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#2.
The Prize and the Crown.
pp. 56 - 59
We noticed in a general way in our opening article the change that had come over the
character of the testimony between the days of "Philippians" and those of "II Timothy",
and suggested that this change may possibly influence the conditions relating to the prize.
We will, before proceeding further, show that II Timothy deals with a similar phase of
teaching to that of the epistle to the Philippians, and then we shall be able the better to
compare or contrast the two sets of teaching.
The central thought of Philippians is expressed in the word Prize. While this word
does not occur in II Timothy a close parallel nevertheless exists, to which we now draw
attention. Timothy, in the early part of chapter 2:, is addressed under three figures:--
The Soldier.
The Athlete.
The Husbandman.
THE SOLDIER.--The good soldier has not only to fight, but to "endure hardness"
(2: 3). What this hardness may involve verse 9 indicates, where the same word is used,
"Wherein I suffered trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds". Once again in this short
epistle the apostle speaks to Timothy as to enduring hardness, "But watch thou in all
things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist" (4: 5). The good soldier merges
with the preacher in the case both of Paul (2: 9) and Timothy (4: 5).
The word "good" in 2: 3 is not agathos, but kalos. Three connected things are
spoken of as kalos in this epistle:--
1. The special revelation of God's purpose entrusted to Paul (1: 14).
2. The servant of the Lord under the likeness of a soldier (2: 3).
3. The contest, or race (see Heb. 12: 1, 2), rendered "fight" (4: 7).
The good deposit.
The good soldier.
The good fight.
Here we have another link between the soldier and the preacher. This time we learn
that the preaching is of a special character, and this helps us to understand something of
the nature of the "hardness" which those who preach or teach this aspect of truth will
have to endure.
The next item to observe in connection with the good soldier is given in 2: 4, "No
man that warreth entangleth himself". The word emplekõ, through the Latin, gives us the
English "implicate". This entanglement has to do "with the affairs of this life". Roman
soldiers were not allowed to engage in commerce, and the apostle alludes to this fact
here. The word "life" here is not zõē, but bios. Bios sometimes has the force of
"the means of supporting life", "the livelihood".
"Even all her bios, her means of supporting life" (Mark 12: 44).
"Had spent all her bios, living" (Luke 8: 43).
"He divided unto them his bios, living" (Luke 15: 12).
"Hath this world's bios, goods, means of living" (I John 3: 17).