At my first defence no man stood with me, but all deserted me. May it not be imputed to them.
Paul writes to Timothy near the end of his life. He describes his first appearance in a Roman court, where not one friend stood beside him. What he does with that desertion is the heart of this verse.
The scene is a courtroom. One writer explains the setting and links Paul's word for desertion to Demas.
This points to Paul's trial — to what we would call his first hearing. The words are better translated "my first defence." Not one person was found to go with him to the court. All "forsook" him, and that word is the same one used of Demas. So they, like him, had given in to the power of the enemy. But if fear was what moved them, grace was still at work in Paul's heart. It lifted him above their unfaithfulness and his own desertion, and made him able to pray that the sin would not be charged against them.
Paul was not made of stone. Two things sharpened the pain: his own love, and what the failure meant to his Lord.
Few can measure how painful and humiliating this was to the apostle, because so few come anywhere near him in faith or in love. No one on earth could feel as he felt what such failure was to the Lord Himself. That feeling gave immense weight to his prayer, "May it not be charged against them!"
Another writer pictures the courtroom itself.
That same lone prisoner stood before the emperor Nero — a defenceless captive, worn down by age and by a lifetime of suffering. He stood in the very jaws of the lion and preached the gospel of God without fear, but no one stood with him. His friends abandoned him. Like frightened hares they ran for safety when his life was in danger. He felt it, and felt it deeply — more for their sake than for his own.
The natural reaction to being abandoned is bitterness. Paul goes the opposite way, and he does it at the point where the road was narrowest.
The apostle found in his day, as many have found since, that the path narrows as we near the goal. So, on trial before the powers of this world, he had to say that no one stood with him and all deserted him. This treatment looks heartless and cowardly, but it stirs no resentment in Paul's heart. Instead it draws out his prayer that it may not be charged against them.
Paul's experience was not new. His Lord walked this road before him.
How closely Paul had to follow in the steps of his Master! And how clearly the same Spirit led him, whatever the difference in degree of power! We read that when the Lord allowed Himself to be arrested, "Then all the disciples left him and fled" (Matt. 26:56). And before His death He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). A blessed likeness! But how few are ready for the suffering that such a privilege brings!
One writer sets Paul's abandonment beside Peter's warning that judgment begins with God's own people.
Not one stayed by him! Peter tells us that "it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God," 1 Peter 4:17. I name these on the authority of the word of God. They show that even then, at the very beginning, something was going on in the open. The Spirit of God could see it and point to it as the ground of final judgment. It was already visible in the church of God.
If everyone deserted Paul, no reader should expect better today. But the Lord did not leave him alone.
Some believers prefer the simple, reliable word of Scripture to the many confusing creeds of fallible people, propped up as those creeds are by custom, tradition, or convenience. Such a believer must expect the isolation that always goes with faithfulness in a time of decline. The church has certainly not improved since everyone deserted no less a man than the apostle Paul, leaving him to stand alone at his first defence in Rome. Still, the Lord stood with him (2 Tim. 4:16-17). He will do the same for every true-hearted follower, and give enough grace for the heaviest burden anyone may have to carry for His sake.
- Deserted. "First defence" means Paul's first hearing in a Roman court. Not one person came with him. The word for their leaving is the same one used of Demas.
- Felt. Paul was not hardened to it. He felt the desertion deeply — more for their sake than his own, and most of all for what such failure meant to the Lord.
- Forgiven. Instead of resentment, grace produced a prayer: may it not be charged against them. The narrowing path did not narrow his heart.
- Following. All the disciples left His Master, and before His death He prayed for those who were wronging Him. Paul walks the same road, led by the same Spirit.
- Fortified. Decline was already visible in the church's earliest days, so isolation still goes with faithfulness. But the Lord stood with Paul, and He stands with every true-hearted follower, giving grace enough for the heaviest burden.
But the Lord stood with [me], and gave me power, that through me the proclamation might be fully made, and all [those of] the nations should hear; and I was delivered out of the lion's mouth.
Paul writes from a Roman prison, and at his first hearing before the emperor's court no friend stood with him. Verse 16 records that desertion, and this verse answers it: what help did the Lord give — escape, or something else?
The order of the words matters. Presence comes first, then power.
The apostle was in these circumstances for the truth's sake. They only served to bring out fully what a reserve he had in the Lord Himself... Notice the beautiful moral order of these words — not "strengthened me and stood by me," but "stood by me and strengthened me." This order conveys a reality that is very blessed. It puts first, and in the foreground, the Lord's company and presence with His faithful servant at the moment when all deserted him.
This is not an exception made for an apostle. Others see in it a pattern for anyone left standing alone.
May we not say this? It is exactly when someone in the Lord's service, and for His name, has to feel the loneliness of the path of a faithful witness that the Lord comes and reveals Himself in a special way. So at this moment of trial, the Lord stood by Paul and strengthened him — strengthened him inwardly. The enemy's effort became an opportunity to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles who filled the court.
The power He gave had a definite shape.
If all others fail and forsake us, the Lord's words will always remain true: "I will never leave you nor forsake you"... But when the Lord gives power, it is not power to crush our enemies. It is not power to get ourselves out of hard circumstances. It is spiritual power to bear witness for Him in front of His enemies... From the records of Paul's preaching we know what that proclamation was: the forgiveness of sins "through this Man" — Christ Jesus, the risen Man in the glory (Acts 13:38)... Paul was given power to proclaim Christ, and the Lord Himself used His power to deliver His servant from the immediate danger. So he can say, not "I rescued myself," but "I was rescued from the lion's mouth."
Paul had every reason to defend himself. He used the hour for something else.
Let us note this: Paul says nothing about being on the defensive on this occasion. In fact he boldly took the positive action of fully preaching the truth of Christ before the great Gentile court. Such is the power given as a result of any real sense of the Lord's standing with the servant.
His words also went further than the courtroom.
He did not use every ounce of his wit and strain every nerve to prove his own innocence. Instead he concentrated on giving the fullest and plainest testimony to the gospel. His trial became the occasion in which "the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it." Paul eagerly seized the chance to set the gospel fully before the most impressive gathering on earth at that time. His words then stood on record in the official report of the trial, open to any and every Gentile.
Commentators differ over who or what the lion was.
"So I was rescued from the lion's mouth." Does this refer to the Emperor in particular, or to his representative in a more general way? People say they cannot determine. The phrase clearly means rescued from the most immediate or overwhelming danger.
Others look behind the human figure. Paul was rescued "from the Satanic enmity which was moving strongly in the secular power" (Leslie M. Grant).
One writer sets Paul beside Daniel, an earlier servant whom God saved from lions.
God delivered Daniel from the mouth of the lion "because he believed in his God." Paul, too, was delivered, though perhaps in another sense. But we do know that he was afterwards put to death by Caesar's executioners. So let us have no fears for our own life. Our time here is certain until our work is done and our testimony for Christ is complete.
- Stood — presence comes before power. The Lord's company with His servant comes first, and the strength follows.
- Strengthened — the help is not power to crush enemies or escape hardship. It is power to witness in front of them.
- Proclaimed — Paul dropped his own defence and preached. The message went fully on record before the Gentiles.
- Delivered — Paul does not say "I rescued myself." The Lord did it. Commentators point to the Emperor, to the power behind him, or to overwhelming danger.
- Finished — the rescue lasted as long as the work did. Our time here is secure until the testimony is complete.
The Lord shall deliver me from every wicked work, and shall preserve [me] for his heavenly kingdom; to whom [be] glory for the ages of ages. Amen.
Paul writes these words from prison in Rome, after his friends had all deserted him. What follows is not a hope of release but a settled certainty, and commentators explain what that deliverance meant.
Every friend had abandoned him. His certainty rests on something outside his circumstances.
So, in this day, ruin has come in among the people of God. Satan has so triumphed that Paul is in prison, the saints have deserted him, and evil is increasing. The Apostle feels all the failure deeply. Yet one thing holds him up and lifts him above it all: he realises that the Lord Jesus is in the supreme place of power, above every influence of Satan. The Lord in glory is his resource.
Kelly weighs what the promise covers. It does not guarantee another escape from the lion's mouth. (Where these writers quote "every evil work," the ESV reads "every evil deed.")
But the apostle widens his view as he looks ahead. "The Lord will deliver me from every evil work" — not necessarily out of a lion's mouth another day, but from all real evil — and He "will preserve for His heavenly kingdom." Earth might bring him still more sorrow, and human persecution to the very worst. For the apostle the question was not whether his body would be saved, but whether he would be preserved for the Lord's heavenly kingdom.
Paul was executed. One writer sees the promise kept, not broken:
Paul said, "The Lord will deliver me from every evil work." Yet this deliverance did not mean he would escape suffering. In fact, the evil work of Satan led to Paul's execution in prison — and that was the very means of his deliverance.
The word does not guarantee that the body stays safe. Hamilton Smith links it to Psalm 121:
As the Psalmist can say, "The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life" (Psalm 121:7). The heavenly kingdom may indeed be reached through a martyr's death, but the soul will be preserved through every evil.
Older translations end that line with the word "soul," which is why Smith speaks of the soul being kept.
Christ's kingdom has two sides. Paul names the side that belongs to Christians.
The meek who are to inherit the earth will have part with the Lord in His earthly kingdom. But Paul, and every other believer of the Christian period, will have part in Christ's heavenly kingdom. In the millennial day, everything in heaven and on earth will come under Christ's rule. He will have His servants both in heaven and on earth.
Edward Dennett ties the phrase to the timing of Paul's death:
The Lord guaranteed that He would preserve him for His heavenly kingdom. That is, He would keep him until he departed to be with Christ in heaven, and the time of his departure was at hand. That would happen before the Lord returned for His saints, and so before He appeared with His saints to set up His kingdom on the earth. This will explain the term "heavenly kingdom."
This confidence is not a lone flash of optimism. One writer sees preservation running through the whole close of the letter:
The Roman Emperor, the church of God, and His servant Paul are all under review here. All of them work for the "preservation" of His poor imprisoned servant. Through all, come what may, Paul will be preserved, and so will Timothy, and so will all who are like-minded. Even a cruel death may come, but that does not touch the preservation of the faithful servant.
Kelly turns the closing praise into a pattern for prayer:
His and our every prayer may well end in a continual Hallelujah.
Smith turns that same confidence into a question for the reader:
Do we have such confidence in the love of the Father and of Christ? With enemies, dangers and desertion around us, can we still say, "Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge"?
- Deserted — Paul writes with every friend gone; his resource is the Lord in glory, not better circumstances.
- Delivered — the rescue covers every evil work, not every suffering; Paul's execution became the very means of his deliverance.
- Preserved — the keeping reaches the soul, not the skin; a martyr's death can be the road into the heavenly kingdom.
- Heavenly — Christ's kingdom has an earthly side and a heavenly side; Paul claims the heavenly part as his own.
- Glorified — deliverance and preservation end in praise, so prayer closes in a continual Hallelujah.