ARGUMENT
He wrote the second Epistle to Timothy from the city, from prison, concerning exhortation to martyrdom and what is to come in the last times, and his own passion, and that Timothy should persevere in the duties of right preaching and holy conduct, etc.
CHAPTER ONE
2 Tim 1:1 Paul, an apostle — whose apostle? — of Christ Jesus by the will of God the Father, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.
God the omnipotent Father willed that Paul should be chosen as apostle through his Son, so that through him he might announce the promise of eternal life which is in Christ Jesus — that is, which is given through faith in Christ Jesus to the elect. For eternal life is given through Christ because it consists in him, as he himself says: I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14), and: This is eternal life, that they may know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, the one true God (John 17).
2 Tim 1:2-3 To Timothy, dearly beloved son — in the Greek it reads most genuine brother — I give thanks to my God whom I serve from my forefathers or from my fathers with a pure conscience, that is, with a mind pure from all pretence and dissimulation, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee. Some codices read which without ceasing, but it is better as we read it. In Genesis chapter 14 it is recorded that when Abraham returned from the slaughter of the four kings, Melchisedech the priest of the Most High met him and offered him bread and wine, and Abraham gave him tithes of all the spoils of the enemies. And the same Paul the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Hebrews that Levi, who received tithes from his own people, was himself tithed in his forefather Abraham, for he was still in the loins of Abraham when Abraham gave tithes to Melchisedech the priest. Hence it is that just as Levi was tithed in his forefather, so the Apostle served God in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other fathers. And this is what he means when he says: I give thanks to my God whom I serve from my forefathers. He says this in order to show that the ancient fathers who preceded the coming of the Lord had the same faith which he himself and the other apostles had, and from those fathers it descended to the apostles and from others to us and from us it will descend to those who are yet to come. He gave thanks to God, by whose gift he was always mindful of his disciple Timothy and could not forget him — or indeed he gave thanks to him in this very act of serving him from his forefathers —
2 Tim 1:4 desiring to see thee, that I may be filled with joy at thy coming, mindful of thy tears which thou didst shed at my departure.
When the Apostle knew these things, Timothy was at sea while he himself lay in prison, bound and in the stocks, and for this reason he so greatly desired him, that he might have some consolation through him. For when Timothy departed, he shed the most bitter tears.
2 Tim 1:5 Having or holding the remembrance of that faith which is in thee, which is not feigned — because thou adornest it with good works — which faith dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and in thy mother Eunice.
The Apostle was calling to mind the genealogy so as to recall the love he bore not only toward Timothy but also toward his parents, whose memory he cherished. And I am certain that the same faith dwells also in thee.
2 Tim 1:6 For which cause — because thou hast true faith — I admonish thee that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee by the imposition of my hands.
Because Timothy was very gentle and of excessive patience, the Apostle urges him to stand firm in the office of preaching and boldly to rebuke the negligent, saying: Therefore I admonish thee to awaken the grace of God, that thou mayest preach without fear and correct sinners. By the grace of God he means faith, teaching, and conduct, all of which are given freely.
2 Tim 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power.
There are two kinds of fear: one good, one evil. The evil fear is that which is sent by the devil, which Peter had when he denied the Lord, and of which the Lord says: Fear not those who kill the body (Matt. 10). The good fear is given by God, of which Isaiah says that it rested upon the Lord: And the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall rest upon him (Isa. 11), and of which the Lord says in the Gospel: Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body. It is therefore of the evil fear — by which a person departs from the faith — that the Apostle here speaks: God hath not given us the spirit of fear, that we should fear the persecutors of this age and on that account cease from preaching, but the spirit of power, that is, of fortitude, that we may steadfastly proclaim the word; and of love, that we may love God and our neighbor; and of sobriety, that we may act soberly and temperately in all things.
2 Tim 1:8 Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
There were some at that time who were ashamed to say that Christ was truly a man and had died and suffered; some also denied that he had been born of a virgin and had risen from the dead. For this reason he addresses Timothy, saying: Be not ashamed to bear witness to Christ — that he was born of a virgin, that he suffered, that he died, that he rose again and ascended to heaven where he now sits in his Father's glory.
But neither be thou ashamed of me his prisoner — nor despise me — because I am held bound in chains not for theft or murder but for the truth.
But labour with the gospel.
I labour; do thou labour together with me according to the power of God, who hath delivered us from death and called us with his holy calling (2 Tim 1:9).
Here he joins himself with all the Apostles, because they were called by the Lord. For just as Peter, Andrew, James, and John were called by the Lord, to whom he said: Come after me and I will make you fishers of men (Mark 1), so the Apostle Paul was called from heaven when the Lord said: Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me? (Acts 9). This calling therefore was holy, because through it they were sanctified — not according to our works, that is, our merits, did he call us, but according to his own purpose, that is, according to what he himself determined and predestinated, did he call us, and according to the grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the times of the world.
By the times of the world we ought here to understand the times and ages which began from the moment the world was made, with day and night. For previously there were neither ages nor times until the alternation of day and night and the changeableness of seasons came about; rather there was, as it were, an eternity. Therefore before all ages and times, grace was given in God's foreknowledge to the effect that the apostles of Christ were to be, and all the elect were predestinated by God himself before the beginning of the world, as is said in the Epistle to the Ephesians: Who predestinated us in him, that is, in Christ, before the foundation of the world — of which the Lord says in the Gospel: Glorify me, Father, with thyself, with the glory which in predestination I had with thee before the world was (John 17).
2 Tim 1:10-11 But is now made manifest — understand: that same grace — in this last age through the illumination of our Jesus Christ, that is, through his teaching and miracles, who is the light and who enlightens every man (John 1). The grace which was predestinated before the world was made manifest and revealed in the world through him who hath indeed destroyed death by rising from the dead and calling back his elect from death; and hath brought to light life and incorruption through the gospel — that is, eternal life and incorruption and immortality, which he possesses in himself since his resurrection from the dead, for rising from the dead he dieth now no more. Or: he showed and manifested, or illuminated, through the preaching of the gospel, that just as he lives, so we hope to rise and live without end and happily with him — in which gospel, understand, I am appointed and established as a preacher.
2 Tim 1:12 For which cause — understand: because I am appointed a preacher of the gospel — I also suffer these things, but I am not confounded, that is, I am not ashamed. What did the Apostle suffer? Persecutions, scourgings, prisons, chains, the stocks, hunger, thirst, and other such hardships. For I know whom I have believed, that is, Christ, and therefore I am not confounded amid torments; and I am certain that he is able to keep my deposit against that day. He uses deposit to mean what has been entrusted, and what had the Apostle entrusted to Christ? His salvation — he had committed it into his keeping. Hence he says: I am certain that Christ, in whom I have believed, is able to keep my salvation against that day, that is, the day of judgment, because I have placed my salvation in hope and faith in him.
2 Tim 1:13 Having the form, that is, the example, of sound words which thou hast heard from me.
Sound words, or sound teaching, is when what is preached is fulfilled in deeds.
2 Tim 1:14 Keep the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us — that is, keep the teaching and conduct which I have entrusted to thee through the power of the Holy Spirit who is in us; or: keep through the Holy Spirit the deposit which thou hast received.
2 Tim 1:15 Thou knowest that all who are in Asia have turned away from me, that is, have departed from me.
If the Apostle previously preached in Asia until all the Asians believed, as Luke says in the Acts of the Apostles, why does the Apostle here say that all have departed from him? In both places, therefore, the whole is put for the part. All the elect and predestinated Asians believed; all the reprobate and non-predestinated departed — among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. Phygelus was one person and Philetus another, yet both were apostates. Phygelus and Hermogenes were associates, of whom mention is made here; and likewise Philetus and Hymenaeus, of whom there will be discussion in what follows. Phygelus and Hermogenes attached themselves to the blessed Apostle not in simplicity but in order to spy upon his preaching and conduct and find fault with him; but when they could not do this, they departed from him, because they were not of right faith.
2 Tim 1:16-17 May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, that is, to his household.
This Onesiphorus was an Asian, made devout through the preaching of the Apostle. When he had come to Rome on his own business before the emperor — since he was a man of great nobility and high rank — he inquired where the Apostle was, and when he found that he was in prison, he did not disdain to go to him but consoled him and provided him with what was necessary. Hence the Apostle says: he hath often refreshed me by his conversation and consolation, and was not ashamed of my chain.
2 Tim 1:18 May God the Father grant him to find mercy in that day from the Lord — understand: from the Son — that is, on the day of the coming of the Son of God to judgment, may God the Father grant him to find mercy. This is of the same kind as that which is read in Genesis: The Lord — the Son — rained fire from the Lord — the Father.
How much he ministered at Ephesus — the same Onesiphorus, not only to me and to thee but also to the other faithful — thou knowest better — understand: than anyone else.
CONTINUE
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