Endure hardness] RV 'suffer hardship with me.' A good soldier] The soldier's virtue is to be shown in resisting, (1) the enemies of the faith, (2) all evil; and with this end in view he will not devote himself to other occupations, but observes the rules of his service. God's minister must be like him, and like the labourer who works hard in the field. In which case, St. Paul adds, he has, like the husbandman, a right to a living wage.
7. If Timothy thinks it over, he will see that it is only reasonable that the presbyter should be supported by a stipend, answering to the labourer's wages.
8. Timothy is to be firm and unflinching in maintaining the doctrines of the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ, which his adversaries denied.
9, 10. As an evil doer] St. Paul was now probably imprisoned on the charge of setting fire to Rome with the other Christians. He was willing to endure that or anything else provided that so he might make known the salvation in Christ to those whom God had chosen to know it; if the preacher was in chains, the word he preached was unfettered and had free course. St. Paul says this in part as an encouragement to Timothy to suffer with him (2 Timothy 2:3).
11-13. The Apostle quotes a saying or hymn in use among Christians, which is applicable from its reference to endurance.