2 Timothy 2:10

Therefore I endure allthings] Therefore, because -pains bring gains"; therefore, because (2 Timothy 2:3) as with Christ, so with His Church;

-If the cross we meekly bear,

Then the crown we shall wear."

Bengel and others do not go far back enough, trying wrongly to find the reason in the last clause alone. Alford seeing this turns -therefore" into -for this reason," and joins it to what follows -that they may obtain," alleging the Apostle's usage of the phrase in favour of this. But the passages he quotes, 1 Timothy 1:16, and Philemon 1:15, have both got other particles connecting with the preceding. And here we have none except -therefore" itself. And St Paul just as frequently uses -therefore" for the past; cf. Ephesians 5:17 -wherefore be ye not foolish," Ephesians 6:13 -wherefore take up the whole armour of God."

The Greek word rendered -endure" is our Lord's word in His charge to the Seventy, Matthew 10:22, and in His discourse of the last things, Matthew 24:13; Mark 13:13 -He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved." St Paul has used the verb before twice only, cf. Romans 12:12 -rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation," 1 Corinthians 13:7 -Charity … hopeth all things, endureth all things"; both which noble passages fully bear out the significance assigned to the word by Ellicott on 1 Thess. 1:13 -It does not mark merely the endurance, the "sustinentiam" Vulg., or even the "patientiam" (Clarom.), but the "perseverantiam" the bravepatience with which the Christian contends against the various hindrances, persecutions and temptations that befall him in his conflict with the inward and outward world." It occurs again 2 Timothy 3:10.

for the elects" sakes For the sake of the Church; see note on Titus 1:1, where the words used at first for -Christians" are discussed. The general purport is as in Colossians 1:24, where Lightfoot paraphrases" I cannot choose but rejoice in my sufferings. Yes, I Paul the persecutor, I Paul the feeble and sinful, am permitted to supplement I do not shrink from the word to supplement the afflictions of Christ. My flesh is privileged to suffer for His body His spiritual body, the Church"; and explains that this supplementing of Christ's sufferings is -not in their sacrificial efficacy but their ministerial utility." -The Church is built up by repeated acts of self-denial in successive individuals and successive generations." So we see the old fire of the first captivity is burning up still more ardently as the end draws near. -The salvation which is in Christ Jesus" is for him at hand; the faith is kept. What still he can, that he will, do and bear, that their salvation also may be assured; and thatTimothy his sonwill surely also both practise and preach.

sakes R.V. gives -sake," perhaps better as the interest of the whole Church -the one body" was one and the same. Otherwise, the plural may still be used, as e.g. in -for all your sakes." -Sake" is the same as the German -sache," -res," -thing," -account," -cause at law." Cf. the phrase -for old sake's sake."

that they may also obtain The -also" is intended in the English of a.d. 1611 to qualify -they" as well as the verb; in the more precise English of a.d. 1881 R.V. writes -they also." So the looser use of -also" has been altered Matthew 26:71, -this fellow was also with Jesus," into -this man also was with Jesus." The more exact use two verses later -thou also art one of them," shews that the A.V. translators exercised a literary freedom in the matter. The O.T. revisers have left Zechariah 8:21 -I will go also." The N.T. revisers who have altered Mark 2:28; John 5:19; 1 Corinthians 9:8 have not ventured to alter John 12:26; John 14:3.

with eternal glory The thought is the same as in 2 Corinthians 4:17; the affliction, light and for the moment, worketh glory, an eternalweight of glory.