2 Timothy chapter 2

vs 1

Timothy is encouraged to draw his strength from the grace of Christ. This is a typical statement of us not needing to draw on our own strength, but of our ability to draw on God's strength, which logically is far more likely to work.

vs 2

Those that we remember in the Christian church either stuffed something up so royally that it's unforgettable, or were given the organisational skills to keep their work going long after they were gone. Everyone knows the names of Jonathon Edwards (US Revivalist) and John Wesley (started the Methodists), but who knows the name of George Whitefield? Even though he was fundamental in the starting of the revivals both in America and in England, Whitefield never started a movement.

Paul here is starting a movement, by ensuring that what he taught is passed on to other teachers to teach.

vs 3

Paul wants to start an analogy about endurance - in particular enduring hardship.

vs 4

In modern scholarship using the historical-critical method, we would seek to independently verify whether this statement about soldiers and civil matters was true. While this method of criticism is valuable for historical certainty, since I think we can trust Paul to not be lying, we can just assume that soldiers on the whole who wanted to please their commanders didn't get involved in civilian matters.

The NASB (and greek) explain it a little better, saying that "No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier." Remember that regular armies are not in existance. They are raised up out of the population for specific purposes. Even 'enlist' is probably a bit of a misnomer - some people had less choice than others, depending on the culture.

The fact is that whether you're doing compulsory service, or you are being forced, you don't want to make your boss unhappy. So you stick to the job at hand that you have been given.

vs 5

I don't like this translation at all. Literally it reads "And if you wrestle with someone, you are only crowned if you are wrestling lawfully". It sort of gives me the idea that if you grab someone off the street and beat the snot out of them, you're not going to get a medal for it. Of course I agree that you've got to follow the rules as well - but if you know greek wrestling, you'll know there isn't many rules. People don't get medals for pub brawls - only in wrestling rings. You've got to do things at the right time and in the right way.

vs 6

Now this statement is a funny one. I would say that here Paul is again defending his statement that a worker deserves his wages from 1 Timothy. If you put all of these previous statements into the context of verse 2, then you will see that Paul wants teachers of the gospel to stay focused on their teaching (remember the Apostles in Acts got distracted because of the needs of widows etc), to teach by the rules (probably means to teach Paul's stuff and not false stuff - but also that you can only teach the gospel if you're prepared to live by its rules), and finally here to accept that you do have a reasonable claim to some fruit from your ministry.

vs 7

Thankfully, if we don't get all this stuff right straight away, God will give us insight into it. It seems Timothy might have needed it as much as we do.

vs 8

Paul's succinct gospel (this time) is Jesus the man, as Christ the anointed one of God, raised from the dead by God's power, descended from David as a king. These summary statements of the gospel are really precious. They give us a great insight into what Paul thought were the key points people needed to understand.

vs 9

This is what Paul preaches, and what gets him into gaol. But just because he is in gaol, the word of God is not trapped with him. He has been teaching people to teach, and so they are going out and doing it! Of course we know that Paul was able to teach some people while under arrest, but his influence was far more widely felt because of his instruction of teachers.

vs 10

Paul is getting on, and is starting to feel like his own suffering is ver much in the mould of Christ. Just as Christ suffered for the salvation of the elect, so Paul is now suffering for bringing that message to them. It's not the same thing, but it is a vital part of the work of Christ, and Paul is doing it in obedience, to the point of sharing in the sufferings of Christ - which we are all called to do.

vs 11

An early hymn or song or perhaps even liturgy. Paul certainly wants it to be trustworthy, because the first part directly relates to him! If we die in the pattern of Christ (ie for the gospel) then we will live forever with him

vs 12

If we don't die, but instead we endure this life and stick to our faith, we will also live with him (but changing it to reign with him probably makes it sound better in greek).

If we drop Christ, he drops us too. Now not everyone agrees with me, but this fits my model of salvation-losing pretty well. I totally agree that there is nothing that can strip us of our salvation (height, depths, you know the drill). But there's a difference between us having our salvation taken away, and we ourselves deciding that we want to turn our backs on God and drop our salvation. This model of course has its problems (what happens to people who fall away but then turn back?) but it is, in my opinion, just as reasonable as a moderate calvinist position, and more reasonable than a hyper-calvinist one.

vs 13

But even if we are faithless and do not hold out for Christ, then he is still faithful, because Christ is not reliant on us to do his work. We are only in him in the first place because of him. He cannot disown his own work. We don't have to worry about him letting us down.