Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · 2 Timothy 第1章

2 Timothy 1:3.— St. Paul,in what follows, seems to intimate that the Judaizers were not only ashamed of him in his present sufferings, but gloried over him; so far were they themselves from being willing to suffer for righteousness sake. And as the danger in which the apostle then was, might probably make too deep an impression upon the mind of Timothy, and of other Christians, he takes occasion frequently to intimate, that he himself is neither afraid nor ashamed, notwithstanding his present distress and danger; and he hoped that Timothy would herein imitate him, and persevere in opposing the Judaizers, even more strenuously than when the apostle was at liberty to assist him. Many had gone off to the Judaizers; but labour and patience under sufferings was the way, under almighty grace, to glory and victory: cowardice and a regard to present ease was the way for men to miss of the glorious reward of eternal life. By such arguments the apostle pressed Timothy to livepiously; to continue in his fidelity, and in fervent love with all true Christians; to preach the pure gospel doctrine, and to suffer for it with patience and meekness: but not by any means to be ashamed of it, or betray it, 2 Timothy 1:3.-Ch. 2 Timothy 2:26. We may observe, that as St. Paul had been calumniated by the Jews as an apostate from the religion of his forefathers, he therefore declares the contrary here, as he does frequently elsewhere.

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2 Timothy 1:4. Greatly desiring to see thee,— The intense thinking about a son who had endeared himself to his father in the gospel by a filial anxiety of heart, and many tears; who had suffered in all his afflictions, as well as rejoiced in his joy, must raise the most tender sentiments in the apostle's mind, and make him, though in a prison, long to see and embrace him, that he might give him his dying charge, and devolve the work of preaching and defending the gospel upon him, before he left the world. One may see in the very expressions, the tenderness of his sentiments under those affecting circumstances, and that he wrote with tears in his eyes, as well as a parental anxiety in his heart.

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2 Timothy 1:5. In thy grandmother Lois, &c.— This is one internal mark, among a multitude, of the genuineness of this epistle: for we find, Act 16:1 that Timothy was of Jewish descent by his mother's side, but not by his father's. This, and many other such minute particulars, could not all of them have been exactly hit upon, if the writers of the New Testament had not been in those very circumstances, in which we suppose them to have been, when they wrote the several books ascribed to them. Perhaps the apostle, in reckoning up the pious ancestors of the pious evangelist, might have some reference to the second commandment: for, in a sense consistent with moral liberty, God will have mercy upon thousands of generations of them that love him, and keep his commandments.

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2 Timothy 1:6. Stir up the gift of God, &c.— The word 'Αναζωπυρειν properly signifies to blow or stir up a fire, when it is almost dead, or does not burn sufficiently. Possibly there might be some danger, lest the fierce and zealous opposition of the Judaizers, and the persecution which the apostle and his faithful adherents were then under, should damp Timothy's zeal, and cause him to let the sacred fire lie under embers. See 1 Thessalonians 5:19. 1 Timothy 4:14.

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2 Timothy 1:7. God hath not given us the spirit of fear;— St. Paul has frequent references in his epistles to the terror which accompanied the giving of the law from Mount Sinai, and intimates that the Judaizing Christians, who were so fond of the legal dispensation, were of a legal spirit;—a slavish spirit of bondage and fear, as if they had the thunder of Mount Sinai still in their ears—men of intimidated and mean spirits, who were afraid of suffering for their religion. But he takes care to point out the freedom and fortitude, the love and discretion of the true Christian spirit; and indeed discretion, love, and fortitude should always go hand in hand.

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2 Timothy 1:8. The testimony of our Lord,— That is, "The gospel itself; and more particularly the freedom of the Gentile converts from all subjection to the law of Moses." His prisoner means, Prisoner on his account, or for his sake. Heylin reads, Be not thou ashamed of the gospel of our Lord, nor of me who am a prisoner upon his account.

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2 Timothy 1:12. That which I have committed unto him— "As to that momentous trust and treasure, inclusive of your spiritual gifts, and of the doctrine of the gospel, and your office as a minister to preach it, which is excellent in itself, and good for the use of edifying your own and others' souls, to the glory of God and their salvation, and was committed by the Lord Jesus Christ to you at your solemn ordination; see that you be faithful in maintaining it against all the efforts of your enemies, and in preserving it pure and uncorrupted, with religious care and diligence, by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, who permanently resides with peculiar relation and influence, and by his gifts and graces, in you and me, as he ever does, according to the measure of the gift of Christ, (Ephesians 4:7.) in all true believers and faithful ministers, (John 14:16-17.) to enable us to fulfil the duties of our stations, in the face of all opposition and danger."

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2 Timothy 1:13. Hold fast the form of sound words,— Hold fast in faith and love, &c. the form of sound words, &c. Bengelius. Retain well the idea of salutary doctrine which you have learned of me, concerning Christian faith and charity. Heylin. The word 'Υποτυπωσις, rendered form, signifies sometimes the same with the word τυπος ; that is, a plan, model, or pattern; in which sense it may be understood here. See Romans 6:17. And surely, none can express the mind and will of God in sounder words, or more apt phrases, than the apostles, who were under the immediate and extraordinary illumination of the spirit.Sound words signify the pure gospel doctrine, delivered in the plain simple manner of the apostles; and as it leads men to a pious holy life, and does not lay the chief stress upon ceremonies and external thing

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2 Timothy 1:15. That all they which are in Asia, be turned away— Hereby was the prophesy fulfilled, Acts 20:29-30. The Asiatics were infamous for their cowardice and effeminacy. St. Paul, it has been thought, alludes to their behaviour at Rome, Ch. 2Ti 4:16 of which Timothy might have been informed by travellers; but the text plainly intimates, that they were persons who were still in Asia. The apostle possibly mentions Phygellus and Hermogenes as known to Timothy, or as having distinguished themselves by their profession; so that there was particular reason to expect a different conduct from them.

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