This section has three verses

2 Timothy 2:8-10
8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:
9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

We will begin with the Barclay Commentary.

REMEMBER JESUS CHRIST
2 Timothy 2:8–10 …paraphrased
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, born of the seed of David, as I preached the gospel to you, that gospel for which I suffer, even to the length of fetters, on the charge of being a criminal. But though I am fettered, the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of God’s chosen ones, that they too may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

RIGHT from the beginning of this letter, Paul has been trying to inspire Timothy to his task. He has reminded him of his own belief in him and of the godly parentage from which he has come; he has shown him the picture of the Christian soldier, the Christian athlete and the Christian worker [farmer-husbandman].  And now he comes to the greatest appeal of all – Remember Jesus Christ. Sir Robert Falconer calls these words ‘The heart of the Pauline gospel’. Even if every other appeal to Timothy’s strength of character should fail, surely the memory of Jesus Christ cannot. In the words which follow, Paul is really urging Timothy to remember three things.

(1) Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead. The tense of the Greek does not imply one definite act in time, but a continued state which lasts forever. Paul is not so much saying to Timothy: ‘Remember the actual resurrection of Jesus’, but rather: ‘Remember your risen and ever-present Lord.’  Here is the great Christian inspiration. We do not depend on a memory, however great. We enjoy the power of a presence.  When Christians are summoned to some great task that they feel is beyond them, they must go about it in the certainty that they do not go alone, but that the presence and the power of their risen Lord is always with them. When fears threaten, when doubts invade the mind, when inadequacy depresses, remember the presence of the risen Lord.

(2) Remember Jesus Christ born of the seed of David. This is the other side of the question. ‘Remember’, says Paul to Timothy, 'that the Master shared our humanity.'  We do not remember one who is only a spiritual presence; we remember one who trod this road, and lived this life, and faced this struggle, and who therefore knows what we are going through. We have with us the presence not only of the glorified Christ, but also of the Christ who knew the desperate struggle of being human and followed the will of God to the bitter end.

(3) Remember the gospel, the good news. Even when the gospel demands much, even when it leads to an effort which seems to be beyond human ability and to a future which seems dark with every kind of threat, remember that it is good news, and remember that the world is waiting for it. However hard the task the gospel offers, that same gospel is the message of liberation from sin and victory over circumstances for us and for all people.

So, Paul fires up Timothy to courageous action by calling on him to remember Jesus Christ, to remember the continual presence of the risen Lord, to remember the sympathy which comes from the humanity of the Master, to remember the glory of the gospel for himself and for the world which has never heard it and is waiting for it.

THE CRIMINAL OF CHRIST
WHEN Paul wrote these words, he was in a Roman prison, bound by a chain. This was literally true, for all the time he was in prison night and day he would be chained to the arm of a Roman soldier. Rome took no risks that its prisoners might escape.

Paul was in prison on the charge of being a criminal. It seems strange that even a hostile government should was able to regard a Christian, and especially Paul, as a criminal. There were two possible ways in which Paul might seem to the Roman government to be a criminal.

First, Rome had an empire which extended almost as far as the known world of that time. It was obvious that such an empire was subject to stresses and to strains. The peace had to be kept, and every possible center of discontent had to be eliminated. One of the things about which Rome was very particular was the formation of associations. In the ancient world, there were many associations. There were, for instance, dinner clubs whose members met at regular intervals. There were what are known as friendly societies designed for charity for the dependents of members who had died. There were burial societies to see that their deceased members were decently buried. But so particular were the Roman authorities about associations that even these humble and harmless societies had to receive special permission from the emperor before they were allowed to meet. Now, the Christians were in effect an illegal association; and that is one reason why Paul, as a leader of such an association, might well be in the very serious position of being a political criminal.

Second, the first persecution of the Christians was intimately connected with one of the greatest disasters which ever hit the city of Rome. On 19th July AD 64, the great fire broke out. It burned for six days and seven nights and devastated the city. The most sacred shrines and the most famous buildings perished in the flames. But worse – the homes of the ordinary people were destroyed. By far the greater part of the population lived in great tenements built largely of wood, and these went up in flames like tinder. People were killed and injured; they lost their nearest and dearest; they were left homeless and destitute. The population of Rome was reduced to what has been called ‘a vast brotherhood of hopeless wretchedness’.

It was believed that Nero, the emperor, himself was responsible for the fire. It was said that he had watched the fire from the Tower of Maecenas and declared himself charmed with ‘the flower and loveliness of the flames’. It was said that, when the fire showed signs of dying down, men were seen rekindling it with burning torches, and that these men were the servants of Nero. Nero had a passion for building, and it was said that he had deliberately set fire to the city so that from the ruins he might build a new and nobler Rome. Whether the story was true or not – the chances are that it was – one thing was certain. Nothing would kill the rumor. The destitute citizens of Rome were sure that Nero had been responsible.

There was only one thing for the Roman government to do; they must find a scapegoat. And a scapegoat was found.  Let Tacitus, the Roman historian, tell how it was done: ‘But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations [pruh-pish-ee-ey-shuhs] of the gods did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace’ (Annals, 15:44).  Obviously, slanders were already circulating regarding the Christians. It has been suggested that the influential Jews were responsible. And the hated Christians were saddled with the blame for the disastrous fire of Rome. It was from that event that the first great persecution sprang. Paul was a Christian.  More importantly, he was recognized as the leader of the Christians. And it may well be that part of the charge against Paul was that he was one of those responsible for the fire of Rome and the resulting misery of the people.

So, Paul was in prison as a criminal, a political prisoner, member of an illegal association and leader of that hated sect of fire-raisers, on whom Nero had pinned the blame for the destruction of Rome. It can easily be seen how helpless Paul was in the face of charges like that.

IN CHAINS YET FREE
EVEN though he was in prison on charges which made release impossible, Paul was not dismayed and was very far from despair. He had two great uplifting thoughts.

(1) He was certain that, though he might be bound, nothing could bind the word of God. Andrew Melville was one of the earliest heralds of the Scottish Reformation in the sixteenth century. One day, the Regent Morton sent for him and denounced his writings. ‘There will never be quietness in this country’, he said, ‘till half a dozen of you be hanged or banished the country.’ ‘Tush! sir,’ answered Melville, ‘threaten your courtiers in that fashion. 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!’

You can exile an individual, but you cannot exile the truth.  You can imprison a preacher, but you cannot imprison the word that is preached. The message is always greater than the individual; the truth is always mightier than the bearer.  Paul was quite certain that the Roman government could never find a prison which could contain the word of God.  And it is one of the facts of history that if human effort could have obliterated Christianity, it would have perished long ago; but you cannot kill that which is immortal.

(2) Paul was certain that what he was going through would in the end be a help to other people. His suffering was not pointless and profitless. The blood of the martyrs has always been the seed of the Church, and the lighting of the pyre where Christians were burned has always been the lighting of a fire which could never be put out. When people have to suffer for their Christianity, let them remember that their suffering makes the road easier for someone else who is still to come. In suffering, we bear our own small portion of the weight of the cross [stake] of Christ and do our own small part in the bringing of God’s salvation to the world. ~Barclay commentary

Now to the specific commentaries.  This verse is broken out in two parts:

1] Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead.
2] According to the gospel.

1] Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead.

Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead - Or rather, perhaps, “Remember Jesus Christ; him who was raised from the dead.” The idea seems not to be, as our translators supposed, that he was to reflect on the fact that he was raised from the dead; but rather that he was to think of the Saviour himself. “Think of the Saviour, now raised up from the dead after all the sorrows of this life, and let this encourage you to bear your trials.” There is nothing better fitted to enable us to endure the labors and trials of this life, than to think of the Saviour. ~Barnes Notes

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead. - The force of the participle and the true order of the phrases require the rendering Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, of the seed of David. In the other N.T. places where the accusative follows this verb ‘remember,’ it is of a thing not a person, Matthew 16:9; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; Revelation 18:5. And this use is really followed here; it is ‘Jesus risen—a historic fact’ which is set before Timothy. ‘Risen,’ not ‘raised,’ according to the ordinary usage of the passive and suiting best the idea prominent here of Christ’s own power. ~The Cambridge Bible

Remember that Jesus Christ - The apostle seems to say: Whatever tribulations or deaths may befall us, let us remember that Jesus Christ, who was slain by the Jews, rose again from the dead, and his resurrection is the proof and pledge of ours. We also shall rise again to a life of glory and blessedness. ~Adam Clarke

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead. - He confirms plainly two principles of our faith, which are always assaulted by heretics, the one of which (that is, that Christ is the true Messiah, made man of the seed of David) is the ground of our salvation: and the other is the highest part of it, that is, that he is risen again from the dead. ~Geneva Bible Translation Notes

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David - This is said either as an encouragement to suffer hardness in the cause of Christ; since he, who though he was of the seed of David, of the blood royal, and heir to his crown, yet suffered and died; and whereas he rose again from the dead, those who suffer for his sake shall rise also, and live and reign with him for ever: or else as a specimen of the form of sound words, or of the things which Timothy had heard of the apostle; for this, with what follows, is a summary of them: Christ being of the seed of David, according to the flesh, or human nature, is expressive of his incarnation; shows that he was really come in the flesh, and was truly man; and that he assumed human nature with all its frailties and infirmities, excepting sin, and was, like David, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs; and it includes his whole life, and his righteousness, and obedience to the law of works, and points him out as the true Messiah, who was well known to the Jews by the name of the son of David. And now the apostle puts Timothy in mind, that he...

Was raised from the dead - which implies that he died; and so includes all the doctrines relating to his death; as that he died to make reconciliation, atonement, and satisfaction for the sins of his people, and to procure peace for them, and the full remission of all their iniquities; and to obtain redemption for them, from sin, Satan, the law, and its curses; as well as it expresses his resurrection from the dead, for their justification: and this being his first step to glory, has connected with it his ascension to heaven, session at the right hand of God, intercession for the saints, and his second coming to judgment; and is therefore particularly mentioned, because it is an article so comprehensive, and is a fundamental one, and of the greatest importance to faith, and was what was struck at in those times: the apostle adds. ~John Gill


2] According to the gospel.

According to my gospel - that which I always taught. ~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown

According to my gospel - The gospel which I preach; see the notes at 2 Thessalonians 2:14. ~Barnes Notes

Quoted verse:
2 Thessalonians 2:14
Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:14

According to the gospel. - The gospel entrusted to me to teach, as in 1 Timothy 1:11; ‘a solemn way of speaking, identifying these truths with the preaching which had been the source of Timotheus’s belief.’ Alford. ~Cambridge Bible

Quoted verse:
1 Timothy 1:11 [see Lesson]
According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

According to my Gospel - The false teaching of Hymeneus and Philetus stated that the resurrection was past already. Paul preached the resurrection from the dead; and founded his doctrine on the resurrection and promise of Christ. This was his Gospel; the other was of a different nature. ~Adam Clarke

According to my Gospel - meaning not the Gospel of Luke, in which there is a clear account given of the resurrection of Christ, said to be written by him, at the instigation, and under the direction of the apostle, and published with his approbation, as some think; but the doctrine of the Gospel, and which he calls his, not because he was the author, or the subject of it; for in these respects it is the Gospel of God, and of Christ; but because it was committed to him, and he was entrusted with it, and fully and faithfully preached it; and in distinction from another Gospel, that of the false teachers; and agreeably to this doctrine, which the apostle everywhere taught, Christ was raised from the dead; so the Ethiopic version renders it, "as I have taught". ~John Gill

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