This section has three verses:
2 Timothy 2:11-13
11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with
him, we shall also live with him:
12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we
deny him, he also will deny us:
13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he
cannot deny himself.
We will begin with the Barclay Commentary.
THE SONG OF THE MARTYR
2 Timothy 2:11–13
This is a saying which can be relied upon:
If we die with him,
we shall also live with him.
If we endure,
we shall also reign with him.
If we deny him,
he too will deny us.
If we are faithless,
he remains faithful
For he cannot deny himself.
THIS is a particularly precious passage because in
it is enshrined one of the first hymns of the
Christian Church. In the days of persecution, the
Christian Church put its faith into song. It may be
that this is only a fragment of a longer hymn.
There are two possible interpretations of the first
two lines – ‘If we die with him, we shall also live
with him.’ There are those who want to take these
lines as a reference to baptism. In Romans 6,
baptism is likened to dying and rising with Christ.
‘Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism
into death, so that, as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk
in newness of life.’ ‘But if we have died with
Christ, we believe that we will also live with him’
(Romans 6:4, 6:8). No doubt the language is the
same; but the thought of baptism is quite irrelevant
here; it is the thought of martyrdom that is in
Paul’s mind.
Quoted verses:
Romans 6:4
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into
death: that like as Christ was raised up from the
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:8
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we
shall also live with him:
The hymn goes on: ‘If we endure, we shall also reign
with him.’ It is the one who endures to the end who
will be saved. Without the cross [stake], there
cannot be the crown.
Then comes the other side of the matter: ‘If we deny
him, he too will deny us.’ That is what Jesus
himself said: ‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges
me before others, I also will acknowledge before my
Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before
others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven’
(Matthew 10:32–3). Jesus Christ cannot vouch in
eternity for someone who has refused to have
anything to do with him in time; but he is always
true to those who, however much they have failed,
have tried to be true to him.
Quoted verse:
Matthew 10:32-33
32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,
him will I confess also before my Father which is in
heaven.
33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will
I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
These things are so because they are part of the
very nature of God. We may deny ourselves, but God
cannot. ‘God is not a human being that he should
lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind’
(Numbers 23:19). God will never fail those who have
tried to be true to him; but not even he can help
someone who has refused to have anything to do with
him.
Quoted verse:
Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the
son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and
shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he
not make it good?
Jesus died to be true to the will of God; and
Christians must follow that same will, whatever
light may shine or shadow fall.
~Barclay commentary
[with some edits]
Now to the other commentaries. We will begin with
the general and go to the specific. This is rather
rare, but what we are about to read is exactly what
we had for verse 11.
From the F. B. Meyer:
The elect, 2 Timothy 2:10-13 : The Apostle sketches
the experiences of the elect soul. It must endure,
suffer, and die with Christ, that out of its
surrender may come the truest, richest life, John
12:25. There is no path to lasting success save that
of the cross [stake]
and grave of Christ. It has been allotted to the
redeemed in the divine program; each must tread it
separately and with resolute purpose. But there is
no doubt as to the sequel of a true life. The world
of men may count it a failure, but God pledges
Himself that as the pendulum swings here in the
dark, it shall swing equally in yonder world of
light. Three things are impossible with God-to die,
to lie, and to fail the soul that trusts Him. Even
when we cannot muster faith enough, His word of
promise cannot be frustrated in the case of those
whose faith is weak and trembling as the smoking
flax. ~F. B. Meyer
Quoted verse:
John 12:25
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that
hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto
life eternal.
Now the Matthew Henry Main:
Another thing with which he encourages Timothy is
the prospect of a future state. Those who faithfully
adhere to Christ and to his truths and ways,
whatever it cost them, will certainly have the
advantage of it in another world: If we be dead with
him, we shall live with him, 2 Timothy 2:11. If we
be dead with him, we shall live with him, 2 Timothy
2:11. If, in conformity to Christ, we be dead to
this world, its pleasures, profits, and honours, we
shall go to live with him in a better world, to be
for ever with him. Nay, though we be called out to
suffer for him, we shall not lose by that.
~Matthew Henry Main
Now the Matthew Henry Concise which covers verses
8-13:
Let suffering saints remember, and look to Jesus,
the Author and Finisher of their faith, who for the
joy that was set before him, endured the cross [stake],
despised the shame, and is now set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. We must not think it
strange if the best men meet with the worst
treatment; but this is cheering, that the word of
God is not bound. Here we see the real and true
cause of the apostle's suffering trouble in, or for,
the sake of the gospel. If we are dead to this
world, its pleasures, profits, and honours, we shall
be for ever with Christ in a better world. He is
faithful to his threatenings, and faithful to his
promises. This truth makes sure the unbeliever's
condemnation, and the believer's salvation.
~Matthew Henry Concise
Now from the Cambridge Bible covering verses 8-13:
Just as in the first chapter Paul appeals first to
Timothy’s sympathies and experiences of an earthly
kind to brace him up—his own strong feelings moved
even to tears, his mother’s and grandmother’s faith
and piety, the touch of the vanished hand in the
solemn rite of ordination (2 Timothy 2:4-7), and
then paints for him ‘the power of God,’ ‘the
appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus who abolished
death,’ as the chief and strongest motive for
keeping up heart and hope, since His must be the
winning side, He must be able to keep that which is
committed to Him (2 Timothy 2:8-12): so now, after
the appeal to earthly analogies and common human
experiences as to the necessity and the reward of
pains and perseverance, he rises from the earthly to
the heavenly, from the human to the Divine.
‘Remember, God’s plan—even the old, old promise to
“the seed of the woman”—came out complete in the
fullness of time. Jesus Christ of the seed of David
bruised the, old serpent’s head when He rose “victor
over the tomb.” True, I, or any one of us His humble
servants, may for a time seem trodden under, but
’tis only for a time; the salvation, the eternal
glory, is assured in His power; if we endure we
shall also reign with Him. This is the motive of
motives to play the man; this is indeed being
strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
~Cambridge Bible
Now to the specific commentaries.
The verse is primarily in two parts:
1] If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.
2] If we deny him, he also will deny us.
1] If we suffer, we shall also
reign with him.
If we suffer, we shall also
reign with him - The meaning is, that the
members will be treated as the Head is. We become
united with him by faith, and, if we share his
treatment on earth, we shall share his triumphs in
[the Kingdom]; see the notes at Roman 8:17.
~Barnes Notes
If we suffer, we shall also
reign with him - These are other parts of the
true doctrine, which the apostle mentions above.
~Adam Clarke
If we suffer - With
him, with Christ, as in Romans 8:17 all the elect
suffered with Christ when he suffered; they suffered
in him the whole penalty of the law, all the
righteousness, strictness, and severity of it; and
they are partakers of the benefits of his
sufferings, as peace, pardon, righteousness,
redemption, and everlasting salvation. And such
being called by grace, and having made a profession
of Christ, they suffer shame and reproach, loss of
credit and reputation, and sometimes loss of goods,
and corporeal punishment, and even death itself: but
though they do, and if they should, they may be
satisfied of the truth of this.
~John Gill
We shall also reign with him
- They reign with him now in the kingdom of grace [Salvation
Process];
grace reigns in their hearts, where Christ, the King
of glory, has entered, and has set up his throne,
and where he dwells by faith, they being made kings
and priests unto God by him; and they shall reign
with him in his kingdom here on earth, for the space
of a thousand years; and they shall reign with him
in glory to all eternity: this is certain, for this
kingdom is prepared for them, it is given to them,
they are called unto it, and have both a right unto,
and meetness for it; see Romans 8:17.
~John Gill
Quoted verse from the
commentaries above:
Romans 8:17
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified together.
If we suffer — rather,
as the Greek is the same as in 2 Timothy 2:10, “If
we endure (with Him)” (Romans 8:17
...quoted above).
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
Quoted verses:
2 Timothy 2:10
[See Lesson]
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 shall also reign with him
— The peculiar privilege of the elect Church now
suffering with Christ, then to reign with Him (see
on 1 Corinthians 6:2). Reigning is something more
than mere salvation (Romans 5:17; Revelation 3:21;
Revelation 5:10; Revelation 20:4-5).
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
Quoted verses:
1 Corinthians 6:2
Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the
world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are
ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Romans 5:17
For if by one man's offence death reigned by one;
much more they which receive abundance of grace and
of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by
one, Jesus Christ.)
Revelation 3:21
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me
in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set
down with my Father in his throne.
Revelation 5:10
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and
we shall reign on the earth.
Revelation 20:4-5
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and
judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of
them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus,
and for the word of God, and which had not
worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had
received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their
hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years.
5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the
thousand years were finished. This is the first
resurrection [referring to verse 4].
We shall also reign with him.
- The thought, though not the words, enters into our
Lord’s teaching: ‘Ye shall sit on thrones, judging
the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Matthew 19:28).
~Popular commentary
Quoted verse:
Matthew 19:28
And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration
when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his
glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
2] If we deny him, he also will
deny us.
If we deny him - To
escape suffering for him.
~John Wesley Explanatory Notes
If we deny him, he also will
deny us; - see the notes at Matthew 10:32-33.
~Barnes Notes
Quoted verse:
Matthew 10:32-33
32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,
him will I confess also before my Father which is in
heaven.
33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will
I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Commentary:
|
Whosoever
therefore shall confess me -
The same word in the original is translated
“confess”
and
“profess,”.
It means to acknowledge the Lord Jesus
Christ, and our dependence on him for
salvation, and our attachment to him, in
every proper manner. This profession may be
made in uniting with a church, in
conversation, and in conduct. The Scriptures
mean, by a profession of religion, an
exhibition of it in every circumstance of
the life and before all people. It is not
merely in one act that we must do it, but in
every act. We must be ashamed neither of the
person, the character, the doctrines, nor
the requirements of Christ. If we are; if we
deny him in these things before people; if
we are unwilling to express our attachment
to him in every way possible, then it is
right that he should
“disown
all connection with us,”
or deny us before God,
and he will do it.
~Barnes Notes
|
If we deny him, he also will
deny us. - There is a denying of Christ in
words; so it is denied by the Jews that Christ is
come in the flesh, and that Jesus is the Messiah;
and some that have bore the Christian name, though
very unworthily, have denied his true deity, his
real humanity, proper sonship, and the efficacy [effectiveness--producing
a result] of his blood, righteousness,
and sacrifice, for pardon, justification, and
atonement: and there is a denying of him in works;
so some that profess to know him, and do own him in
his person and offices, yet in works deny him; their
conversation is not becoming their profession of
him; they have the form of godliness, but deny the
power of it: there is a secret and silent denying of
him, when men are ashamed of him, and do not confess
him; and there is an open denying of him, by such
who set their mouth against the heavens, and their
tongue walketh throughout the earth. ~John Gill
Recap of this lesson:
1] We will be treated as Christ is currently
treated.
2] We share in His treatment on Earth and we will
share in His treatments in the Kingdom.
3] We suffer with Christ. We endure with Him.
4] We suffer the whole penalty of the law.
5] We are partakers of the benefits of His
sufferings-peace, pardon, righteousness and
salvation.
6] We will reign with Christ for the millennium and
in the eternal Kingdom.
7] God has already given us the Kingdom by warrant.
8] Reigning with Christ is even more than salvation.
9] We must overcome the way Christ overcame
[Revelation 3:21].
10] We confess Christ in conduct and conversation.
We confess Christ in every circumstance of life.
11] We must be ashamed neither of Christ, His
character, His doctrines or of the requirements of
Salvation/Kingdom.
12] Confession of Christ is more about life,
conduct, invoking the power of the Holy Spirit and
living His doctrines and truths than it is to be a
proselyte. |