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The SECOND EPISTLE to TIMOTHY.
#5.
A Threefold Exhortation. Be not Ashamed (1: 8 - 18).
pp. 26, 27
The opening section of the epistle (II Tim. 1: 8-18) deals mainly with the sad fact that
Paul and his message had been forsaken. This, however, is introduced rather as a
background than for its own sake. In spite of this rejection, says Paul in effect to
Timothy, do not be ashamed of the testimony--I myself am not ashamed, even though I
suffer these things, and think too of Onesiphorus, who was not ashamed of my chain.
The section is divided up by the recurrence of the word "ashamed":
(1)
"Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his
prisoner" (II Tim. 1: 8).
(2)
"I am appointed a preacher . . . . . For the which cause I suffer these things;
nevertheless I am not ashamed" (II Tim. 1: 12).
(3)
"The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and
was not ashamed of my chain" (II Tim. 1: 16).
The subject of the section is "Paul and his message forsaken", and it is interesting to
notice that in the structure (Volume XXXI, p. 130) 1: 8-18 balances 4: 9-18. Did
Phygellus and Hermogenes turn away because they were "ashamed"? Did Demas
forsake the Apostle out of "shame"? If so, and it looks very much like it, what a word for
us all!
Closely linked with this subject of the Apostle's peculiar ministry is the principle of
"right division":
"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (II Tim. 2: 15).
Closely associated with this principle and in the same chapter is the great theme of
the epistle--"suffering and reigning". While the actual word "ashamed" is not used in
II Tim. 2: 1-13, we find there its synonym, "deny", "If we suffer, we shall also reign
with Him: if we deny Him, he will also deny us" (II Tim. 2: 12). That "denying" Him is
equivalent to "being ashamed of" Him, the following parallel passages will make clear:
"For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the
Son of man be ashamed; when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father's, and
of the holy angels" (Luke 9: 26).
"He that denieth Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God" (Luke 12: 9).
The preceding verse in Luke 12: places "confessing" over against "denying".
In I Timothy we find the exhortation to "confess", while in II Timothy we have the
warning not to "deny" or "be ashamed".