Sentenced to Life
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, 2 Timothy 1:8 NASB
Prisoner– Imagine the life of a prisoner in the Roman Empire. Don’t import modern ideas about the horrible prisons we see around the world today.
“Roman Law didn’t use prison as a punishment, only as temporary confinement while the prisoner awaited trial.
For that reason, Romans believed in house arrest, bails and deposits to make sure that the prisoner would come to the trial. Yes, that allowed for a lot of fugitives, because Romans thought that the sentence to exile was only second to the death penalty. Also some of them preferred to kill themselves to evade the public humiliation of a trial (and also to save some of their money for their families).”[1]
When Paul calls himself a prisoner (désmios), we should not project images of torture or terrible conditions. It’s better to consider Paul’s statement in an Hebraic context. désmios is literally “fettered” and that reminds us of the Hebrew notion of “constrained, hemmed in,” and “bound,” all synonyms of the Hebrew idea of distress. Notice the parallel concept in Paul’s statement: “join me in suffering.” To be a prisoner of the Messiah does not mean torture, misery and pain. It means alignment with the good news of the Kingdom and the King—and that entails persecution, public ridicule and misunderstanding. Paul knew this, therefore “imprisonment symbolizes his whole life and ministry.”[2] This does not mean Paul sought pain and affliction. It means that he aligned himself with a different King and that created considerable conflict in the socio-political world of the Roman Empire.
We need to add one other important factor to Paul’s testimony. It is found in a prior verse. “ I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did,” (2 Timothy 1:3). Notice that Paul thanks God for his “imprisonment.” That hardly makes sense if his sentence includes torture. “Exile” is more likely what Paul experienced. But also notice that Paul clearly states this exclusion has nothing to do with a change in his Jewish way of life or his Jewish convictions. He absolutely claims that he has not departed from the practice or thinking of his forefathers. In other words, he is convinced that whatever exile he is experiencing is not due to a departure from his upbringing. He stands within the Hebraic biblical point-of-view when he declares his allegiance to the Messiah. It is his testimony that Yeshua is the Messiah that causes him distress. But Paul is prepared for this exile and he calls Timothy to embrace the same possibility.
The contemporary application is obvious. If imprisonment in the first century sense is the calling of those committed to the Messiah, are we ready? Is “exile” in your vocabulary?
Topical Index: désmios, prisoner, exile, suffering, 2 Timothy 1:8
[1]https://www.quora.com/How-were-prisoners-treated-in-ancient-Rome
[2]Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament(145). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
We live in a form of exile for we are caught in time and a disfunctional world systemn. This while our hearts and souls, that where created for an eternal interdependent presences with our creator remain trapped in “this body of death”. We are all, like Paul, prisioners in this condition untill the end of our time in this wreched yet wonderful mystery. Personally I can’t wait for the resurection and “the world to come”.
The “form of exile” of which you speak is NOT being a prisoner “like Paul”, neither regarding the conditions of the imprisonment nor, more importantly, the reasons for it, and to make that comparison devalues Paul, his works of righteousness, and his sufferings, and wrongly esteems the “imprisonment” of which you speak. And just to be clear, not that you don’t already know this, but suffering for being “caught in time and a dysfunctional system”, “trapped in ‘this body of death'” and feeling like we “can’t wait for the resurrection and ‘the world to come'”, and the “faith” that sustains us in that suffering is no guarantee of that desired end.
Paul was actually sharing in the fellowship of the sufferings of Messiah by the power of Elohim for proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom. Now that suffering is quite a different type imprisonment and for quite a different reason, and one that is WORTHY of the resurrection and “the world to come”.
Maybe we should not be in such a hurry for the “end of our time in this wretched yet wonderful mystery”. We may yet need to live more in such a way that we qualify for such an end as that of which you speak. Paul said, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling”, and of that he was referring to fearing Elohim and not the sufferings of this dysfunctional world system.
MORE POWER TO YOU! SHALOM! KEEP PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM WITH ALL BOLDNESS AND REJOICE IF YOU SHARE IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SUFFERINGS OF MESSIAH, BY THE POWER OF ELOHIM!
For this is how we walk like Messiah walked, learn obedience like Messiah learned it, know him and become like Him in his death, attain to the power of his resurrection, arrive at the resurrection of the dead, gain entrance into His Kingdom and receive a great inheritance!
Amen and amen
Just one thought. Since the evolution of the concept of Messiah once involved the CORPORATE body of Israel (a personal Messiah only evolved after the Exile), wouldn’t Mark’s comparison still stand. Israel suffered on behalf of the nations. It was mistreated because of the nations hostility toward God and God’s rescue was not based on deliverance from sin, but rather deliverance from bondage.
I think the Isreal of God still suffers amongst nations hostilities for God, truth, rightiousness etc. It is the oppressive atmospher of blame, shame, guilt and judgment that can at times choke the life out of me…
My sincere apologies for not more clearly distancing my self in my words from an potential comparisons to Pauls suffering, I of course intended none, and I am alsonsorry you entirly missed my point.
I’m sorry I may have missed your point at first, Mark, and seem to have possibly made some wrong assumptions. Apparently, I didn’t give it all of the hard thought required to better understand what you were trying to say. It seems I should have inquired first to clarify and/or confirm, instead of apparently assuming, what I thought I understood. I have re-read what you wrote, tried much harder to understand what you were trying to say, and I think I do now better understand and at least somewhat agree with you. I will try to be more careful to make sure I am accurately understanding before expressing disagreement. Please forgive me.
However, I don’t think the condition we are all in, as you describe it – being “caught in time and a disfunctional world systemn while trapped with a heart and soul in ‘this body of death'” – is entirely different from that of anybody’s who has ever lived on this earth. We are all caught and trapped in this way.
There are differences, however, for the reasons and the types of suffering, and yet this is all quite different than Paul’s “form of exile” and being a “prisoner”. And I don’t think our “exile” or “imprisonment” is the struggle as Paul wrote about it and which you include in your description of “this form of exile” and “this condition”. Paul wrote about this other condition, not “form of exile”, being his “delight in the Torah of God with respect to the inner man, but I see a different law in my body parts, battling against the law of my mind and bringing me into bondage under the law of sin which is in my body parts”.
Yes, that is being “trapped in the ‘body of death”, but that is not the “exile” or “imprisonment” of which he spoke of as being a “prisoner”. That “exile” or “imprisonment” is how we, who do try to live like Paul, can experience an “exile” or “imprisonment” like Paul, because we boldly proclaim, in word and deed, the gospel of the Kingdom and then may share in the fellowship of the sufferings of Messiah, though, as you have noted, not nearly as equal to, but similar to Paul, and as you have described them, “hostilities for God, truth, rightiousness etc.” and “the oppressive atmospher of blame, shame, guilt and judgment”. So, I do agree with you in part, and I also disagree with you in part.
Yes, In the one sense, we may be like Paul, who said, “Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” However, let us also be like Paul who then said, “Thanks be to God—it is through Messiah Yeshua our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself serve the Torah of God; but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.”
And in terms of being like Paul in regard to his “exile” or “imprisonment”, let us receive this exhortation of his:
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and love and self-discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but share in suffering for the Good News according to the power of God. He has saved us and called us with a holy calling—not because of our deeds but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Messiah Yeshua before time began, but now has been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Messiah Yeshua. Indeed, He nullified the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News.”
So, I still say…..”MORE POWER TO YOU! SHALOM! KEEP PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM WITH ALL BOLDNESS AND REJOICE IF YOU SHARE IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SUFFERINGS OF MESSIAH, BY THE POWER OF ELOHIM!”
Thanks Jerry for the clarification and the re-consideration. It is good for brethren to join in unity if not always complete agreement. It is of course the unity provided in and through the spirit that alone holds all things together.
“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfect harmony.” [Col 3:14]
I take your point regarding not to import our modern ideas to Paul’s prision experieces. Paul’s imprisonment may not have meant “torture, misery and pain”, but we must not forget that throughout history and even today…especially today, it means exactly that. It is said that the “church” was built upon the blood and bones of the maryters…even the blood of Messiah. We should remember to pray for our brothers and sisters who suffer for bearing the name and sharing the good news of our King, as we too may someday know that reality. While some of us may already know “exile” I hope we don’t ever experience torture, misery, pain or martyrdom (I initially wrote “pray” we don’t, but I had to change it, as that may not be a prayer that YHWH would appreciate or answer).
Boy, the admission price to the Kingdom may be free, but it is becoming more and more expensive. You might be a good poker player, but when YHWH is at the table He is always raising the bid. Best to be all in when He Calls or you’d be better to fold now.
In the book “lilies amongst the thorns ” the real experiance of one contemporary Chinese Christian is described. After this brother had his skin peeled of his torso he said to his tortures with a joyful expression “look at me I’ll be dead in twenty minutes what about you? Do you know we’re your going? I’ll be with Jesus soon, where will you be at your end”? The very fact that this story left that room and made it into the book testifies that the power of this witness was effective to change lives.
This TW gives much needed clarity to our perceptions and interpretations which we import into today’s worldview. Thanks for this TW for the past few days I’ve been ‘exiled’ and ‘persecuted’ for simply wondering about a speakers view at a conference day I was invited to by family. This TW is very relevant to me today!
We are in the season of 7 weeks of comfort ‘Nachamu’ which began with Shabbat Haftorah portion V’et’chanan (and I pleaded). As this persecution/isolation continued Abba reminded me to read again the portions from Isaiah on ‘comfort’….they restored my shalom despite the on going ‘atmosphere’.
We can talk all the theology we like but when your in it …..it’s how you walk it out and remain in shalom and love. As the formula goes E plus R equals O. And some days it’s really hard!
I am mathless and therefore clueless . What is E plus R equals O?
Event plus Response equals Outcome
That is somewhat similar to Albert Ellis’ ABC Model, wherein A = Activating event (past, present, and/or future), B = Belief (values, meaning, interpretation, perspective), C = Consequence (emotional and behavioral reaction). An activating event triggers a subconscious, preconscious, or conscious belief, and then that belief triggers an emotional and, very probably, behavioral reaction. The very significant difference, however, is that Ellis’ model includes the all-important variable – BELIEFS!
From scripture:
“As a man thinks, so is he.”
“You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.“
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” ”God will keep in perfect peace, those whose minds are stayed on Him.”
“Keep your mind set on things above and you will not fulfill the deeds of the flesh.”
“Gird your minds for action.”
From me:
Don’t be a prisoner of your own BELIEFS!
Secular society (or perverted religious society) has always had a peculiar insistence that everyone must subscribe to what it subscribes to. I think the very hallmark of rebellion is that all must support that rebellion. They say misery loves company, and it does, because it is quite clear that those who are not for us are against us. Rebellion would not mind that if it had a leg to stand on, but I think it hates being reminded of the fact that it does not actually have a good reason to justify its existence. Therefore, all rebellion against heaven is sensitive to all reminders that it does not stand FOR anything; just against (which is a very weak position, and it knows it). I think any conviction (belief; or, faith, which is a stand FOR something) at all – however misplaced or rife with error – naturally has more weight than any position that is simply against, which is the position of rebellion for rebellion’s sake. I am talking about modern humanism, which I think is a direct rebellion against heaven.
I think that in its search for a way to ease its conscience, this rebellion has seized upon a new idea: “tolerance”: to take the teeth out of all the other positive convictions, and that this idea of ‘tolerance’ is the present world’s way to combat those who actually still stand for something. As Skip has pointed out, however, there is no neutral middle ground: there are only two sides, and thus there is no middle place for such a thing as “tolerance”, for we are always going to be on the one side or the other. Therefore, I think tolerance is the new fiction. It appears to me that tolerance – as the way the world defines it nowadays, anyway – in application is just a tool of coercion to persuade those of conviction to lower those convictions to a point they no longer bother the other rebels (humanists) , who, I think, lack conviction at all.
The new enemies in this new society of humanism are those who serve (conviction) anything other than self. This is even now being labeled “intolerance”, y’all. Are we prepared to stand on the new plain of Duran when the trumpet of ‘tolerance’ sounds and all around us bow to the god of self? Are we ready for what I believe our new label of exile is going to be: “intolerance”? The hate laws even now being crafted worldwide against that intolerance are, I believe, being written for us, “upon whom the ends of the earth are come”.
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus”; and may I be found standing, in that exile, with Paul, is my prayer.
Guilty as charged. Tolerance is easier than facing the oppossing view… But something we must learn to do. Stay truthful to our convictions. Thanks for the reprimanding reasoning.
The day everything changes.
“In that day you will ask in my name.”
That day when His Son, His nature, His Spirit,
His heart, His mind is born in you and me.
That’s RELATIONSHIP on a whole new plane!
Paul refers to it as “suffering for the gospel according
to the power of God.” God’s power! In us! On His terms, not ours.
What a change! “Love not the world.” Be exiled; live in a better place.
He told us, “the kingdom is within you.” Fall into His love and be a prisoner . . .
and give the world release!
Thanks for the encouragement. I’m bombarded almost daily with charges of heresy, being a part of a cult, that I’m destroying my family, twisting Scripture, following Herbert W. Armstrong, messed up in the head, denying Jesus, following occultic Kabbalah, anti-Semetic, ad nauseum. I am amazed at how much disinformation exists out there that is being promoted by former HR fanatics and orthodox blow-hards. Many have grown up in church with absolutely no foundation in the original languages or church history. Others were nominally Christian, became a HR fanatic, and then once again became enamored with an anti-Torah perspective via Paul’s letters vis a vis their English translation. What inevitably happens is they get burned by some self-proclaimed HR/Messianic teacher/Rabbi or never get connected to an authentic community. Regardless, their vision of Scripture becomes extremely narrow and feel secure disseminating half truths. Identifying with a Jewish Messiah inevitably means incurring the wrath of orthodox Christianity, possible rejection by one’s own family, and isolation.
The revolving doors of self righteous ‘exile’. Exhaustive! Never mind the denials of ‘faith’ by clinging to others for confirmation in belonging to something, albeit counterfeit. Seeking relief from the separation from Yah, the search results in empty places and displaced identities. No foundation. Sinking sand. Torn down and worn out. Then, perhaps some will come to the end of self and surrender. And like Paul, it’s joy to be in ‘exile’, a prisoner in the only kingdom that counts. Now, that’s true love!
What is HR? Sure would like to hear from you again.
What is HR, please? Glad to see your comments and would like to hear from you again.
Hebrew Roots is what HR means, Thomas. I hope that’s enough to help it make sense. It was, in many ways, another ditch on the side of the road to jump into if one did so without discernment.