(2:8-13)

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself. (2:8–13)

     Jeremiah was far and away the most godly man of his day. But he is a poor advertisement for the contemporary prosperity gospel. During most of his earthly life, his godliness brought greater and greater ridicule and persecution, ending, as tradition has it, by merciless stoning. He was born into a priestly family but was called to be a prophet, the most persecuted prophet in the Old Testament. He refused to compromise God’s truth, and for that faithfulness suffered what might be called a life-long martyrdom. Yet he continued yearning for the salvation of his people, praying, “Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jer. 9:1).

After years of opposition and torment, Jeremiah cried out in bewilderment to God: “Righteous art Thou, O Lord, that I would plead my case with Thee; indeed I would discuss matters of justice with Thee: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease?” (Jer. 12:1). Patience with his ungodly countrymen was exhausted, and he now begged God to “drag them off like sheep for the slaughter and set them apart for a day of carnage!” (v. 3). He also lost patience with God, asking, “How long is the land to mourn and the vegetation of the countryside to wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it, animals and birds have been snatched away, because men have said, ‘He [God] will not see our latter ending’” (Jer. 12:4).

God’s response was not what Jeremiah, and most of us, would have expected. “If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out,” the Lord asked His prophet, “then how can you compete with horses?” (v. 5). God told Jeremiah, in effect, “Your suffering for Me has just begun. You are just learning to endure.” Instead of being offered sympathy, he was called to have courage and strength.

That is essentially the admonition Paul gave to Timothy, who at this time faced increased opposition from within the church as well as increased persecution from without. Timothy was not to retreat or wallow in self-pity. He was instead to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus…. [and to] suffer hardship … as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1, 3).

Any careful student of the New Testament knows that a true confession of Jesus as Savior and Lord involves willing, unconditional submission to Him and to the work of His kingdom—whatever the cost might be, even if it is death.

Near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21; cf. Luke 6:46). A short while later, He told the Twelve, “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 10:38–39). Near the end of His earthly ministry, as “Christ began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day,” He repeated the earlier truth in slightly different words: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:21, 24–25). In what is commonly called His second farewell discourse, Jesus said, “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).

Faithful service to the Lord has always been costly. Speaking of Old Testament saints, the writer of Hebrews said that some “were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground” (Heb. 11:35–38). Those godly men and women could have echoed Paul’s words: “I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord” (Acts 20:24).

Throughout the history of the church, the cost of discipleship has continued to be high. Millions upon millions have severely suffered for the cause of Christ, including those who have laid down their lives. Many believers have been maligned and deserted by unbelieving spouses, a desertion that is particularly hard on wives who are left with children to support. Often there is rejection and ostracism by family, friends, or business associates who are offended by the gospel. Even in the church, “those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh” resent true godliness. They substitute humanly achievable standards, as the Judaizers did in regard to circumcision, for God’s spiritual standards, in order “that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ” (Gal. 6:12). Believers who are self-centered and self-willed find God’s standards to be onerous and often make life difficult for believers who seek, in the Spirit’s power, to live up to them.

During World War II, eleven missionaries were martyred on the Island of Panay in the Philippines. One of these was Dr. Francis Rose, who had penned these poignant and challenging words in what is commonly called “The Martyr’s Hymn”:

Until Christ returns, the bold proclamation of the gospel will continue to stir up the animosity and opposition of the spiritually blind, Christ-rejecting world. In the farewell discourse mentioned above, Jesus told the disciples, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Later in the present letter, Paul would remind Timothy that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). Satan makes certain that persecution accompanies faithfulness to Christ.

In 2 Timothy 2:8–13, Paul assures this young pastor that, nevertheless, there is more than reason enough for him, and all Christians, to willingly suffer for Christ, to put everything in this life on the line for Him. No sacrifice—mockery, alienation, rejection, desertion, imprisonment, or even death—is too high a price to pay. The importance and the rewards of a faithful life and ministry, not to mention the honor and glory of the Lord we trust and serve, far outweigh any personal sacrifice that our trust and service may incite.

Less than ten years earlier, Paul had written the church at Rome,

It was because of that confidence that the apostle also could say, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

While writing this last inspired letter of his life, Paul knew he was near the end. “The time of my departure has come,” he said. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:6–7). Timothy understood quite well that if he ministered as courageously and faithfully as Paul he might also suffer as severely as Paul. The apostle therefore entreats Timothy to have the same unshakable confidence in Christ and the same unqualified willingness to suffer for His sake that had sustained him throughout his own productive but pain-filled years and that enabled him to “have fought the good fight” and to “have kept the faith,” even when facing the most threatening enemies.

Paul may have anticipated questions that would come to Timothy’s mind after the admonitions of 2:1–6. “Why should I be a faithful teacher of teachers?” he may have wondered. “Why should I suffer hardship like a soldier, compete to win like an athlete, and toil hard like a farmer?”

Whatever Timothy may have been thinking, the apostle offers four powerful motives for faithfulness. He calls him to remember the preeminence of the Lord (v. 8), the power of the Word (v. 9), the purpose of the work (v. 10), and the promise of reward (vv. 11–13).

THE PREEMINENCE OF THE LORD

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, (2:8)

     “Timothy,” Paul is saying, “your service will be more aggressive, you will have greater courage, greater boldness, greater endurance of evil treatment and of suffering for the Lord if you remember His preeminence, who He really is—none other than God incarnate, Jesus Christ.”

As with the preceding verbs “be strong” (v. 1), “entrust” (v. 2), and “consider” (v. 7), the Greek verb rendered remember is an imperative—as also are the following: “remind” (v. 14), “be diligent” (v. 15), “avoid” (v. 16), “abstain” (v. 19), “flee” and “pursue” (v. 22), and “refuse” (v. 23). These are gentle commands, but commands nonetheless. For a faithful and productive spiritual life, they are not options but imperatives, because they all characterize the sinless life of our supreme example, Jesus Christ. As John reminds us, “The one who says he abides in Him [Christ] ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:6). Peter asks, “For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:20–22). We are to fix “our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).

Because the Greek verb behind remember is in the active voice, it carries the idea of “continue to remember” or “keep on remembering.” The preeminence of our Lord Jesus Christ should always be in the forefront of our minds. He is the supreme and ultimate teacher of teachers. He was the greatest soldier, the greatest athlete, and the greatest farmer, as it were. He fought the greatest battle and won the greatest victory. He ran the greatest race and won the greatest prize. He sowed the perfect seed and reaped the perfect harvest.

We must keep in mind that Jesus’ path to glory was marked by pain before pleasure, sorrow before joy, humiliation before glorification, persecution before exaltation, death before resurrection, earthly hatred before heavenly worship. To remember those truths about our Lord’s earthly life will protect us from the foolish and ungodly promises of the so-called health and wealth gospel, which vitiates His command to take up our crosses as He took up His. If Jesus’ perfect and sinless obedience of His heavenly Father did not bring Him earthly prosperity and well-being, how much less can we expect to receive those things because of our imperfect service of Him? If our Lord Jesus Christ, “although He was [God’s] Son, … learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8), how much more should we?

We are to remember Jesus Christ first of all because He is risen from the dead, more literally, “having been raised from the dead.” It is that great truth on which Paul focuses in 1 Corinthians 15. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received,” he said, “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3–4). That truth is of “first importance” because, “if Christ has not been raised, [our] faith is worthless; [and we] are still in [our] sins…. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied” (vv. 17, 19).

Our Lord Himself promised difficulty. “You will be hated by all on account of My name,” He said, “but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. But whenever they persecute you in this city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you shall not finish going through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master” (Matt. 10:22–24).

Paul is not speaking of remembering the resurrection, important as that is, but rather of remembering Jesus Christ, who is alive because of the resurrection, having been risen from the dead. We do not serve a past event or a merely historical person. Jesus did indeed live a human life and die a human death. But we worship and serve Him because He is no longer dead but alive. We remember and worship and serve the living Jesus Christ.

By His resurrection, Christ became “the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place [preeminence] in everything” (Col. 1:18). Not only that, however; for our sakes, He also became “the first-born among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29), in order that we might be raised and live with Him through all eternity, as “the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven” (Heb. 12:23).

When we remember Christ as our resurrected Lord, we focus on His nature as God and His role as Savior. Through His death and resurrection, Christ broke the shackles of sin and of its wages, death, which is the greatest weapon of Satan. When we trusted in Him, He became our Savior and our Lord, breaking the power of sin, of death, and of Satan in our own lives. What greater motivation for service to Him could there be than to serve the One who conquered death and did it for us (John 14:19)?

We also should remember Jesus Christ in His humanity, in His identification with fallen mankind as a descendant of David “according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:30). His human descent from David not only speaks of His humanity as our sympathetic and merciful High Priest, who knows all our suffering and has felt all our pain (Heb. 2:14, 18), but also of His royalty and majesty. Before Jesus’ conception, the angel proclaimed to Mary, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:32–33). In his last direct words to the apostle John on Patmos, Jesus spoke of Himself as “the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star” (Rev. 22:16).

Therefore, if Jesus Christ is our divine Savior and sovereign Lord, why should we worry about what happens to us in this life? As our perfect High Priest, He is able to “sympathize with our weaknesses,” because He “has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

As our sovereign Lord, Jesus Christ controls everything that we are and everything that happens to us. We must resist temptation, but we need not fear it, because our Lord “will not allow [us] to be tempted beyond what [we] are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that [we] may be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13). We have no need to worry about the depths of our troubles or our sorrows. Isaiah gives comfort to all those who belong to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. “Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs, and carry them in His bosom” (Isa. 40:11). “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried” (53:4), the prophet later writes.

We have no need to fear the loss of salvation, because our Lord assures us of our perfect and absolute security in Him. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me,” He said; “and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:27–28). “He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). We have no need to fear death. “Because I live,” Jesus said, “you shall live also” (John 14:19). Every believer can say with Paul, “To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).

According to my gospel does not refer to Paul’s personal opinion about the gospel but to the divinely revealed message of Jesus Christ entrusted to him and that he proclaimed as “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (2 Tim. 1:1). It was the One who was the theme of the gospel he was referring to when he said, “Timothy, keep your eyes on the preeminent Jesus Christ as the Son of God as well as the Son of man, and as Savior as well as Lord and King.”

THE POWER OF THE WORD

for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. (2:9)

     A second great motivation for faithfulness is the power of God’s Word. Paul contrasts his own imprisonment to the freedom of the word of God, which is not imprisoned. As suggested in this translation, the Greek noun behind imprisonment is from the verb that is here rendered is … imprisoned. Even though Paul was a man under the authority of Jesus Christ, he was subject to imprisonment by ungodly men, just as Jesus Himself had been subject to evil treatment by ungodly men during His incarnation. Although Paul was not sinless, as was his Lord, he nevertheless was like his Lord in being guiltless of the charges for which he was imprisoned. Paul was not a robber, murderer, or traitor, even by the standards of Roman law. Yet he was incarcerated as a criminal, probably in the infamous Mamertine prison in Rome, awaiting certain death.

Paul was not, however, lamenting the injustice of his imprisonment. He had already admonished Timothy not to “be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God” (2 Tim. 1:8). Whether or not he was familiar with Peter’s first letter (written several years before 2 Timothy), he certainly would have agreed with the attitude of his fellow apostle, who, as quoted above, wrote, “If when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:20–21). Paul was “well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak,” he testified, “then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

Paul’s point in the present verse, therefore, is not to complain about his own lamentable condition but rather to point up, by contrast, the sovereign, unfettered word of God. The apostle would have agreed fully with the writer of Hebrews, who declared, “The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). As Paul had written the Ephesian church, “The sword of the Spirit … is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17), and this divine “sword” cannot be taken out of the Spirit’s hand—by men, by demons, or even by Satan himself.

There have always been people in the church, and never more than in our own day, who believe that the power of the gospel is restricted by social or political opposition. Consequently, they argue that risking public censure, not to mention arrest and imprisonment for boldly preaching sin, repentance, and the gospel, should be avoided. They counsel discretion and sometimes even compromise in order to make the message more acceptable and, supposedly, more effective.

Many Christians are under the illusion that God’s Word has been influential in the Western world, especially in such democracies as the United States, primarily because of legal guarantees of freedom of religion, and that the fight to keep that freedom is therefore a fight to preserve the power of the gospel. In fact, some Christians who would never think of confronting society with the bold and demanding gospel and being censured for it will strongly fight for some social or political issue in ways that might get them arrested. Religious freedom is certainly commendable, and Christians who enjoy it should be grateful for and take advantage of the opportunities it affords for worship, witness, and service. But the power of God’s Word has never been dependent on man’s protection or subject to man’s restriction. That is precisely Paul’s point. The word of God is not, and cannot be, imprisoned.

At one time there were some 600 miles of catacombs under the city of Rome, nearly all them dug and used by ten generations of Christians over a period of 300 years. In the early centuries of the church, the catacombs served as meeting and burial places for perhaps as many as four million Christians. A common inscription found on walls there is “The Word of God is not bound.” In his famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” Martin Luther declared, “The body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still.”

John Bunyan wrote his most famous work, Pilgrim’s Progress, while jailed in Bedford, England, for preaching the gospel. Yet for several centuries that book was second in sales only to the Bible. Bunyan’s cell window faced a high stone wall that surrounded the prison, making it impossible to see into or out of his cell. On many days, however, he would preach loudly enough for his voice to be heard on the outside of the wall, where hundreds of listeners, believers and unbelievers, eagerly awaited his proclamation of God’s Word, which was unconfined by stone walls or iron bars.

Before the Communist conquest in the late 1940s and early 1950s, there were more than 700,000 Christians in China. During the subsequent “cultural revolution,” at least 30 million Chinese were slaughtered, including most of the Christians. Yet, after more than forty years of brutal oppression, imprisonment, and executions, the church of Jesus Christ in that vast country has a current membership of an estimated 30 million to 100 million. Although written copies of Scripture are still scarce, the truth of God’s Word endures in their hearts. Its power cannot be bound. The more it is assailed, the more it prevails.

Andrew Melville was the successor of John Knox in the Scottish Reformation. On one occasion, a certain official had him arrested and said, “There will never be quietness in this country till half a dozen of you be hanged or banished [from] the country.” With perfect composure, Melville fearlessly replied, “It is the same to me whether I rot in the air or in the ground. The earth is the Lord’s; my fatherland is wherever well-doing is. I have been ready to give my life, when it was not half as well worn, at the pleasure of my God. I lived out of your country ten years as well as in it. Yet God be glorified, it will not lie in your power to hang nor exile His truth!”

THE PURPOSE OF THE WORK

For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. (2:10)

     A third motivation for faithfulness is the divine purpose of the Lord’s work on earth before He returns.

For this reason refers to what Paul has said in the preceding verse about remembering the preeminence of Christ and the power of God’s word. Those divine motivations gave the apostle the willingness to endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen. He is not speaking here of fellow believers, but of God’s chosen who had yet to obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.

That translates hina, which, when used with a subjunctive, as here with tunchanō (to obtain), indicates a purpose clause. A more exact rendering, therefore, would be “in order that” the unbelievers to whom he witnessed might obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. Paul not only suffered because his faithfulness to Christ provoked it but also because, like the Lord, he was “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). His heart reflected God’s heart, because, like Peter, he knew with certainty that “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

God’s Word clearly reveals that “He chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, [and] predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph. 1:4–5), that “whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). Disregarding other Scripture, some fatalistic interpreters use texts such as those just cited to argue that evangelism not only is unnecessary but presumptuous, claiming that God will sovereignly save those whom He has predestined, regardless of whether or not they hear and believe the gospel. But God’s Word just as clearly teaches the necessity of faith for salvation as it does that salvation is by God’s free and sovereign grace. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father” (John 6:65). But He also said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life…. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16, 18, emphasis added; cf. v. 36). Paul succinctly states those companion truths in the familiar and priceless words “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8).

Scripture also is clear that, despite the Lord’s sovereign calling of men to Himself, He calls those who belong to Him to extend His call to those who have not heard and heeded it. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,” Jesus said, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). We are called to be Christ’s “witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

In his letter to the church at Rome, immediately after declaring that “whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved,” Paul goes on to ask rhetorically, “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14).

The fact that our finite minds cannot fully understand or reconcile such truths in no way affects their validity. God sovereignly calls every believer in His grace; He sovereignly demands their faith to make His gracious calling effective; and He sovereignly calls those who are saved to be His witnesses to those who are not.

John Wesley traveled by foot or horseback some 250,000 miles, preaching more than 40,000 sermons, and he wrote, translated, or edited more than 200 books. He lived simply and gave away most of whatever income he received. Yet he was continually ridiculed and pelted with stones by ungodly mobs and was ostracized by fellow clergymen in the Church of England. When maligned, he answered, “I leave my reputation where I left my soul, in the hands of God.” He never lost his joy of service or his love for the Lord and for men, both saved and unsaved. One biographer commented, “To Wesley was granted the task which even an archangel might have envied.”

George Whitefield, a close friend and fellow worker with John and Charles Wesley during his early ministry, spent thirty-four years preaching the gospel in the British Isles and in America. He made thirteen transatlantic voyages, which were still perilous in those days, and preached at least 18,000 sermons on the two continents. The noted poet and hymnwriter William Cowper—who wrote “Oh! For a Closer Walk with God” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood”—penned the following tribute to Whitefield:

That resolute man of God heeded Peter’s counsel to “keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong” (1 Peter 3:16–17).

And with it, Paul continues—that is, with “the salvation which is in Christ Jesus”—comes eternal glory. In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul presents that truth more fully: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him” (8:16–17).

THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL BLESSING

It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself. (2:11–13)

     A fourth motivation for faithfulness to Christ is the promise of eternal blessing.

Paul uses the phrase It is a trustworthy statement five times in the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus), but it is found nowhere else in the New Testament. He seems to have used it to introduce a truth that was axiomatic, a truism in the early church that was commonly known and believed. The long sentence beginning For if we died with Him and continuing through verse 13 may have been used as a creed in the early church. Its parallelism and rhythm suggest that these two verses (like 1 Timothy 3:16) may have been sung as a hymn, and it is for that reason that some Greek texts and several modern translations set it in verse form.

If we died with Him may refer to the spiritual death of which Paul speaks in Romans. “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death,” he explains, “in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,… for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him” (Rom. 6:4–5, 7–8).

But the context of 2 Timothy 2:11 seems to suggest that Paul here has martyrdom in mind. In that case, if someone has sacrificed his life for Christ, that is, has died with Him, that martyrdom gives evidence that he had spiritual life in Him and will live with Him throughout eternity. The martyr’s hope is eternal life after death.

In the same way, if we endure persecution and hostility without being killed, we give evidence that we truly belong to Christ and that we shall also, therefore, reign with Him. That is also the hope of believers who live in difficulty—the eternal kingdom. Basileuō means literally to rule as a king (basileus). The verb here is the compound sumbasileuō, which means to reign with. The other side of that truth is that those who do not endure give equally certain evidence that they do not belong to Christ and will not reign with Him.

Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,” Paul explained to believers at Colossae, “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister” (Col. 1:21–23). Only if Christ is Lord of a life, can He present that life before His Father “holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” The only life that can endure is an obedient life. A life that will not serve Him will never reign with Him.

Jesus promised the Twelve, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt. 19:28; cf. Luke 22:29–30). Believers also have positions of authority in the millennial kingdom, as 1 Corinthians 6:2–3 indicates: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this life?” (1 Cor. 6:2–3). Speaking of all Christians in the final glory, Paul declared, “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17).

To endure, or persevere, with Christ does not protect salvation, which is eternally secured when a person trusts in Him as Savior and Lord. We can no more ensure salvation by our own efforts or power than we first gained it by our own efforts or power.

The next two conditions and promises are negative and are parallel, at least in form, to the preceding positive ones.

First, Paul says, If we deny Him, that is, Jesus Christ, He also will deny us. The Greek verb rendered deny is in the future tense, and the clause is therefore more clearly rendered, “If we ever deny Him” or “If in the future we deny Him.” It looks at some confrontation that makes the cost of confessing Christ very high and thereby tests one’s true faith. A person who fails to endure and hold onto his confession of Christ will deny Him, because he never belonged to Christ at all. “Anyone who … does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9). Those who remain faithful to the truth they profess give evidence of belonging to God.

“What about Peter’s denial?” we may ask. “Can a true believer deny the Lord?” (cf. Matt. 26:69–75; Mark 14:66–72; Luke 22:54–62; John 18:16, 25–27). Obviously believers like Peter can fall into temporary cowardice and fail to stand for the Lord. We all do it in various ways when we’re unwilling to openly declare our love for Christ in a given situation.

Confronted by the cost of discipleship, Peter was facing just such a test as Paul had in mind. Did he thereby evidence a lack of true saving faith? His response to the denial, going out and weeping bitter tears of penitence (Matt. 26:75), and the Lord’s restoration of him in Galilee (John 21:15–17) lead one to conclude that Peter was truly justified, though obviously not yet fully sanctified. And until Pentecost, Peter did not have the fulness of the Holy Spirit. After the Spirit came to live in him in New Covenant fullness, however, his courage, boldness, and willingness to face any hostility became legendary (cf. Acts 1:5, 8; 2:4, 14–36; 3:1–6, 12–26; 4:1–4, 8–13, 19, 21, 31). Peter died a martyr, just as Jesus had foretold he would—faithful in the face of execution for his Lord (John 21:18–19). Tradition holds that, by his own request, he was crucified upside down, because he felt unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.

So perhaps the answer to the issue of Peter’s denial is that his was a momentary failure, followed by repentance. He did not as yet have the fullness of the Spirit, but during the rest of this life after Pentecost he boldly confessed Christ, even when it cost him his life.

Jesus Himself gave the sobering warning, “Whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:33). There is a settled, final kind of denial that does not repent and thereby evidences an unregenerate heart. After the lame man was healed near the Beautiful gate of the temple, Peter testified to the seriousness of denying Christ. “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus,” he said, “the one whom you delivered up, and disowned [denied] in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned [denied] the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses” (Acts 3:13–15).

The most dangerous of those who deny Christ are “false teachers … who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them” (2 Peter 2:1). They are, in fact, no less than antichrists. To those who claim to belong to God as Father without belonging to Christ as His Son, John unequivocally says, “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:22–23).

In the present text, however, Paul’s warning could include those who once claimed Christ but later deny Him when the cost of discipleship becomes too high. Such were the “disciples [who] withdrew and were not walking with Him [Jesus] anymore” (John 6:66). It is about such false Christians that the writer of Hebrews says: “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame” (Heb. 6:4–6).

Later in 2 Timothy, Paul describes such false Christians as “lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power” (3:2–5). In his letter to Titus, he says of such people that “they profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed” (Titus 1:16). Continual disobedience inevitably confirms faithlessness by eventuating in denial.

The second negative condition and promise are: If we are faithless, Christ remains faithful. In this context, apisteō (are faithless) means lack of saving faith, not merely weak or unreliable faith. The unsaved ultimately deny Christ, because they never had faith in Him for salvation. But He remains faithful, not only to those who believe in Him but to those who do not, as here. God’s divine assurance to save “whoever believes in Him [Christ]” (John 3:16) is followed almost immediately by another divine assurance that “he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). Just as Christ will never renege on His promise to save those who trust in Him, He also will never renege on His promise to condemn those who do not. To do otherwise would be to deny Himself, which His righteous and just nature cannot allow Him to do.

It was on the basis of Christ’s absolute faithfulness that Paul declared earlier in this letter, “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (2 Tim. 1:12). It was on that basis that the writer of Hebrews admonished, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,” and then exulted, “for He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23).