2 Timothy 2:11-14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

It is a faithful saying A saying as important as it is true. If we be dead Greek, συναπεθανομεν, die, or have died, with him To the world and sin, and be ready to die for him; we shall live with him In that everlasting happiness which he hath prepared for all his people. If we suffer with him Persecution, or whatever he may be pleased to appoint or permit to happen to us, with faith and patience becoming a Christian; we shall also reign with him In heavenly glory: see on Rom 8:17; 1 Peter 4:13. If Intimidated with these transitory evils, we desert his cause, and deny him Before men, that we may escape suffering for him; he also will deny us In the great day, before his Father and the holy angels, Matthew 10:33; Luke 12:9. If we believe not That he will deny us, presuming upon his mercy; yet he abideth faithful And will fulfil his threatenings on such as expose themselves to them; he cannot deny himself Cannot falsify his word, or fail to make it good. Or the verse may be interpreted in a more general sense thus: If we believe not the truths and promises of his gospel, or if we are unfaithful, (as some render απιστουμεν, considering it as opposed to πιστος, faithful,) yet he abideth faithful, and will steadily adhere to those rules of judgment, and distribution of rewards and punishments, which he hath so solemnly laid down in his word: for it is certain he cannot deny himself, or frustrate his own public declarations. Therefore be diligent, as if the apostle had said, in the discharge of thy duty, and shrink not from it for fear of suffering. Of these things put them in remembrance Remind those who are under thy charge of these powerful motives to persevere in patiently suffering ill, and diligently doing well; charging them before the Lord As in his presence, and as they will answer it to him; not to strive Greek, μη λογομαχειν, not to contend, or quarrel, about words An evil to which they are prone; to no profit Such a contention is altogether unprofitable, and even tends to the subverting of the hearers The diverting their attention from true, vital religion, and the important truths on which it is built, and filling their minds with pride and passion, and numberless other disorders and vices. There is an awful solemnity, as Doddridge justly observes, in this charge, which plainly shows the great folly and mischief of striving about little controversies. Indeed, consequences such as those here referred to, are wont to flow from most religious disputes as they are commonly managed; so that they tend to nothing out to the subverting of the faith and morals of those who engage keenly in them. They ought therefore to be carefully avoided by all who desire to promote true piety and virtue, agreeably to the apostle's direction.