duty (2Ti_4:1-5 Continued)

Foolish Listeners (2Ti_4:1-5 Continued)

Paul Comes To The End (2Ti_4:6-8)

The Joy Of The Well-Fought Contest (2Ti_4:6-8 Continued)

A Roll Of Honour And Dishonour (2Ti_4:9-15)

A Roll Of Honour And Dishonour (2Ti_4:9-15 Continued)

A Roll Of Honour And Dishonour (2Ti_4:9-15 Continued)

A Roll Of Honour And Dishonour (2Ti_4:9-15 Continued)

Last Words And Greetings (2Ti_4:16-22)

A Hidden Romance? (2Ti_4:16-22 Continued)

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 4 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO 2 TIMOTHY 4

In this chapter the apostle charges Timothy to perform his office as an evangelist with great diligence, constancy, and faithfulness, with reasons for it; gives some hints of several particular persons mentioned, which made him very desirous that Timothy would come quickly to him; relates how things were with him when he made his first defence at Rome; and concludes the epistle with salutations, and his usual blessing. The charge is made in the most solemn manner in the sight of God; and of Christ, as Judge of quick and dead; and directs to the several parts of the ministerial work, and the manner in which they should be performed, 2Ti 4:1. The reason of which charge is, because the time was hastening on that sound doctrine would not be endured, and men would depart from the truth to fables and false teachers, 2Ti 4:3. Wherefore the apostle repeats his charge and exhortation to Timothy, though in other words, to be vigilant, patient, courageous, and faithful in the discharge of his office, 2Ti 4:5 adding a fresh reason moving to it, taken from the apostle's death being at hand; which is expressed by a sacrifice, and by a departure out of the world, 2Ti 4:6 which leads him to give an account of his past conduct in fighting the good fight, finishing his course, and keeping the faith, 2Ti 4:7 and of his firm belief of eternal glory and happiness, 2Ti 4:8 and next he desires Timothy to use all diligence to come quickly to him, 2Ti 4:9 his reasons for which were, because he had scarce anybody with him: one had forsook him through love of the world; another was gone to Thessalonica; a third to Galatia, and a fourth to Dalmatia; only Luke the evangelist was with him; and as for Tychicus, he had sent him to Ephesus: he therefore desires he would bring Mark with him, and his cloak, books, and parchments he had left at Troas, 2Ti 4:10 and then takes notice of persons that had used him ill, particularly Alexander the coppersmith; he wishes justice might be done him; and advises Timothy to beware of him, because of his opposition to the doctrines of the Gospel, 2Ti 4:14 and also of others that neglected him, who forsook him when he defended himself: however, he prays that this might not be charged upon them; and observes the goodness of God in standing by him and delivering him; and expresses his faith and confidence that he should be delivered and preserved safe to eternal glory, 2Ti 4:16 and next follow the apostle's salutations of some persons at Ephesus, and an account of two others, one at Corinth, and another at Miletum; and a repetition of his request to Timothy, to come quickly to him, and before winter; and then some salutations of persons at Rome, sent by Timothy; and the whole is concluded with the apostle's usual benediction, 2Ti 4:19.

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