2 Timothy 3:12

This verse is an interesting example of the effect of association of ideas. St. Paul's teaching after his persecutions at Antioch, etc., had strongly emphasised this topic. St. Luke (Acts 14:22) actually repeats the very words used by the preachers, “Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God”. Consistency in the life in Christ must necessarily be always opposed by the world. θέλοντες is emphatic, as Ell. notes, “whose will is”. Cf. Luke 14:28; John 7:17.

εὐσεβῶς of course qualifies ζῇν, as in Titus 2:12. There is a similar extension of thought, from self to all, in 2 Timothy 4:8.