2 Timothy 1:8

Note

Paul is in chains in Rome and knows that his departure is near. He calls Timothy, his beloved son in the faith, not to be ashamed of the testimony about the Lord or of Paul the prisoner, but to share in suffering for the gospel.

The verse begins with "So". Just before it Paul has written, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7). Since the Spirit given is not one of fear, there is no ground for shame. Shame was a real pressure. Everyone in the province of Asia had deserted Paul (2 Timothy 1:15), and Onesiphorus stood out because he "was unashamed of my chains" (2 Timothy 1:16). Paul says of himself, "even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed" (2 Timothy 1:12).

euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον) is a dative with the imperative συγκακοπάθησον. The verb sugkakopatheō (συγκακοπαθέω) joins "with" (σύν) to "suffer hardship", and in the New Testament it is found only in this letter. The Greek leaves open both with whom Timothy suffers and how the gospel is related to the suffering; a single dative carries it all. What the verse does say clearly is where the strength comes from: "by the power of God", not by Timothy's own. "Do not be ashamed" is epaischunomai (ἐπαισχύνομαι), the verb of "I am not ashamed of the gospel" (Romans 1:16).

The versions read that dative in different ways. The KJV has "be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel": the hardships that belong to the gospel. The LSV has "you suffer evil along with the good news", as though the gospel itself were a fellow sufferer. The BSB supplies the person, "join me in suffering for the gospel". All are within the Greek, and together they draw one picture: the gospel, the apostle and his young helper bound up in one suffering.

Wesley writes, "When fear is banished, evil shame also flees away" Wesley, and explains the testimony of our Lord as "The gospel, and of testifying the truth of it to all men" Wesley. Matthew Henry is brief: "Those who cleave to the gospel, need not be ashamed, the cause will bear them out" Matthew Henry.

Paul lived and died by this call. Clement of Rome, writing to Corinth about AD 96, remembers that Paul was seven times in chains 1 Clement 5, and Eusebius gives the tradition that he was beheaded in Rome under Nero Eusebius, Church History 2.25.

The verse does not hide that the gospel, though freely given, can cost something to hold. It promises instead the power of God for the cost. Anyone who feels ashamed to be linked with the gospel stands where Timothy stood, and the verse calls such a one gently, not with scorn.