2 Timothy 4:17

But the Lord. Here was the source of Paul's confidence. The Lord was with him!!! So that I was able. MacKnight thinks this means he preached the Good News to Nero himself, or at least one of his representatives. The Expositor's Greek Testament says: "We annex a territory by the mere act of planting our country's flag on a small portion of its soil; so in St. Paul's thought a single proclamation of the gospel might have a spiritual, almost a prophetical, significance, immeasurably greater than could be imagined by one who heard it." The lion's month. Chrysostom understands the lion to be Nero himself. Roman citizens were not thrown to the lions. Paul was able to speak before many Gentiles at his first trial, and the word of this would spread throughout the whole Roman Empire, especially to Gentile Christians!