Additional Notes §6
§6 Basis for the Appeal (2 Tim. 2:8–13)
With this paragraph Paul brings to a fitting conclusion his long appeal for Timothy to remain loyal—even to the point of suffering. His loyalty is to be primarily to Christ and the gospel, but it will be evidenced by his loyalty to Paul, a prisoner because of the gospel, and by faithfulness to his own ministry (1:6–14). When this appeal resumed in 2:1, it especially picked up the theme of Timothy’s readiness to share in suffering for the gospel, reinforced by the promise of eschatological reward (vv. 4–6; cf. 1:12).
This present paragraph provides the theological basis for the appeal. Timothy is urged to remember Jesus Christ himself, whose resurrection and Davidic descent are to bring him confidence (v. 8). But this mention of Christ leads to yet another reminder of Paul’s imprisonment and the reasons for it (vv. 9–10). He then concludes with the fifth “faithful saying,” a quatrain, apparently from a hymn or poem, which both encourages endurance (line 2) and warns against its lack (line 3), but concludes on the high note of God’s faithfulness (line 4).
Thus the basic themes of the whole section are reiterated: Christ and his gospel, Paul’s present suffering, and an appeal, with a warning, for Timothy himself (and now including God’s people) to endure despite the suffering.
2:8 / Although verse 7 was something of an afterthought to the three preceding analogies, the reminder that the Lord would enable him to understand prompts the next imperative: Remember (“bear in mind,” Kelly) Jesus Christ. This picks up the “memory” motif that recurs in this letter (1:4–5, 6; 3:14–15). Just as Paul had earlier reminded him of the faith of his forebears (1:5), of his own call and empowering for ministry (1:6–7), and of the “sound teaching” he had had modeled before him in Paul (1:13; cf. 1:9–10), so now he calls him to focus his attention on Christ himself.
In his “bearing in mind Jesus Christ,” Timothy is to focus on two realities: that he was raised from the dead and that he was descended from David (lit., “of David’s seed”). The reason for the first of these two qualifiers is easy enough to discern. Jesus Christ … raised [better, “risen”] from the dead is both the prime example of eschatological victory after death (hence reflecting on vv. 5–6, and thus an encouragement to one who is also suffering) and Timothy’s source of strength (i.e., he who conquered death through resurrection will “strengthen you” for your task and endurance). Furthermore, it also anticipates the exposure of the false teachers in verses 14–18, who, by arguing that the “resurrection [of believers] has already taken place,” are in effect denying the eschatological future that Paul is affirming (vv. 5–6, 10).
That the focus of Timothy’s remembering Jesus Christ is on his being the Risen One is further demonstrated from the first couplet in the hymn (vv. 11–12a): “if we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him.” Since this is so, one wonders, then what is the point of the second qualifier, descended from David? Several options have been offered. On the basis of the similar combination in Romans 1:3–4, some have seen the whole as a piece of early creedal material and suggest that this phrase was included from the source, but without its having any necessary significance for the context. Others see it as reference to the Incarnation, with emphasis on Christ’s humanity, over against an alleged Gnosticism on the part of the opponents (but its use in Rom. 1:3 speaks against this). Most likely, as in other such references in the NT, the point is not so much Christ’s humanity as it is his being the fulfillment of God’s promise and his people’s expectations. If so, then it fits the theme of continuity with the past (see disc. on 1:3, 5; cf. 3:14–17), especially of Christ as the true fulfillment and visible expression of God’s faithfulness.
Together these two realities, Jesus Christ risen from the dead and Jesus Christ of the seed of David form a brief epitome of my gospel (cf. 1 Tim. 1:11; Rom. 2:16; 16:25, “not invented by me but entrusted to me,” Lock). It assures Timothy, and in verse 10 God’s people also, that he, and they, belong to something that God has been doing in history, culminating in Christ, and that they are the heirs of final eschatological salvation, also through Christ. Thus, “Be steadfast.”
2:9–10 / Having called Timothy’s attention once again to Christ as the content of his gospel, Paul also once more reminds him that his (Paul’s) present suffering is in the service of that gospel. For which, Paul reminds him, I am suffering this present evil, even to the point (translating the preposition mechri) of being chained like a criminal, a clear indignity for one who was both a Roman citizen and innocent. The word criminal, which occurs in Luke 23:32–39 for the brigands who were crucified with Jesus, is an especially strong word, used for those “who commit gross misdeeds and serious crimes” (BAGD). It is clear from this sentence, as well as from 1:8, 16, and 4:16–18, that Paul’s imprisonment was a serious one, and that it was personally repugnant to him.
But his repugnance at his chains is immediately contrasted with God’s word that is not chained. They may stop the messenger, but they cannot stop the message. As Luther sang: “The body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever.” And this, of course, is Paul’s concern for Timothy throughout the letter. “Take your share in suffering,” he urges him, “and above all, preach the word (4:2); for it is the word alone, the message of the gospel, that counts. They may imprison us and chain us, but they cannot chain our message” (cf. esp. Phil. 1:12–18).
Paul’s imprisonment, however, is not mentioned simply as a contrast to the unfettered word of God. As in Philippians 1:12–18, it is portrayed as being in behalf of that word and for the sake of the elect. Thus I endure everything—and by implication Timothy should too (cf. v. 12a). “God’s chosen people” would be an excellent translation of tous eklektous (the elect). Far too much ink has been spilled on the theological implications of this term, whether it refers to the “elect” who are already saved or to the “elect” but not yet saved. Such theologizing quite misses Paul’s point. Here again, as in Titus 1:1, 2:14, and many other places, Paul has appropriated OT language for God’s people and applied it to Christian believers. Furthermore, as in verse 8 above, the emphasis here falls on their continuity with the past, not their theological status.
The effect of his imprisonment for the sake of “God’s chosen people”—and the reason he is willing to endure everything—is that they too will obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. It is not clear, just as in Colossians 1:24 and 2 Corinthians 1:6, how Paul understands the relationship between Christ’s sufferings, his own sufferings, and the people’s salvation. He certainly cannot mean that his suffering obtains salvation for them. More likely he means that his imprisonment will somehow “help on the work of the Gospel” (Barrett), by means of which God’s people obtain their salvation. But just how he understands his suffering to “help it on,” we are not told. In any event it is the gospel for which he suffers, not his suffering for the gospel, that ultimately brings their salvation; for after all it is in Christ Jesus, and through Paul only as secondary agent—as its messenger. As throughout these letters, and especially this one, salvation is primarily an eschatological reality: It comes with eternal glory. Thus he reminds Timothy—and now the people as well—that beyond present endurance awaits the eschatological prize (see disc. on vv. 4–6).
It should not go unnoticed that with these words Paul begins temporarily to look beyond Timothy to include God’s people, the chosen ones, who will, with Timothy and Paul, renounce the false teachings (2:14–21) and “endure unto eternal glory.”
2:11–13 / As a way of wrapping up this segment of the argument (appeal), and thereby reinforcing the appeal itself (which now includes God’s people), Paul “cites” a fifth (and last) trustworthy (“faithful”) saying. On the formula itself, see the discussion on 1 Timothy 1:15 (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1; 4:10; Titus 3:8).
Because the saying in this instance begins with a connective gar (“for,” untranslated in the NIV), some have argued that the saying is actually verse 8 or 10 or that logos does not mean saying here but refers back to God’s word in verse 9 or that the “for” was an original part of a borrowed saying that was thus incorporated by Paul, but without meaning for the present context. However, the rhythmic balance of the four lines that follow gives them the clear character of a “saying” (perhaps an early Christian poem or hymn, more likely from Paul himself or from his churches). The gar is probably explanatory—and thus intentional—but does not refer to this is a trustworthy saying. Rather it goes back to all of the appeal in verses 1–10. “Take your share of suffering,” Paul says; “keep in mind your risen Lord,” he further reminds him, “because if we have died with him, we shall also live with him,” and so on.
The poetic nature of the saying can be easily seen. It is a quatrain of conditional sentences. Each protasis (“if”-clause) deals with the believers’ actions (all in the first person plural, the language of confession); each apodosis (“then”-clause) gives the results in terms of Christ, with the final apodosis having an additional explanatory coda. It may be that couplets are intended, since the first two lines deal with positive actions and the second two with negative. However, there is also a progression of tenses (past, present, future) and ideas in the first three lines, whereas the final line exhibits some remarkable shifts (both verbs are present; no also in the apodosis; a surprising turn to the apodosis).
The most likely interpretation of the first three lines is that they progress from Christian conversion (line 1) through perseverance and its eschatological prize (line 2) to a warning about the dire consequences of apostasy (line 3). Although there are considerable differences among scholars about line 4, it probably responds to line 3 as a word of hope. Our faithfulness or disloyalty cannot alter the greater reality of Christ’s faithfulness (to us, being implied).
Before examining each line, one should note that the language and thought of the whole is thoroughly Pauline—to the detail. If he did not compose it, then it was certainly composed in his churches. In the final analysis there is no reason to think that the man who wrote 1 Corinthians 13 and Romans 8:28–39 could not also have written this marvelous piece.
Line 1: If we died with him, we will also live with him. This clearly mirrors Romans 6:8 (cf. Col. 2:20; 3:1), and there is no reason to think that it means anything different here from what it does there. Using baptismal imagery, Paul is reflecting again on Christian conversion as a dying and rising with Christ. The future, we will also live with him, has primarily to do with life in Christ in the present (as it does in Rom. 6:8–11), although such language always has latent in it the thought of the eschatological fulfillment yet to be realized. After all, the present life with him is the result of his resurrection, the primary eschatological event that has already set the future in motion.
In the present context, however, the language of dying and living in Christ is perhaps also to be heard with the broader implications of Christian martyrdom. What was true figuratively at one’s baptism would also be true of a “baptism” of another kind. One might well guess that the implication of this was not lost on Timothy.
Line 2: If we endure, we will also reign with him. This line is the basic reason, along with its warning counterpart in line 3, for citing the saying. It speaks directly to the concern throughout the whole appeal (1:6–2:13) that Timothy remain loyal, even in the face of suffering. The verb to endure, although it clearly implies persevering, is especially used by NT writers of holding one’s ground patiently in trouble or affliction (cf. Mark 13:13; Rom. 12:12). That is certainly the sense here.
The apodosis also speaks directly to the context, namely, the promise of the eschatological victory alluded to in the three analogies in verses 4–6. To reign with Christ is a Pauline way of expressing the “eternal glory” that awaits those who are faithful to the end (cf. 1 Cor. 4:8; cf. also Rev. 3:21).
Line 3: If we disown [lit., “shall disown”] him, he will also disown us. With this line there is a shift to negative actions of believers. The content stands in clear contrast to line 2 as its opposite. Therefore, it also almost certainly presupposes the context of suffering and persecution (i.e., “being ashamed” of Christ in the time of trial). Thus it is both warning—to Timothy and “the elect” (v. 10; hence the future tense) and judgment—on those such as the Asians of 1:15 who have already deserted.
The language of this line precisely reflects the saying of Jesus found in Matthew 10:33 (par. Luke 12:9). Thus the subject in the apodosis changes from “we” to an emphatic he (Gk. demonstrative pronoun, “that one”).
Lines 2 and 3 together, therefore, form the basic reason for the citation: promise and warning attached to a call for endurance in the face of suffering and hardship.
Line 4: If we are faithless, he will remain faithful (cf. Rom. 3:3). This line is full of surprises, and it is also the one for which sharp differences of opinion exist regarding its interpretation. Some see it as a negative, corresponding to line 3. If we are faithless (i.e., if we commit apostasy), God must be faithful to himself and mete out judgment. Although such an understanding is possible, it seems highly improbable that this is what Paul himself intended. After all, that could have been said plainly. The lack of a future verb with the adverb “also,” as well as the fact that God’s faithfulness in the NT is always in behalf of his people, also tend to speak out against this view.
What seems to have happened is that, in a rather typical way (cf., e.g., 1 Cor. 8:3), Paul could not bring himself to finish a sentence as it began. It is possible for us to prove faithless; but Paul could not possibly say that God would then be faithless toward us. Indeed, quite the opposite. If we are faithless (and the context demands this meaning of the verb apistoumen, not “unbelieving,” as KJV, et al.), this does not in any way affect God’s own faithfulness to his people. This can mean either that God will override our infidelity with his grace (as most commentators) or that his overall faithfulness to his gracious gift of eschatological salvation for his people is not negated by the faithlessness of some. This latter seems more in keeping with Paul and the immediate context. Some have proved faithless, but God’s saving faithfulness has not been diminished thereby. So Timothy and the people should continue to endure that they might also reign with him. Thus all four lines cohere as an exposition of “the salvation that comes through Christ Jesus and brings eternal glory” (v. 10).
The final coda simply explains why the final apodosis stands as it does: because he cannot disown himself. To do so would mean that God had ceased to be. Hence eschatological salvation is for Paul ultimately rooted in the character of God.
With this great affirmation, in the context of equally severe warning, this first appeal to loyalty comes to a conclusion. The defections in Asia, the warnings in this text, plus the raising of his sights in verse 10 to include “the elect,” all coalesce to turn Paul’s attention one final time to the false teachers (see 1 Tim. 1:3–11, 18–20; 4:1–5; 6:3–10) and Timothy’s responsibilities (2:14–3:9).
2:8 / The unusual word order (for the PE) of Jesus before Christ, and esp. the appearance of the phrase “from David’s seed” in Ignatius of Antioch (ca. A.D. 110), have also contributed to the conviction that this is a segment of creedal formulation that has been borrowed both here and in Rom. 1:3–4. Although the word order is probably irrelevant (see Titus 1:1), the creedal nature of what is said is certainly possible. But it is highly unlikely that we are dealing with a fixed creed. Rather, a “common body of doctrine was beginning to crystallize into more or less conventional patterns and forms, and sometimes set types of verbal expression were becoming current, [but] the language still remained fairly fluid” (J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, pp. 23–24).
2:9–10 / For a typical example of “too much ink spilt” on “who are the elect” in this passage that rather misses Paul’s point, see Hendriksen.
2:11–13 / For a rather full discussion of the issues involved in this passage (what is the trustworthy saying; what is its extent and structure) as well as an extensive exegesis of its details, see G. W. Knight, The Faithful Sayings in the Pastoral letters, pp. 112–37. Knight and G. R. Beasley-Murray (Baptism in the New Testament, pp. 207–9) both argue that it is a baptismal hymn (but see J. D. G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, pp. 169–70). Bernard probably comes closer to reality by seeing it as “a hymn on the glories of martyrdom.” But if one takes seriously the thoroughly Pauline nature of the poem, neither of these options is necessary. The hymn, in all of its parts, fits the context so well, that, whatever its origins or original setting, it now functions to inspire loyalty to Christ.
For an interpretation that sees line 1 as essentially reflecting martyrdom, see Hendriksen. But even he recognizes the difficulties that the aorist (past tense) verb, we died, presents for this view, so he spiritualizes the death as being to “worldly comfort, ease,” etc.
For examples of the “negative” understanding of line 4, see the comments by Bernard and Hendriksen. See Knight, pp. 126–31, for a more detailed refutation.