Be not thou, therefore Discouraged by any dangers or trials; or ashamed of the testimony of our Lord The gospel which testifies of Christ, or of testifying the truth and importance of it to all men; nor of me his prisoner The cause of the servants of God, doing his work, cannot be separated from the cause of God himself. But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel Of such afflictions as I endure for the gospel's sake: or, be ready to undergo the persecutions and troubles which attend the profession and preaching of the gospel: according to the power of God That is, as God shall enable thee; who hath saved us
By faith in his Son and in his gospel, from sin and misery, present and eternal, and therefore we may the more readily endure any temporal evils for the gospel. The love of the Father, the grace of our Saviour, and the whole economy of salvation, are here admirably described. And called us with a holy calling A calling holy in regard, 1st, Of the author, God; 2d, The means, his word and Spirit; 3d, The end, holiness; not according to our works See on Romans 9:11; Romans 11:6. But according to his own purpose and grace That is, his gracious purpose; (see on Ephesians 3:11;) which was given us in Christ Through his mediation and grace; before the world began He being appointed, in the everlasting and unchangeable counsels of God, to be the Redeemer and Saviour of all that should believe in and obey him. But now is made manifest Is openly revealed and exhibited; by the appearing of our Saviour By his manifestation in the flesh, and the publication of the gospel of his grace. Who hath abolished death Hath obtained for persevering believers a glorious resurrection even from temporal death hereafter, and deliverance from the sting of it here; with a title to, and meetness for, the eternal life of both soul and body; so that death shall be completely swallowed up in victory. And hath brought life and immortality to light Hath clearly revealed by the gospel that immortal life which he hath purchased for us. Or, if αφθαρσιαν be rendered, as it properly may, not immortality, but incorruption, the meaning will be, he hath clearly revealed the life, or existence and happiness, of the soul immediately after death, and the incorruption of the body: or rather, hath made them clear; for the word φωτιζω, here used, means to make a thing clear and plain which was formerly obscure, a translation which is more proper here than to bring to light. “For the Israelites had an obscure knowledge of the immortality of the soul, and of the resurrection of the body, given them in the writings of Moses, as is plain from our Lord's words, (Luke 20:37,) and from what is related 2Ma 7:9; 2Ma 7:14; 2Ma 7:23. Nevertheless, as these things were but obscurely revealed in the ancient oracles, the far more clear discovery of them in the gospel, but especially Christ's express promise to raise the dead, and give eternal life to believers, might with the greatest propriety be called a making these things clear.” The heathen also had some confused hopes of the immortality of the soul, but as they had no ground for these hopes but uncertain tradition and their own wishes, they were much in the dark concerning it.