2 Timothy 2:8

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead. — More accurately rendered, Remember Jesus Christ... as raised (or, as one raised). The words of the Greek original, “of the seed of David,” come after, not before, “was raised from the dead.” The translation should run thus: Remember Jesus Christ as one raised from the dead, born of the seed of David. Timothy was to remember, was ever to bear in mind, two great facts. They were to be the foundation stones of his whole life’s work. Remembering these in the hour of his greatest trouble, he was never to be cast down, but ever to take fresh courage. And the two facts he was to remember were: that Jesus Christ, for whose sake he suffered — like him, Timothy, or like St. Paul — was born of flesh and blood, and yet He had risen from the dead. Surely, in the hour of his weakness, such a thought would be sufficient to inspire him with comfort and courage. Two facts, then, are to be ever in Timothy’s mind: the Resurrection and the Incarnation of his Lord. The thought of the first mentioned, “the Resurrection,” would always be reminding him of his Master’s victory over death and of His present glory. The thought of the second mentioned, “born of the seed of David,” “the Incarnation,” would ever be whispering to him, “Yes, and the risen and glorified One sprang, too, like himself, from mortal flesh and blood.” The reason of the “Incarnation” being expressed in this special manner, “born of the seed of David,” was to include another truth. The “risen One “was not only born of flesh and blood, but belonged to the very race specified in those prophets so revered by Timothy and the chosen people as the race from which should spring the Messiah: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth... and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:5). To raise the fainting heart of his much-tried disciple in this hour of discouragement, to supply a ground of confidence to yet unborn Christians, who in their day would be tried as Timothy was then, was the Apostle’s first purpose when he pressed these thoughts on his son in the faith; but in the background, no doubt, there lay another purpose. These great comforting truths were to be maintained and taught in the presence of those false teachers who were ever ready to explain away or even to deny, then as now, the beginning and the end of the Son of God’s life and ministry on earth — His Incarnation and His Resurrection.

According to my gospel. — This formula, for so it may be considered, occurs frequently in St. Paul’s Epistles (Romans 2:16, and again Romans 16:25, and in other places), and, with very slight variations, in 1 Timothy 1:11 and 1 Corinthians 15:1. Jerome’s remark, “As often as St. Paul in his Epistles writes ‘according to my Gospel,’ he refers to the volume of Luke,” although received with reserve by many expositors, considering the weighty traditional evidence we possess of St. Luke’s Gospel being in reality written by St. Paul, appears on the whole substantially correct.