I. There is about these words a sort of charm which eludes theological or critical analysis. They assert no historical fact. They can scarcely be said to affirm any moral principle; they establish not one single controversial doctrine. And yet, perhaps, there are hardly any words in the Bible more encouraging, more stimulating, more assuring, better worth remembering, for the spirit which they breathe, and the holy example of courage and of confidence which they set vividly before our eyes and heart. They present to us the visible image of a man exemplifying all that he had ever taught. He was crucifying himself to everything that was adverse to his duty. He was counting all things but dross compared with the great restoration which he was expecting in eternity, the recovery of all that in time he had deposited with Christ. His entire spiritual fortune was invested in that one venture.
II. St. Paul differed from most of mankind, no doubt, not less in the personal circumstances than in the moral altitude of his position. But as respects the relation between himself and his duty, and the principles on which his duty to God and man must be discharged, St, Paul differed no more from ourselves than we differ from one another. It is impossible that we should resolutely, honestly look our duty in the face, and do it,without encountering in one or more of all the regions of suffering, those, namely, of mind, body, or estate, some cross, according to God's providence, of lighter or more oppressive magnitude. But it is in the path of duty and not in the path of artificial martyrdom, that these sufferings must be encountered. We must have engrafted our life on that of Christ. We must be endeavouring to live in His Spirit and according to His will. Then we may confidently cast our care upon Him, assured that He careth for us.
W. H. Brookfield, Sermons,p. 36.
The Assurance of Faith.
I. The Faith. (1) It consists of trust in Christ, reliance on Him for salvation according to the revelation of the Gospel. (2) According to the Apostle, the personal surrender and the commitment of himself and of all his interests into the hand of Christ is the prominent distinction of faith.
II. The Assurance. (1) Like the faith with which it is connected, it is enlightened and intelligent, acquired and realised in the knowledge of Christ, in the personal acquaintance with Christ. (2) Another element in the assurance of the text is a full persuasion of Christ's ability to guard and keep with all fidelity to the very last the deposit which has been entrusted to Him. By way of practical application, note (1) that both the faith and the assurance are personal. (2) They are alike of present exercise. (3) Both the one and the other are nothing without Christ Himself.
E. Thomson, Memorials of a Ministry,p. 283.
Christian Certainty.
It is refreshing in these days of hesitancy and doubt to hear such a note of certainty as rings in this avowal. It is a characteristic note of the New Testament writers. Their intellectual strength, their freedom from fanaticism cannot be questioned, and yet they are never doubtful about Christianity; their conviction is always distinct, strong, and imperturbable. Can we, from this avowal of the Apostle, gather any indications of the true grounds of Christian confidence?
I. Paul was now an old man Paul the aged, as he designates himself although probably he was not more than sixty-three when he was put to death. Few men had tested Christianity as he had done. (1) First, by the repeated investigations of a peculiarly keen intellect in Damascus, in Arabia, and in Athens, and through thirty years of profound exposition and keen controversy. (2) Next by the sacrifice for it of possessions and prospects, the most attractive to an ardent, aspiring nature like his. (3) By endurances for it such as few undergo stripes, imprisonment, deaths oft. And now he stands face to face with the last great test of fidelity to conviction; he is about to die for his beliefs. And throughout his letter there is not one dubious estimate, one faltering avowal. Not only is his Christian assurance confident, it exults, it vaunts itself. There is no mistaking the tone of this his final verdict upon Christianity. The very phraseology indicates the strength and the enthusiasm of his faith.
II. The Apostle does not rest his certainty upon an ethical basis and feeling of personal goodness. In Paul's theory of salvation by Christ, personal holiness never takes the place of a meritorious cause. It is simply the fruit and expression of Christ's great gift of life. Nor does Paul derive his certainty from any imaginative hopes of the eschatologist. Such confidence as he avows is clearly the product of intelligent testimony, of clear conviction, of long and diversified experience of Christian life. There can be no strong exulting certainty in mere peradventure. If immortal hope is to be assured to a man, his present life in Christ must be certain. "I know whom I have believed."
III. It comes then to this. The evidence upon which the Apostle relies is solely that of his personal experience of Christ. The certainty of an old saintly man like Paul the certainty which is produced by a long Christian experience, that rests upon what Christ has been, in the manifold necessities of a strenuous life, in its arduous duties, fierce temptations, sore conflicts, depressions and sorrows, becomes an absolute feeling as indubitable as life itself. For the life in Christ day by day generates the measure of your dying confidence, the strength of your trust. If your realisation of Christ be meagre, your assurance will be of corresponding feebleness. But if your assurance of Christ be large and continued through long years of life, then your faith will grow exceedingly, your confidence will take large forms, your avowals will find large expressions.
H. Allon, The Indwelling Christ,p. 143.
References: 2 Timothy 1:12. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 271; vol. xvi., No. 908; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House,vol. i., p. 240; F. Greeves, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xviii., p. 129; J. Le Hurey, Ibid.,vol. xxxiv., p. 51; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 113; vol. v., p. 28; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 78. 2 Timothy 1:12-14. Spurgeon, Sermons",vol. xxxii., No. 1913.