2 Timothy 1:8-11: Be Not Thou Therefore Ashamed
2 Timothy 1:8
Since we have the Holy Spirit and not a spirit of fear, we must not be “ashamed of the testimony of our Lord” (2 Timothy 1:8). Timothy is also told not to be ashamed of Paul “his prisoner.” What does it mean to be ashamed?
You’re afraid of what other people will think. They may think you weird or too religious. Maybe you want to protect your reputation. You do not want to lose friends. You may make it awkward with people you work with.
The bottom line is you want to avoid some sort of “affliction”: “but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel.” To be ashamed is to avoid afflictions. To identify with Christ is to be a partaker of afflictions. It is going to happen at some point if you share the Gospel. It is not all Acts 2. “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” (Matthew 10:25).
“Be not thou therefore ashamed... of me his prisoner.” To identify with someone who is imprisoned because of the faith can get you in trouble also. The same afflictions mentioned above apply. You still identify with Christ. Think of Matthew 25:34-40. When we serve those in Christ, we are serving Him. You are still publicly associated with Christ. Gaius was helping missionaries on their way in 3 John 1:5-8, in contrast with Diotrephes. Many people refused to associate with Paul because of this. We will see examples in future sections. We are to help fellow Christians who are suffering for the faith, not shun them.
The gospel is “according to the power of God.” “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). The gospel must be the power of God, because otherwise it could not be the good news.
2 Timothy 1:9
Here, we begin a short doxology to God the Father. The “who” in 2 Timothy 1:9 clearly refers to God, who was mentioned last in the previous verse. He is the one who “saved us, and called us with an holy calling.” He saved us from the wrath of hell, but it was not enough to say just that. He saved us from hell but called us to something new: “an holy calling.” Previously profane and defiled, we have been created anew and called to holiness. Holiness is something we possess because we are in Christ, but by faith, we experience and act holy amid a world that is very unholy.
We are called to a holy life. Think “calling” as being like a vocation. It is your calling in life. To be holy is to be set apart, especially to the Lord. As God is “wholly other” and distinct from His creation, we are called to the same. It makes us different.
Our salvation and calling are “not according to our works.” We are Christians today, not because of some performance or even some intrinsic quality that elicited the Lord to act. He saved us because He wanted to.
God did this “according to his own purpose and grace.” The “purpose” is a setting forth to be used of God. Interestingly, the word is used also of the shewbread in the Temple. “Grace” emphasizes that this was a work of God, not of our merit. Salvation and calling come first, then the purpose for which we were called. This is distinction is displayed in Ephesians 2:8-10. We are saved first, then, being created anew in Christ, we have certain works that are committed to us to do.
This was “given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” Just as being in Adam at the beginning of time, we received a sin nature and death, and certain physical attributes, being in Christ, we received this certain purpose for which we were called.
2 Timothy 1:10-11
All of what we would be in Christ was not immediately clear in the Old Testament. It “is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 1:10). What is interesting is the mentions of the “appearing” of Christ usually references His second coming, while this mentions His first. Only so much was revealed during the first coming. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19).
Jesus “abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26). “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). The body may sleep, but we will never die. The only death we know is our death with Christ. The good news is that we have new life now. The source of that life is in Christ.
Paul was “appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles” (2 Timothy 1:11). The difference between a preacher and a teacher here is that of a herald versus an instructor. He is a proclaimer of the message of the gospel, but he also teaches all the finer points of doctrine. Being an apostle could mean his authority as one who has seen the risen Christ. However, since he already established his apostleship in this aspect in 2 Timothy 1:1, and being paired with these other terms, it likely means the more generic sense of being a “sent one,” or a missionary.