2 Timothy 1:8–18

Original Meaning

No Cause for Shame (1:8–12)

VERSES 8–12 form one long sentence in Greek. It is introduced by the word “so” (or “therefore”), indicating that Timothy’s ability to resist being ashamed lies in the gifts of power, love, and self-discipline (v. 7). The word translated “be ashamed” (epaischynomai) is a compound verb with a more intense meaning than the simple form from which it is derived (aischynomai). In this context being ashamed stands in contrast to joining with Paul in suffering. Elsewhere in the New Testament this verb is also used in a construction of contrast, specifically with confessing Christ. That is consistent with this passage, “do not be ashamed to testify of about our Lord.” “ plays a special role in the confessional language of primitive Christianity. It can designate the renunciation of Jesus Christ by a human being or the renunciation of a human being by the son of man.”1

In this way Timothy can join Paul in “suffering for the gospel.” This very suffering is “by the power of God” (cf. the word “power” in v. 7). Verse 9 shows two ways in which God has expressed that power. One is by saving us; the other, by calling us. In the Pastoral Letters the verb “save” appears several times (1 Tim. 1:15; 2:4, 15; 4:16; 2 Tim. 1:9; 4:18; Titus 3:5). The verb “call,” however, only appears in these letters in 1 Timothy 6:12 (see comments). There the calling is to eternal life; here the implication is that it is “to a holy life.” The NIV infers this from the dative phrase meaning (lit.) “with a holy calling.”

First Corinthians 1:2 says we are “called to be saints [or to be holy].” According to 1 Thessalonians 4:7, “God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life [lit., in holiness].” In those two passages and the present one, the NIV assumes that since the action of calling has both a subject and an object, and since we know that God is holy, the holiness referred to extends to the life of the people called. The emphasis in this verse is on the sovereign nature of God’s call, which is not dependent on what works we may do.

The importance of the phrase “because of his own purpose and grace” (v. 9) can be realized more fully by noting Ephesians 1:3–14, where Paul makes it clear that God’s grace is founded on his eternal purposes. That passage employs a remarkable series of words, phrases, and grammatical constructions that express the idea of God’s purpose, wisdom, good pleasure, and plan, through which we are brought to salvation. The same concept is fortified in 2 Timothy 1:9 by the time reference, indicating that grace was actually given us “in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,” but that “it has [only] now been revealed” (emphasis added).

Three words in verse 10 are of special importance in the Pastoral Letters. (1) The word translated “revealed” (phaneroo) occurs in the important creedal statement in 1 Timothy 3:16, “he appeared in a body,” and in Titus 1:3, “and at his appointed season he brought his word to light.” Connected with this idea of manifestation is the related word epiphaneia, denoting the appearance of Christ (1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; Titus 2:13; see comments on Titus 2:13, along with 2:11; 3:4, which contain the verb “appear”; Paul uses the same terminology to refer to both the first and second coming of Christ).

(2) The word “Savior” is also significant in the Pastoral Letters since, apart from 2 Peter, this noun is relatively infrequent in the New Testament (see also 1 Tim. 1:1; 2:3; 4:10; Titus 1:3, 4; 2:10, 13; 3:4, 6). One of the distinctives of the Pastoral Letters is in the attribution of salvation directly to God. In the rest of the New Testament, salvation, which in the Old Testament is God’s work, is now the work of Christ. (For the identification of God as Savior in the Pastorals see comments on 1 Tim. 1:1; see also the linking of God and Christ as Savior in Titus 2:13.)

(3) The long Greek sentence that began in verse 8 continues with a participle (“having destroyed”), which is used adjectivally to describe the activity of Christ at his appearing. The clause is a men…de construction, a means of balancing two members of alternative statements. This section can be literally translated, “who on the one hand had destroyed death and on the other hand has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” The first action, which Christ did on the cross, needed to be accomplished before the second. Christ, we might say, put death out of commission. True, it is still a final enemy to be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26), but even now it is not a threat to the believer. Moreover, we know that Christ made it possible for us to have eternal life through his resurrection, but the emphasis here is on that which “brought life and immortality to light” (emphasis added). What accomplished that was the gospel.

This gospel was already being proclaimed by Christ during his lifetime; he predicted his resurrection as well as his suffering and death (Matt. 16:21 and elsewhere), and the content of what Paul identified as “the gospel” and as primary in his preaching included “that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1–4). These truths are so important that it is almost surprising that Paul has not incorporated “a faithful saying” here that summarizes them. It may be that he is actually quoting parts of some early Christian affirmation.

As he did in 1 Timothy 1:12–16 and briefly in 2 Timothy 1:3, Paul now speaks of his own ministry (v. 11) on behalf of the gospel. The three ministries he mentions in this verse—preaching, apostleship, and teaching—are all related to that gospel. For Paul to function in these three capacities required God’s specific action. It was not something Paul chose for himself, although he was grateful for that appointment.

The three words “herald,” “apostle,” and “teacher” are not intended to be mutually exclusive in this context, but rather to express three distinctive ways in which Paul serves the gospel.2 The fact that “herald” appears first (rather than “apostle”) suggests that Paul is not drawing attention to his status or authority but rather to the ways in which he forwards the cause of the gospel. The herald naturally comes first as the person who makes the announcement, who first brings the good news. The “teacher” explains God’s truth with a view to edifying the church. The word “apostle” describes Paul’s special commission, in the fulfillment of which he did both proclaim and teach, but which had other dimensions (such as representing the sender, the Lord Jesus Christ, and fulfilling his will wherever he went). Knight observes that Timothy was not an apostle, but Paul can encourage him by being a model of the herald and of the teacher, both being ministries that Timothy himself can carry on by following Paul’s example.3

As Paul nears the end of his sentence, he gathers up in verse 12 what he has said about testifying to the gospel and declares that it is for this reason that he is “also suffering these things” (niv: “I am suffering as I am”), probably meaning that suffering is also part of his commission, as it is Timothy’s (cf. 3:12). Having alluded back to verse 8 regarding suffering he adds that, as he has counseled Timothy, he himself is not ashamed. This statement is followed by a strong affirmation in the middle of verse 12, introduced by the conjunction gar (“because”), providing the grounds on which he is able to state that he is not ashamed. This is accompanied by the affirmation “I know,” followed immediately by the familiar “whom I have believed” clause, including God’s guarding “what I have entrusted [lit., my deposit] to him for that day.”

But what has been entrusted, and to whom? In 1 Timothy 6:20 Timothy is responsible to guard a deposit entrusted to him. In 2 Timothy 1:14 Timothy again is charged with keeping “the good deposit,” in this case, “with the help of [lit., through] the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” Since Timothy is instructed in verse 13 to “keep…the pattern of sound teaching” he heard from Paul, it seems clear that the deposit entrusted to Timothy in verse 14 is the teaching. But God is the one who will guard the deposit in verse 12. “My deposit” in this verse seems to be a reference to Paul’s ministry. Thus, the sequence of thought in verses 12–14 is as follows: Paul is doing his part in suffering for the sake of the gospel, committing his life and ministry to God as a deposit for the future day of reckoning. Timothy, for his part, must guard the teachings God has entrusted to him, and God has given him the Holy Spirit to help him do this.

Bridging Contexts

GRACE AND GOD’S PURPOSES. Immense and powerful truths are compressed in verses 8–10, ready to explode into the minds of the readers. Paul has already uncoiled some of these in his letter to the Ephesians, and the gist of Ephesians 2:1–7 finds expression in Titus 3:3–7. If Ephesians 2 teaches salvation by God’s grace, Ephesians 1:3–14 teaches the fact of God’s eternal purposes. Those verses contain an amazing combination of Greek words and grammatical constructions that express wisdom, forethought, and purpose. A number of these are concentrated in verse 11: “chosen,” “predestined,” “plan,” “purpose,” and “will.” Therefore, when Paul here in 2 Timothy 1:9 writes of God’s “purpose and grace,” he may well be summarizing the teachings of Ephesians 1–2. Also when he says that God has saved us and “called us to a holy life” and that we have received this grace “before the beginning of time” (2 Tim. 1:9), he is expressing the truth of Ephesians 1:4: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”

To point all this out is not simply to review the exegesis. It helps us see the importance of God’s purpose and God’s grace in Paul’s own theology. The fact that this “has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus” (v. 10) carries on the strong emphasis in the Pastoral Letters (seen in 1 Tim. 3:16; 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; Titus 2:11, 13; 3:4). The fact of the epiphaneia, the appearance, of Christ, with all the Christological and apologetic force of that teaching, would certainly help remove timidity and shame from Timothy’s heart (2 Tim. 1:7).

The sequence of revelation and redemption is also important. God gave his grace in Christ “before the beginning of time” (v. 9), but it is only “now” that it has been revealed through the appearance of Christ. Similarly again in Ephesians (2:11–18), as God is expressing the contrast between the former state of Gentiles who are apart from Christ and their present situation in Christ, Paul uses the contrasts of distance (“far” and “near”) and of time (“then” and “now”). He goes on to explain how another aspect of revelation, the “mystery” regarding the union of believing Jews with believing Gentiles into one body, had not been made known previously “as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets” (Eph. 3:2–6).

The destruction of death. Perhaps the most powerful antidote to Timothy’s timidity and tendency to shame is to realize that Christ “destroyed death” and “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (v. 10). Paul elsewhere brands death as “the last enemy to be destroyed” (1 Cor. 15:26). Death is an enemy, not a friend. Nevertheless for the believer it is our “entrance into glory.”10 In Hebrews 2:14–15 we learn that Jesus shared in our humanity “so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” For Christians all apprehension about what lies beyond death is gone; we have been brought into life and given immortality (which “mortal” human beings do not have by nature), and this has removed fear and, in Timothy’s case, timidity and shame.

The active destruction of death and the devil, who holds its power, is not heard as often as other aspects of the saving death and resurrection of Christ. But it deserves to be proclaimed. No wonder Paul was convinced that the Lord could guard that “deposit” until the future day.

Shame in Middle Eastern culture. Shame is a powerful deterrent to righteous action. There was a social aspect to honor and shame in the ancient Near East and in the Mediterranean world of Paul, and it still exists in some cultures today (though it is not common in North America). It can be a powerful motivator or a hindrance to action. The shame in view here may derive from a deviation from expected behavior, but it may well be more of a personal sense of embarrassment. Either can be a hindrance. To give testimony is a public act; shame and embarrassment are also public. To identify, in the presence of others, with something they disapprove of is always difficult. It would be natural for Timothy to be ashamed of the Lord, given the facts that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,” and that “we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:18, 23).

The figure of Paul in prison must also have been an embarrassment to Timothy. It is significant that words about shame occur four times in 2 Timothy, a large number in proportion to the size of the book. In addition to Paul’s calling on Timothy not to be ashamed (1:8), he affirms that he himself is not ashamed (1:12) and that Onesiphorus was not ashamed of Paul’s “chains” (1:16). Furthermore, Timothy is to be an approved worker who does not need to be ashamed (2:15). The very fact that Paul brings this issue up several times shows a natural tendency for Christians to be ashamed of Paul the prisoner. It is no wonder that in verse 7 Paul has assured Timothy that God has not given him a spirit of timidity. The spirit of power mentioned there enables one to participate in suffering for the gospel (v. 8).

There are two main reasons why Paul and Timothy are not to be ashamed. (1) The gospel reveals God’s initiative, “his own purpose and grace,” that existed before time began. (2) Along with that, the appearance of Christ meant that death has been “destroyed.” His appearance, therefore, “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” This is a powerful message. (3) A further reason, on Paul’s own part, for not being ashamed is his confidence in the Lord and his ability to guard the trust for the important coming day.

Contemporary Significance

EMBARRASSMENT AS CHRISTIANS TODAY. Reasons for humiliation or shame today in the Western world are very different from those in Paul’s day. While it is true that there are people around the world who are in terrible suffering and in prison, for the most part this is not so among those who are reading this commentary. Also we have become used to people voluntarily submitting themselves to imprisonment for causes they consider just. One thinks of the civil disobedience of the 1960s and 1970s and more recently of those who have been imprisoned during abortion protests. While there certainly are mixed feelings about these, the situation is different from that of the apostle Paul, a lone figure in the non-Christian world, forcibly imprisoned for the sake of the gospel. Our embarrassment over the way some preach the gospel is more likely to be over their personal attitudes and methods.

There is another fact to be considered on this issue. Because claims for the exclusiveness of the gospel run counter to today’s doctrine of tolerance for all views, Christians do stand out for their witness to truth. But it is not only tolerance that is the problem, it is the common idea that no system, even one’s own, can claim absolute truth. Most agree it is appropriate for a “born-again Christian” to give a “testimony,” but to go beyond that to make strong truth claims is frowned on. To make matters worse, many Christians today are poorly prepared to explain the biblical and theological foundations of and reasons for their faith. Few are able to set forth clearly the implications and effect of the death of Christ beyond the initial fact of our salvation from the penalty of sin.

Nevertheless, though we may still need maturing in our understanding of Christian theology, we can testify for the Lord and even, if necessary, suffer for it. In North America at least, bigots can with impunity ridicule Southern Baptists, Catholics, antiabortionists, and other religious people, whereas the same slanders against other minorities would rightly elicit public rebuke. To many of us, and perhaps especially to children and young people, the disapproval and mockery of peers is a fate worse than imprisonment. So we can experience a kind of humiliation and shame. For those with children who feel that way, perhaps an explanation of the basic elements of this passage will help. But an understanding of the way our children feel and our assurance to them that we do understand will be an important part of our encouragement to them.

Persecution throughout the world. As for those enduring literal imprisonment, whether justly or unjustly, we need to be aware of the massive number of people—Christians, but others also—who are imprisoned and otherwise persecuted around the world. Some have been held hostage by guerrillas in Columbia. Some languish in Chinese and African prisons, victims of totalitarian regimes. Atrocities are committed by Muslim fundamentalists and other radical religious groups. People still die in the Middle East and Northern Ireland. The influence of Nazis, Communists, the Ku Klux Klan, and other oppressive groups has not been erased from society. North American Christians must not ignore the victims of hatred around the world. The “household of Onesiphorus” needs to be expanded to offer help to those unjustly suffering today.11

Those who are imprisoned for just reasons are not to be neglected either. The ministries of Prison Fellowship and others on behalf of prisoners have both biblical and humanitarian grounds for their work and its support by Christians. Those who cherish freedom ought to be the first to care for those whose freedom is gone—whatever the reason and whatever the length of the sentence—and who live in confinement, often with regret, remorse, and repentance, sometimes with a feeling of hopelessness and futility and always with consequences. How many Christians eager to a call from God to some kind of service are eager for this one?

Holding a pattern of sound teaching. This is the first example in 2 Timothy of the characteristic theme of the Pastorals: the blend of sound teaching with godly living. Here the “pattern of sound teaching” is to be blended with “faith and love in Christ Jesus.” In this case, “faith” does not have an article and so may have to do with the application of faith in daily life rather than to the body of Christian doctrine (as it so often signifies in the Pastoral Letters). We are used to the words “sound teaching” in these letters, but the idea of a “pattern” has an added significance. A pattern or standard does not allow for deviation. There are objective ways of discerning when someone has deviated from a standard. Whether adding to, subtracting from, or changing the nature of a predetermined standard, no change is to be tolerated.

The most recent example in North America on a large scale of Christians vigorously holding to the standard “pattern of sound teaching” is the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the early 1900s.12 The rise of “higher critical” studies of the Scriptures, combined with other factors, resulted in large-scale defections from historic teachings of the Christian church. Many major seminaries and denominations have witnessed a marked departure from clear biblical teachings, especially concerning the person and work of Christ.

The publication of a small series of books on the essentials of the faith, called The Fundamentals, gave rise to the term fundamentalists for those who held to theologically orthodox doctrines. Some pastors were defrocked and removed from their pastoral ministries, while others attempted to work from within the major denominations and were called compromisers by those who took the path of separation. This situation was complicated by the rise of neoorthodoxy, but eventually the fundamentalist movement gained strength. A growing number have preferred to be called evangelicals.

The whole movement of those who held to the “pattern of sound teaching” became strong and recognized. The teachings they held in common included the doctrine of Scripture, and one’s view of Scripture became increasingly important. Today the term fundamentalism has become widespread and has come to describe the more conservative elements in various religions around the world. The early Christian fundamentalists have for the most part passed off the scene. Major issues now confronting the church that need to be tested against the pattern of sound teaching are pluralism and postmodernism.13 It is crucial that Christians today reach an understanding as to what is included in the standard or pattern to which we must adhere and what are legitimate, flexible areas of difference.

Our well-intentioned desires to determine the issue of the day and always be contemporary may cause some of us to intrude what may be subsidiary issues (possibly our own agendas) into our witness, teaching, and preaching. Conversations, Sunday school classes, and the pulpit can become a means of making our own commentary on social, political—even religious—issues, to the detriment of the gospel and the whole counsel of God. We can even do this in the name of sound teaching. Paul’s reference to God’s “purpose and grace” should call us back to his primary intentions for his church. We have been given a trust, whether we feel we are “only” laypeople (not a biblical concept) or leaders. The gospel must shine brighter than our own agendas, however relevant and important they may be.

Paul knew that as a herald he had an important message to proclaim. As an apostle he was to represent the One who sent him and his agenda, and as a teacher he had been given the “pattern of sound teaching” from which neither he nor Timothy, or any successive generations, should depart. This passage calls on all contemporary Christians to reassess how well we are communicating the revealed gospel and the doctrinal context.

The instruction in verse 13 was in terms of keeping or holding the standard; verse 14 speaks of guarding a deposit. This is not by one’s own ability but “with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” Both the keeping of the pattern and the guarding of the deposit have been difficult at various stages of church history. Calls to compromise, outright persecution, exclusion from fellowship, and burning of books are some of the ways in which the Lord’s servants have been treated when they have affirmed God’s truth over against error.

Personal element in Paul. It is not clear whether doctrinal differences are the reason why people in the province of Asia deserted Paul (v. 15). Neither is it clear why he mentions two names in particular. Because of the vagueness of his language here and the lack of reference to any particular doctrinal issue, it is probable that this was a personal loss of friendship and support among some of those in the western part of Asia Minor from whom he expected such help. The example of Onesiphorus stands in wonderful contrast. It is interesting that Timothy already knew of both the desertion and of Onesiphorus’s help. It shows something of the warm relationship between Paul and Timothy that he would have shared something so personal with him.

At various places in the Pastoral Letters—as well as sprinkled throughout the Pauline corpus—we see the human side of Paul in his remarks about other people. Romans 16 is a wonderful example of his appreciation for fellow workers. It does not take much imagination to picture this missionary, who has forfeited a stable personal life, the joys and warmth of a family, and the hope of a second and third generation of physical descendants to carry on his name and perpetuate his values, as having especially keen feelings about both the affirmations and the criticisms of associates. For Paul, therefore, to lose the confidence of another Christian was probably more traumatic than a modern pastor’s loss of a member of the pastoral staff.

If even we tend to “take things personally,” how much more this single, dedicated, and exhausted missionary! Yet we can to a degree identify with him, and so can all those who have served God in sensitive relationships with other Christians—whether in isolated mission outposts, among the clergy in a medieval cathedral, in a contemporary Christian radio station, in a convent of mercy, or among the staff of Caesar’s household. Christians need one another, and those who criticize or depart in anger have a responsibility to be open and loving toward those who may be hurt by their actions. We could well use a “theology of dissent” in our Christian relationships.

1. A. Horstman, “,” EDNT, 1:42–43. See Mark 8:38 and parallels; also Rom. 1:16, where the negative expression “I am not ashamed of the gospel” stands for the positive idea of being willing to take a stand and confess the truth of the gospel. In this context that process includes a willingness to be identified with those who represent Christ, even when they are humiliated.

2. Note that the same three words appear in 1 Tim. 2:7, and in the same order.

3. Knight, Pastoral Epistles, 377–78.

4. LSJ, 1, 900.

5. Ellicott, Commentary on the Epistles of Saint Paul, 130.

6. Knight, Pastoral Epistles, 384.

7. Wiles called such indirect prayers “wish-prayers” (G. T. Wiles, Paul’s Intercessory Prayers, SNTSMS 24 [Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1974]), 45–155.

8. Knight, Pastoral Epistles, 386.

9. If it could be proved that Onesiphorus has died, then Paul would be offering a prayer for the dead. But since the matter is unresolved and there is no justification elsewhere for such prayers, this passage cannot be used to support this practice. Knight argues that v. 16 is not a direct prayer to God but an expression of Paul’s hopes.

10. From the hymn “Jesus Lives,” original text by Christian Fuerchtegott Gellert (17151769).

11. Recent articles in Christianity Today 42 (1998) on persecution include Alford Deanne, “Imprisoned Evangelicals Dispute Accusations of Terrorism” (Feb. 9, 1998), 94; (unsigned) “Assemblies of God Church Attacked” (Feb. 9, 1998), 87; Beverly Nickles, “Restrictions on Religion Get Uneven Enforcement” (April 6, 1998), 20; David L. Miller, “Columbia’s Bleeding Church” (May 19, 1998), 40–43; and on into Christianity Today 43 (1999): (unsigned) “Christians Killed, Churches Burn” (Jan. 11, 1999), 24; Michael Fisher, “The Fiery Rise of Hindu Fundamentalism” (March 1, 1999), 46–48; Frederica Mathewes-Green, “Can We Survive Persecution” (March 1, 1999), 68–69.

12. George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism 1870–1925 (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1980).

13. See Bridging Contexts section of 1 Tim. 2:1–7.

Original Meaning

Keeping the Pattern of Sound Teaching (1:13–14)

OUR UNDERSTANDING OF verses 13–14 must take into account the foregoing discussion on verse 12 and the use of the term sound teaching through the Pastorals (1 Tim. 1:10; 6:3; 2 Tim. 4:3; Titus 1:9, 13; 2:1–2; see esp. the discussion on 1 Tim. 1:10, which is important for the understanding of the meaning of “sound teaching” here). The Greek word translated “pattern” in verse 13 can have any one of three meanings: a sketch or outline, a model or pattern, or “a rhetorical figure by which a matter was vividly sketched in words.”⁴ Here it probably refers to a detailed model to be followed scrupulously. This accords with all the language, especially in 1 Timothy, pertaining to authoritative commands that Paul gives Timothy.

The emphasis given to “pattern” (being the first word in the Greek sentence), considered along with the key phrase “sound teaching” and with the instruction about guarding the deposit in verse 14, makes it unmistakably clear that Timothy is not at liberty to deviate from the apostolic teaching. The words “with faith and love in Christ Jesus” echo the dimension of personal piety that characterizes the Pastoral Letters, beginning with 1 Timothy 1:4 (faith), 1:5 (love and faith), and 1:19 (faith).