Not ashamed of the gospel

Paul was writing to Rome, the capital of the empire, and what he meant to bring there was Christ crucified: by his own account, "a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (1 Corinthians 1:23). In the Roman world the cross was the most shameful of deaths; Hebrews says that Jesus endured it, "scorning its shame" (Hebrews 12:2).

Epaischunomai is to count it a disgrace, in front of others, to be linked with something. Paul finds the reason not to be ashamed not in his own nerve but in the gospel itself: it is the power (dunamis) of God. The KJV’s "gospel of Christ" and the BSB’s "gospel" follow the verse's two texts. Wesley calls this power "The great and gloriously powerful means of saving all who accept salvation in God's own way" Wesley.

When he wrote to the Philippians, Paul was a prisoner. To a church that was anxious for him he wrote: "Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have actually served to advance the gospel" (Philippians 1:12). The whole palace guard came to know why he was in chains, and other believers grew bolder (vv. 13–14). Some preached out of rivalry (vv. 15–17), and still he could say: "Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice" (Philippians 1:18). Matthew Henry sees in his chains God’s wisdom: "These things made him known, where he would never have otherwise been known" Matthew Henry.

In Second Timothy, which the church has long taken as his last letter, Paul is in chains again and asks the same of Timothy.

Verse 9 says that God saved and called us "not because of our works, but by His own purpose" (2 Timothy 1:9), and the reason not to be ashamed follows in verse 10: Christ "has abolished death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10). The Greek has one verb there, phōtizō, "to bring to light", which the KJV keeps: "brought life and immortality to light". And so Paul can say, "for I know whom I have believed" (v. 12). On Paul’s plea not to be ashamed of him, the prisoner, Wesley comments, "The cause of the servants of God doing his work, cannot be separated from the cause of God himself" Wesley.

Paul in chains was not alone. The Philippians, who shared in his imprisonment and in his defense and confirmation of the gospel, he called "partners in grace with me" (Philippians 1:7).