2 Timothy 4

2Ti 4:1-22.

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.

1. charge--Greek, "adjure."

therefore--omitted in the oldest manuscripts.

the Lord Jesus Christ--The oldest manuscripts read simply,

"Christ Jesus."

shall judge--His commission from God is mentioned,

Ac 10:42;

his resolution to do so,

1Pe 4:5;

the execution of his commission, here.

at his appearing--The oldest manuscripts read, "and" for "at";

then translate, "(I charge thee before God . . . ) and

and his kingdom--to be set at His appearing, when we hope to reign

with Him. His kingdom is real now, but not visible. It shall then be

both real and visible

(Lu 22:18, 30;

Re 1:7; 11:15; 19:6).

Now he reigns in the midst of His enemies expecting till

they shall be overthrown

(Ps 110:2;

Heb 10:13).

Then He shall reign with His adversaries prostrate.

2. Preach--literally, "proclaim as a herald." The term for the

discourses in the synagogue was daraschoth; the corresponding

Greek term (implying dialectial style, dialogue, and discussion,

Ac 17:2, 18; 18:4, 19)

is applied in Acts to discourses in the Christian Church.

JUSTIN MARTYR

[Apology, 2], describes the order of public worship, "On Sunday

all meet and the writings of the apostles and prophets are read; then

the president delivers a discourse; after this all stand up and pray;

then there is offered bread and wine and water; the president likewise

prays and gives thanks, and the people solemnly assent, saying, Amen."

The bishops and presbyters had the right and duty to preach, but they

sometimes called on deacons, and even laymen, to preach. EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 6.19]; in this

the Church imitated the synagogue

(Lu 4:17-22;

Ac 13:15, 16).

be instant--that is, urgent, earnest, in the whole work

of the ministry.

in season, out of season--that is, at all seasons; whether they

regard your speaking as seasonable or unseasonable. "Just as the

fountains, though none may draw from them, still flow on; and the

rivers, though none drink of them, still run; so must we do all on our

part in speaking, though none give heed to us"

[CHRYSOSTOM, Homily, 30, vol. 5., p. 221].

I think with CHRYSOSTOM, there is included also

the idea of times whether seasonable or unseasonable to Timothy

himself; not merely when convenient, but when inconvenient to thee,

night as well as day

(Ac 20:31),

in danger as well as in safety, in prison and when doomed to death as

well as when at large, not only in church, but everywhere and on all

occasions, whenever and wherever the Lord's work requires it.

reprove--"convict," "confute."

with, &c.--Greek, "IN (the

element in which the exhortation ought to have place) all

long-suffering

(2Ti 2:24, 25; 3:10)

and teaching"; compare

2Ti 2:24,

"apt to teach." The Greek for "doctrine" here is didache,

but in

2Ti 3:16,

didascalia. "Didascalia" is what one receives;

"didache" is what is communicated

[TITTMANN].

3. they--professing Christians.

sound doctrine--Greek, "the sound (see on

1Ti 1:10)

doctrine (didascalias)" or "teaching," namely, of the Gospel.

Presently follows the concrete, "teachers."

after their own lusts--Instead of regarding the will of God they

dislike being interrupted in their lusts by true teachers.

heap--one on another: an indiscriminate mass of false teachers.

Variety delights itching ears. "He who despises sound teaching, leaves

sound teachers; they seek instructors like themselves"

[BENGEL]. It is

the corruption of the people in the first instance, that creates

priestcraft

(Ex 32:1).

to themselves--such as will suit their depraved tastes;

populus vult decipi, et decipiatur--"the people wish to be

deceived, so let them be deceived." "Like priest, like people"

(1Ki 12:31;

Ho 4:9).

itching--like to hear teachers who give them mere pleasure

(Ac 17:19-21),

and do not offend by truths grating to their ears. They, as it were,

tickle with pleasure the levity of the multitude

[CICERO], who come as to a theater to hear what

will delight their ears, not to learn [SENECA,

Epistles, 10.8] what will do them good. "Itch in the ear is as

bad in any other part of the body, and perhaps worse" [SOUTH].

4. The ear brooks not what is opposed to the man's lusts.

turned--Greek, "turned aside"

(1Ti 1:6).

It is a righteous retribution, that when men turn away from the

truth, they should be turned to fables

(Jer 2:19).

fables--

(1Ti 1:4).

5. I am no longer here to withstand these things; be thou a

worthy successor of me, no longer depending on me for counsel, but

thine own master, and swimming without the corks

[CALVIN]; follow my steps, inherit their result,

and the honor of their end [ALFORD].

watch thou--literally, "with the wakefulness of one sober."

in all things--on all occasions and under all circumstances

(Tit 2:7).

endure affliction--suffer hardships [ALFORD].

evangelist--a missionary bishop preacher, and teacher.

make full proof of--fulfil in all its requirements, leaving

nothing undone

(Ac 12:25;

Ro 15:19;

Col 4:17).

6. Greek, "For I am already being offered"; literally, as

a libation; appropriate to the shedding of his blood.

Every sacrifice began with an initiatory libation on the victim's head

(compare Note, see on

Php 2:17).

A motive to stimulate Timothy to faithfulness--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).

my departure--literally, "loosing anchor" (see on

Php 1:23).

Dissolution.

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).

kept the faith--the Christian faith committed to me as a believer

and an apostle (compare

2Ti 1:14;

Re 2:10; 3:10).

8. a crown--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].

crown--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;

Re 2:10).

of righteousness--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

(Re 22:11).

Compare

Ex 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].

give--Greek, "shall award" in righteous requital as "Judge"

(Ac 17:31;

2Co 5:10;

2Th 1:6, 7).

in that day--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

Mt 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.

me--individual appropriation. Greek, "not only to me."

them that love--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."

9.

(2Ti 4:21;

2Ti 1:4, 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.

10. Demas--once a "fellow laborer" of Paul, along with Mark and

Luke

(Col 4:14;

Phm 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

(Mt 13:20, 21, 22).

CHRYSOSTOM implies that Thessalonica was his home.

Galatia--One oldest manuscript supports the reading "Gaul." But

most oldest manuscripts, &c., "Galatia."

Titus--He must have therefore left Crete after "setting in order"

the affairs of the churches there

(Tit 1:5).

Dalmatia--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).

11. Take--Greek, "take up" on thy journey

(Ac 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.

he is profitable to me for the ministry--Mark had been under a

cloud for having forsaken Paul at a critical moment in his missionary

tour with Barnabas

(Ac 15:37-40; 13:5, 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 24).

Demas apostatizes. Mark returns to the right way, and is no longer

unprofitable, but is profitable for the Gospel ministry

(Phm 11).

12. And--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.

13. cloak . . . I left--probably obliged to leave it

in a hurried departure from Troas.

Carpus--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).

books--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.

especially the parchments--containing perhaps some of his inspired

Epistles themselves.

14. Alexander the coppersmith--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

(Ac 19:33, 34).

reward--The oldest manuscripts read, "shall reward," or

"requite him." Personal revenge certainly did not influence the apostle

(2Ti 4:16,

end).

15. our words--the arguments of us Christians for our common

faith. Believers have a common cause.

16. At my first answer--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

(Php 1:1, 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.

stood with me--Greek, "came forward with me"

[ALFORD] as a friend and advocate.

may it not be laid to their charge--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

(Ac 7:60).

17. the Lord--the more because men deserted me.

stood with me--stronger than "came forward with me" (Greek,

2Ti 4:16).

strengthened--Greek, "put strength in me."

often of the greatest moment.

the preaching--"the Gospel proclamation."

might be fully known--might be fully made (see on

2Ti 4:5).

that all the Gentiles--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.

I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion--namely, Satan, the

roaring, devouring lion

(Lu 22:31;

1Pe 5:8).

I was prevented falling into his snare

(2Ti 2:26;

Ps 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.

18. And the Lord shall, &c.--Hope draws its conclusions from the

past to the future [BENGEL].

will preserve me--literally, "will save"

(Ps 22:21),

"will bring me safe to." Jesus is the Lord and the Deliverer

(Php 3:20;

1Th 1:10):

He saves from evil; He gives good things.

heavenly kingdom--Greek, "His kingdom which is a heavenly

one."

to whom, &c.--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].

19. Prisca and Aquila--

(Ac 18:2, 3;

Ro 16:3, 4;

1Co 16:19,

written from Ephesus, where therefore Aquila and Priscilla must then

have been).

household of Onesiphorus--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).

20. In order to depict his desertion, he informs Timothy that

Erastus, one of his usual companions

(Ac 19:22,

possibly the same Erastus as in

Ro 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

(Ro 16:23);

and Trophimus he left behind at Miletus sick. (On his former history,

see on

Ac 20:4;

Ac 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

(Ac 19:12),

but as the Lord allowed him.

21. before winter--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).

Pudens . . . Claudia--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

Ro 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.

Linus--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.

22. Grace be with you--plural in oldest manuscripts, "with YOU," that is, thee and the members of the Ephesian and

neighboring churches.

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