CHAPTER 2

2Ti 2:1-26. 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.

1. Thou therefore--following my example (2Ti 1:8, 12), and that of ONESIPHORUS (2Ti 1:16-18), and shunning that of those who forsook me (2Ti 1:15).
- my son--Children ought to imitate their father.
- be strong--literally, "be invested with power." Have power, and show thyself to have it; implying an abiding state of power.
- in the grace--the element IN which the believer's strength has place. Compare 2Ti 1:7, "God hath given us the spirit of power."

2. among--Greek, "through," that is, with the attestation (literally, "intervention") of many witnesses, namely, the presbyters and others present at his ordination or consecration (1Ti 4:14; 6:12).
- commit--in trust, as a deposit (2Ti 1:14).
- faithful--the quality most needed by those having a trust committed to them.
- who--Greek, "(persons) such as shall be competent to teach (them to) others also." Thus the way is prepared for inculcating the duty of faithful endurance (2Ti 2:3-13). Thou shouldest consider as a motive to endurance, that thou hast not only to keep the deposit for thyself, but to transmit it unimpaired to others, who in their turn shall fulfil the same office. This is so far from supporting oral tradition now that it rather teaches how precarious a mode of preserving revealed truth it was, depending, as it did, on the trustworthiness of each individual in the chain of succession; and how thankful we ought to be that God Himself has given the written Word, which is exempt from such risk.

3. Thou therefore endure hardness--The oldest manuscripts have no "Thou therefore," and read, "Endure hardship with (me)." "Take thy share in suffering" [CONYBEARE and HOWSON].

4. "No one while serving as a soldier."
- the affairs of (this) life--"the businesses of life" [ALFORD]; mercantile, or other than military.
- him who hath chosen him--the general who at the first enlisted him as a soldier. Paul himself worked at tent-making (Ac 18:3). Therefore what is prohibited here is, not all other save religious occupation, but the becoming entangled, or over-engrossed therewith.

5. And--"Moreover."
- strive for masteries--"strive in the games" [ALFORD]; namely, the great national games of Greece.
- yet is he not crowned, except--even though he gain the victory.
- strive lawfully--observing all the conditions of both the contest (keeping within the bounds of the course and stript of his clothes) and the preparation for it, namely, as to self-denying diet, anointing, exercise, self-restraint, chastity, decorum, &c. (1Co 9:24-27).

6. must be first partaker--The right of first partaking of the fruits belongs to him who is laboring; do not thou, therefore, relax thy labors, as thou wouldest be foremost in partaking of the reward. CONYBEARE explains "first," before the idler.

7. Consider the force of the illustrations I have given from the soldier, the contender in the games, and the husbandmen, as applying to thyself in thy ministry.
- and the Lord give, &c.--The oldest manuscripts read, "for the Lord will give thee understanding." Thou canst understand my meaning so as personally to apply it to thyself; for the Lord will give thee understanding when thou seekest it from Him "in all things." Not intellectual perception, but personal appropriation of the truths metaphorically expressed, was what he needed to be given him by the Lord.

8. Rather as Greek, "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead." Remember Christ risen, so as to follow Him. As He was raised after death, so if thou wouldest share His risen "life," thou must now share His "death" (2Ti 2:11). The Greek perfect passive participle, implies a permanent character acquired by Jesus as the risen Saviour, and our permanent interest in Him as such. Christ's resurrection is put prominently forward as being the truth now assailed (2Ti 2:18), and the one best calculated to stimulate Timothy to steadfastness in sharing Paul's sufferings for the Gospel's sake (see on 2Ti 2:3).
- of the seed of David--The one and only genealogy (as contrasted with the "endless genealogies," 1Ti 1:4) worth thinking of, for it proves Jesus to be the Messiah. The absence of the article in the Greek, and this formula, "of the seed of David" (compare Ro 1:3), imply that the words were probably part of a recognized short oral creed. In His death He assured us of His humanity; by His resurrection, of His divinity. That He was not crucified for His own sin appears from His resurrection; that He was crucified shows that He bore sin, on Him, though not in Him.
- my gospel--that which I always taught.

9. Wherein--in proclaiming which Gospel.
- suffer trouble--literally, "evil." I am a sufferer of evil as though I were a doer of evil.
- bonds-- (2Ti 1:16).
- word . . . not bound--Though my person is bound, my tongue and my pen are not (2Ti 4:17; Ac 28:31). Or he alludes not merely to his own proclamation of the Gospel, though in chains, but to the freedom of its circulation by others, even though his power of circulating it is now prescribed (Php 1:18). He also hints to Timothy that he being free ought to be the more earnest in the service of it.

10. Therefore--Because of the anxiety I feel that the Gospel should be extended; that anxiety being implied in 2Ti 2:9.
- endure--not merely "I passively suffer," but "I actively and perseveringly endure," and "am ready to endure patiently all things."
- the elect's sakes--for the sake of the Church: all the members of Christ's spiritual body (Col 1:24).
- they . . . also--as well as myself: both God's elect not yet converted and those already so.
- salvation . . . glory--not only salvation from wrath, but glory in reigning with Him eternally (2Ti 2:12). Glory is the full expansion of salvation (Ac 2:47; Ro 8:21-24, 30; Heb 9:28). So grace and glory (Ps 84:12).

11. Greek, "Faithful is the saying."
- For--"For" the fact is so that, "if we be dead with Him (the Greek aorist tense implies a state once for all entered into in past times at the moment of regeneration, Ro 6:3, 4, 8; Col 2:12), we shall also live with Him." The symmetrical form of "the saying," 2Ti 2:11-13, and the rhythmical balance of the parallel clauses, makes it likely, they formed part of a Church hymn (see on 1Ti 3:16), or accepted formula, perhaps first uttered by some of the Christian "prophets" in the public assembly (1Co 14:26). The phrase "faithful is the saying," which seems to have been the usual formula (compare 1Ti 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; Tit 3:8) in such cases, favors this.

12. suffer--rather, as the Greek is the same as in 2Ti 2:10, "If we endure (with Him)" (Ro 8:17).
- reign with him--The peculiar privilege of the elect Church now suffering with Christ, then to reign with Him (see on 1Co 6:2). Reigning is something more than mere salvation (Ro 5:17; Re 3:21; 5:10; 20:4, 5).
- deny--with the mouth. As "believe" with the heart follows, 2Ti 2:12. Compare the opposite, "confess with thy mouth" and "believe in thine heart" (Ro 10:9, 10).
- he also will deny us-- (Mt 10:33).

13. believe not--"If we are unbelievers (literally, 'unfaithful'), He remains faithful" (De 7:9, 10). The oldest manuscripts read, "For He cannot (it is an impossibility that He should) deny Himself." He cannot be unfaithful to His word that He will deny those who deny Him, though we be not faithful to our profession of faith in Him (Ro 3:3). Three things are impossible to God, to die, to lie, and to be deceived [AUGUSTINE, The Creed, 1.1], (Heb 6:18). This impossibility is not one of infirmity, but of infinite power and majesty. Also, indirectly, comfort is suggested to believers, that He is faithful to His promises to them; at the same time that apostates are shaken out of their self-deceiving fancy, that because they change, Christ similarly may change. A warning to Timothy to be steadfast in the faith.

14. them--those over whom thou dost preside (Tit 3:1).
- charging--Greek, "testifying continually": "adjuring them."
- before the Lord-- (1Ti 5:21).
- that they strive not about words--rather, "strive with words": "not to have a (mere) war of words" (2Ti 2:23, 24; 1Ti 6:4) where the most vital matters are at stake (2Ti 2:17, 18; Ac 18:15). The oldest manuscripts put a stop at "charging them before the Lord" (which clause is thus connected with "put them in remembrance") and read the imperative, "Strive not thou in words," &c.
- to no profit--not qualifying "words"; but Greek neuter, in apposition with "strive in words," "(a thing tending) to no profit," literally, "profitable for nothing"; the opposite of "meet for the master's use" (2Ti 2:21).
- to the subverting--sure to subvert (overturn) the hearers: the opposite of "edifying" (building up) (2Co 13:10).

15. Study--Greek, "Be earnest," or "diligent."
- to show--Greek, "present," as in Ro 12:1.
- thyself--as distinguished from those whom Timothy was to charge (2Ti 2:14).
- approved--tested by trial: opposed to "reprobate" (Tit 1:16).
- workman--alluding to Mt 20:1, &c.
- not to be ashamed--by his work not being "approved" (Php 1:20). Contrast "deceitful workers" (2Co 11:13).
- rightly dividing--"rightly handling" [Vulgate]; "rightly administering" [ALFORD]; literally, cutting "straight" or "right": the metaphor being from a father or a steward (1Co 4:1) cutting and distributing bread among his children [VITRINGA and CALVIN], (Lu 12:42). The Septuagint, Pr 3:6; 11:5, use it of "making one's way": so BENGEL here takes Paul to mean that Timothy may make ready a straight way for "the word of truth," and may himself walk straight forward according to this line, turning neither to the right nor to the left, "teaching no other doctrine" (1Ti 1:3). The same image of a way appears in the Greek for "increase" (see on 2Ti 2:16). The opposite to "rightly handling," or "dispensing," is, 2Co 2:17, "corrupt the word of God."
- truth--Greek, "the truth" (compare 2Ti 2:18).

16. shun--literally, "stand above," separate from, and superior to.
- vain--opposed to "the truth" (2Ti 2:15).
- babblings--with loud voice: opposed to the temperate "word" (Tit 3:9).
- increase--Greek, advance"; literally, "strike forward": an image from pioneers cutting away all obstacles before an advancing army. They pretend progress; the only kind of progress they make is to a greater pitch of impiety.
- more ungodliness--Greek, "a greater degree of impiety."

17. will eat--literally, "will have pasture." The consuming progress of mortification is the image. They pretend to give rich spiritual pasture to their disciples: the only pasture is that of a spiritual cancer feeding on their vitals.
- canker--a "cancer" or "gangrene."
- Hymenaeus--(See on 1Ti 1:20). After his excommunication he seems to have been readmitted into the Church and again to have troubled it.