2 Timothy 4:18

Ver. 18. From the past the apostle turns to the future, giving expression in this respect also to his filial confidence: The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me safe to His heavenly kingdom. The and (καὶ) with which in the received text this utterance of faith and hope is introduced, is more than doubtful. It is wanting in א, A, C, D, Vulg., Copt., Arm. versions. The καὶ appears only in F, K, L, and is represented in the Syriac versions. While in this reference to the future the apostle uses the same verb as in regard to his late deliverance, he changes the preposition: it was there ε ̓ ρύσατο ἐκ; here it is ῥύσεταί ἀπὸ, pointing, as Ellicott notes, “more generally to the removal from all the evil efforts that were directed against the apostle, and the evil influences around him not merely all that threatened him personally, but all that in his person thwarted the gospel.” Clearly, what he means by deliverance in this connection is a safe issue, as regards all that is really great and important, out of the endless machinations and troubles with which he had to contend here as the servant of Christ in the gospel. He should be so delivered, that none of them would be allowed to bear down his intrepidity, or make him flinch from the path of obedience, so that he should reach in safety the kingdom of everlasting bliss and glory. The expression βασιλείαν τὴν ἐπουράνιον, with respect to Christ's kingdom, is found only here in St. Paul's epistles, and has consequently been deemed un -Pauline by the opponents of the genuineness of this epistle. But it is a frivolous objection, as in other places he associates Christ's existence in glory with a present reigning or kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:25; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1).

The passage fitly ends with a doxology: to whom be glory for the ages of ages that is, for ever and ever (1 Timothy 1:17) Amen. The context obliges us to connect this ascription of divine glory with Christ; for it was He, doubtless, of whom the apostle spake as standing by him, strengthening and delivering him.