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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 2 Timothy 3:12 - 3:12
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Ver. 12. Yea, and all ( êáὶ ðÜíôåò äὲ , or, and all too) who are minded to live piously in Christ Jesus, shall be persecuted. The apostle had spoken of his own persecutions, how he himself bore them, and how God delivered him out of them; but he now generalizes, in a manner, his own experience: others may look for a measure of the same. None, indeed, are excepted; all who are minded ( ïἱ èÝëïíôåò , having their will set) to live piously in Christ Jesus—in Him, or in union with Him, as the one true source of living godliness—shall be persecuted. He does not say how or to what extent; but merely states the fact, that persecution in some form or another shall be their portion. And even this general announcement obviously presupposes as its ground, the existence in the world around of a spirit of alienation and hostility with respect to vital godliness. But that might not be always and everywhere the same; it could not but vary as Christianity itself rose to power, or the reverse; and so, as regards quantity and force, a certain conditional element necessarily enters into the statement, which may be put thus: In so far as the world retains its native character, those who are bent on leading in it lives of piety shall have to meet persecution. If through the diffusion of the gospel the old has to a considerable extent passed away, and a better order of things taken its place, then the persecution may narrow itself to taunts, reproaches, spiteful or contemptuous treatment, when at the behest of holy principle a stand is made against worldly compliances or fashionable vices. In these, however, the persecuting spirit breathes, only less coarsely and vehemently than when fire and sword are its weapons (Gal_4:29). So that the apostolic utterance still has its application to the Christian life; and they who would prosecute this life must be ready to brave such persecution. But they should never court it; they are as much bound to avoid provoking it by indiscretions, as to bear it meekly when excited by their virtues.