For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
Ver. 10. For therefore] Because godliness hath so much happiness laid up in the promises,1 Timothy 4:8, and there is so much certainty of the performance of those promises, therefore we both do and suffer,1 Corinthians 15:58. Finis edulcat media. The end sweetens the journey.
Who is the Saviour of all men] Not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation. For every man should die the same day he is born, the wages of death should be paid him presently; but Christ begs wicked men's lives for a season, saith one. Sin hath hurled confusion over the world, brought a vanity on the creature. And had not Christ undertaken the shattered condition of the world to uphold it, it had fallen about Adam's ears, saith another divine:
Specially of those that believe] Who therefore are in a special manner bound to observe and obey him. Among the Romans they that were saved were wont to crown him that saved them, and to honour him as a father all their days. Σεβεται δε τουτον ως πατερα, Polyb. vi. We must also set the crown upon Christ's head,Song of Solomon 3:11, and obey this everlasting Father, Isaiah 9:6 .