2 Timothy 2:13

γάρ. אcK omit this, as does the rec. text; but the MS. authority is decisive for its retention.

13. εἰ�, ἐκεῖνος πιστὸς μένει. If we are faithless, He abideth faithful. The last clause gives a solemn warning; this gives a message of hope. Not every weakness of faith will call down the awful judgement ἀρνήσεται ἡμᾶς; for man’s faith in God is not the measure of God’s faithfulness to man. He is ‘the faithful God’ (Deuteronomy 7:9). ἀπιστεῖν here, as always in the N.T., definitely means unbelief, a wavering of faith, not an open act of disloyalty, so much as an inward distrust of God’s promises. We have the same thought in Romans 3:3 (in a different context), εἱ ἠπίστησάν τινες, μὴ ἡ�; μὴ γένοιτο.

It thus appears that clauses 1, 2, 4 of this remarkable hymn are little more than reproductions of phrases from St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, clause 3 being based on words of Christ. It does not seem an improbable conjecture that the hymn was actually composed at Rome in reference to the earlier persecutions of Christians under Nero, and that it thus became known to St Paul during his second imprisonment in the imperial city. If this be so, he is here, as it were, quoting a popular version of words from his own great Epistle, which had become stereotyped by liturgical use.

ἀρνήσασθαι γὰρ ἑαυτὸν αὐ δύναται, for He cannot deny Himself; ἀδύνατον ψεύσασθαι θεόν (Hebrews 6:18). The ‘Omnipotence’ of God does not include such acts of self-contradiction; omnipotence for a perfectly moral and holy Being is conditioned by that morality and holiness.