Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but suffer evil along with the glad tidings, according to the power of God;
Paul writes this from prison. He calls a younger fellow worker to stand for Christ at the very moment when standing has become costly. The verse gathers three things into one call: the message, the messenger, and the strength to hold onto both.
The word points back to what Paul has just said about the spirit God gives. It also points to something in Timothy himself.
From 2 Timothy 1:6-8, we gather that Timothy was timid and held back by nature. That is why Paul urged him to stir up the gift he had received. Paul reminded him of the power and love which were his by the Spirit of God. So Timothy was not to be ashamed of the testimony, nor of Paul in his imprisonment. All these instructions were not put on record for the sake of Timothy alone. They are for the help and instruction of every Christian young man from that day to this.
Some read the phrase as a body of truth to be defined. One writer, answering that question directly, says the meaning is far simpler.
Not to be "ashamed of the testimony of the Lord" is the testimony itself — not what it was. He was not to be ashamed of bearing witness to Christ the Lord. Paul was in prison for it; Timothy was not to be ashamed because shame was put on the man who had borne the witness... How many stayed with the blessed Lord when He was taken, or with Paul even when he was?... The testimony reduces itself to its simplest elements — not being ashamed of Christ, set before the world in testimony.
Paul refuses to let Timothy separate loyalty to the message from loyalty to the man carrying it.
Notice too that the man who carries the testimony is identified with the testimony. That is why the apostle adds, "Nor of me his prisoner." Many claim to hold and love the truth, yet they would prefer to stand apart from the people the testimony is entrusted to. As our passage shows, this can never be according to the mind of God. It would have displeased Him just as much if Timothy had been ashamed of Paul as if he had been ashamed of the testimony.
Note whose prisoner Paul calls himself. Human authority held him unjustly, yet he calls himself the Lord's prisoner.
Shame is not tempting when things are going well. It presses hardest when the work looks small and the world looks strong.
When the tide of blessing is at the full there is little or no room for shame. It is very different when few are gathered in and the love of many grows cold, when the world grows harder and more scornful and the saints cower under its insults... The testimony may look like a failure, but it is still the testimony of our Lord. And the suffering witness, held unjustly by human authority, is His prisoner... Grace joined the witness, who may not be perfect, to His testimony, which is perfect... We are not called to suffer or to bear shame for anything but Christ.
The call is not just to avoid shame. It is to stand beside the gospel and take what falls on it. Commentators say the older wording "partaker of the afflictions of the gospel" is better translated another way.
"Suffer evil along with the gospel." The gospel is pictured here almost as a person. Timothy is urged to throw in his lot with it completely, whatever the cost, so that he also carries any reproach that falls on it.
Most of us are glad to share the gospel's blessings and its successes. Sharing its afflictions is a different thing, and Paul attaches a reason why it is possible at all.
This is only possible "according to the power of God." Here, as in Colossians 1:11, power is connected not with what is active but with what is passive — suffering.
This power does not remove the pain. It holds up the person who feels it.
What! Share in afflictions? Yes. Share in being delivered from feeling them? No — share in afflictions that a man really feels, but "according to the power of God!" This does not mean he stops feeling the pressure of sorrow and weakness. Paul had a "thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor. 12). Did he not feel it, do you think? Yes, he felt it daily... The power of God coming in on our side does not lessen the feeling.
- Therefore — the appeal rests on what came just before. God gave power and love by His Spirit, so a timid man could be told to stand.
- Testimony — what you must not be ashamed of is Christ Himself, owned openly before a world that rejects Him.
- Prisoner — the message and the messenger stand or fall together. Being ashamed of the imprisoned servant displeases God as much as being ashamed of the testimony.
- Alongside — Timothy is not asked to admire the gospel but to stand next to it and let its reproach land on him too.
- Power — God's power here is not visible triumph but the strength to feel the pain fully and not let go.
who has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to [his] own purpose and grace, which [was] given to us in Christ Jesus before [the] ages of time,
Paul has just urged Timothy to share in suffering for the gospel by God's power. Instead of a technique for courage, he points back to what God has already done and already planned: a salvation settled in Christ before time began.
Paul mentions God's power in verse 8 and at once traces it to its source.
The mention of God's power leads the Apostle back and upward to the source of all the blessing that was flowing out through the gospel: to God's purpose and grace. That purpose is the unchanging foundation on which God was working. It is also the assurance that no effort of the enemy could stop God from carrying out His thoughts.
The verse names two acts of God, and they are not the same act said twice.
It is plain that the first great object of the gospel is our salvation... Not only has God saved us; we also read that He has "called us to a holy calling." This passage calls it "a holy calling." Scripture also calls it "the heavenly calling" (Hebrews 3:1) and "the upward call" (Philippians 3:14). Salvation sets us free from our sins and from this world under judgment. The calling links us with heaven and with all the spiritual blessings God has purposed for us in the heavenly places in Christ.
Scripture has other names for this calling: heavenly, upward. Here Paul calls it holy, and that fits a letter about decline.
But God "saved us and called us to a holy calling." Here "holy" carries the weight. It suits this letter and the conditions it has in view. The calling was always holy, but now it was urgent to press its "holy" character. It is a calling on high, or upward, as we read in Philippians 3:14. It stands in contrast with the earthly things in which men find their glory, to their shame. It is a heavenly calling, as we see in Hebrews 3:1... But now, as those who bore the Lord's name were sliding into decline, the apostle binds God's salvation together with His holy calling. An evil time is not a time for lowering the standard. It is a time for unveiling it and pressing its importance.
The timing of God's purpose settles the question of merit before anyone can raise it.
These precious words, "His own purpose and grace," stand far above and beyond man's works! No one was there to influence His purpose. No one had ever lived to raise a question about what sort of life would be blessed with His grace. No — it is the grace of God, known and believed, that gives a man's life its right shape.
This does not mean a believer has no good works. It means those works stand on a different footing from salvation.
There are good works in every saint: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10)... Still, God's salvation rests on Christ's work, not ours.
Many read the phrase as a promise about the endless future. Kelly presses it the other way — backwards, before any creature existed.
This, too, was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time began. It is a most weighty and blessed truth. It does not mean only that our security is guaranteed without end. It means that grace was given in Christ Jesus before time began. It was not so with Israel: God called them in time. God's purpose about us Christians was in eternity, before any creature existed... Their blessing was a plan bound up with Christ before the world existed, and before any question of creature responsibility came in... so we are all the more bound to walk, here and now, as He walked.
A gift can be given long before anyone sees it. That gap is what this verse describes, and Darby warns against turning it into a debate about who is chosen.
This is not a question of election here, even if election is involved. The point is that God gave us a place in Christ — the sovereign calling — before the world began, and did not reveal it until Christ came.
- Purpose first. God settled your place in Christ before creation, before any creature could earn or lose anything. He called Israel in time; He formed this calling before time.
- Grace given, not earned. God gave the gift when no one existed to sway Him. So works are ruled out at the root: good works follow salvation, they never pay for it.
- Saved from. Salvation is deliverance — from sins, from judgment, from a doomed world system.
- Called to. The calling adds more: it links you with heaven and everything God purposed for you there.
- Holy, therefore unshakeable. Paul calls it "holy" in a letter about decline. No enemy can shake this foundation, and an evil time is no time to lower the standard.