Homilies on Second Timothy

<!--<span class="stiki"></span>-->2 Timothy 2:1-7

“Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that labors must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say; and the Lord give you understanding in all things.”

The young sailor at sea is inspired with great confidence, if the Master of the ship has been preserved in a shipwreck. For he will not consider that it is from his inexperience that he is exposed to the storm, but from the nature of things; and this has no little effect upon his mind. In war also the Captain, who sees his General wounded and recovered again, is much encouraged. And thus it produces some consolation to the faithful, that the Apostle should have been exposed to great sufferings, and not rendered weak by the utmost of them. And had it not been so, he would not have related his sufferings. For when Timothy heard, that he who possessed so great powers, who had conquered the whole world, is a prisoner, and afflicted, yet is not impatient, nor discontented upon the desertion of his friends; he, if ever exposed to the same sufferings himself, would not consider that it proceeded from human weakness, nor from the circumstance of his being a disciple, and inferior to Paul, since his teacher too suffered the like, but that all this happened from the natural course of things. For Paul himself did this, and related what had befallen him, that he might strengthen Timothy, and renew his courage. And he shows that it was for this reason he mentioned his trials and afflictions, in that he has added, “You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” What do you say? You have shaken us with terrors, you have told us that you are in chains, in afflictions, that all have forsaken you, and, as if you had said you had not suffered anything, nor been abandoned by any, you add. “Thou therefore, my son, be strong”?— And justly too. For these things were to your strengthening more than to his. For if I, Paul, endure these things, much more ought thou to bear them. If the master, much more the disciple. And this exhortation he introduces with much affection, calling him “son,” and not only so, but “my son.” If you are a son, he means, imitate your father. If you are a son, be strong in consideration of the things which I have said, or rather be strong, not merely from what I have told you, but “of God.” “Be strong,” he says, “in the grace that is in Christ Jesus”; that is, “through the grace of Christ.” That is, stand firmly. You know the battle. For elsewhere he says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood.” And this he says not to depress but to excite them. Be sober therefore, he means, and watch, have the grace of the Lord coöperating with you, and aiding you in your contest, contribute your own part with much alacrity and resolution. “And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men”; to “faithful” men, not to questioners nor to reasoners, to “faithful.” How faithful? Such as betray not the Gospel they should preach. “The things which you have heard,” not which you have searched out. For “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” But wherefore, “among many witnesses”? As if he had said: You have not heard in secret, nor apart, but in the presence of many, with all openness of speech. Nor does he say, Tell, but “commit,” as a treasure committed is deposited in safety. Again he alarms his disciple, both from things above and things below. But he says not only “commit to faithful men”; for of what advantage is it that one is faithful, if he is not able to convey his doctrine to others? When he does not indeed betray the faith; but does not render others faithful? The teacher therefore ought to have two qualities, to be both faithful, and apt to teach; wherefore he says, “who shall be able to teach others also.”

“Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Oh, how great a dignity is this, to be a soldier of Jesus Christ! Observe the kings on earth, how great an honor it is esteemed to serve under them. If therefore the soldier of the king ought to endure hardness, not to endure hardness is not the part of any soldier. So that it behooves you not to complain, if you endure hardness, for that is the part of a soldier; but to complain, if you dost not endure hardness.

“No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully.”

These things are said indeed to Timothy, but through him they are addressed to every teacher and disciple. Let no one therefore of those who hold the office of a Bishop disdain to hear these things, but let him be ashamed not to do them. “If any one strive for masteries,” he says, “he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully.” What is meant by “lawfully”? It is not enough that he enters into the lists, that he is anointed, and even engages, unless he comply with all the laws of the exercise, with respect to diet, to temperance and sobriety, and all the rules of the wrestling school, unless, in short, he go through all that is befitting for a wrestler, he is not crowned. And observe the wisdom of Paul. He mentions wrestlers and soldiers, the one to prepare him for slaughter and blood, the other with reference to endurance, that he might bear everything with fortitude, and be ever in exercise.

“The husbandman that labors must be first partaker of the fruits.”

He had first spoken from his own example as a teacher. He now speaks from those that are more common, as wrestlers and soldiers, and in their case he sets before him the rewards. First, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier; secondly, that he may be crowned; now he proposes a third example that more particularly suits himself. For the instance of the soldier and the wrestler corresponds to those who are under rule, but that of the husbandman to the Teacher. (Strive) not as a soldier or a wrestler only, but as a husbandman too. The husbandman takes care not of himself alone, but of the fruits of the earth. That is, no little reward of his labors is enjoyed by the husbandman.

Here he both shows, that to God nothing is wanting, and that there is a reward for Teaching, which he shows by a common instance. As the husbandman, he says, does not labor without profit, but enjoys before others the fruits of his own toils, so is it fit that the teacher should do: either he means this, or he is speaking of the honor to be paid to teachers, but this is less consistent. For why does he not say the husbandman simply, but him “that labors”? Not only that works, but that is worn with toil? And here with reference to the delay of reward, that no one may be impatient, he says, you reap the fruit already, or there is a reward in the labor itself. When therefore he has set before him the examples of soldiers, of wrestlers, and husbandmen, and all figuratively, “No one,” he says, “is crowned except he strive lawfully.” And having observed that “the husbandman who labors must first be partaker of the fruits,” he adds,

“Consider what I say, and the Lord give you understanding in all things.”

It is on this account that he has spoken these things in proverb and parable. Then again to show his affectionate disposition, he ceases not to pray for him, as fearing for his own son, and he says,

<!--<span class="stiki"></span>-->Ver. 8, 9. “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead, according to my Gospel. Wherein I suffer trouble as an evil-doer, even unto bonds.”