2 Timothy 4:8

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown - This I can claim as my due; but the crown I expect is not one of fading leaves, but a crown of righteousness; the reward which God, in his kindness, has promised to them who are faithful to the grace he has bestowed upon them.

The Lord, the righteous Judge - He alludes here to the brabeus, or umpire in the Grecian games, whose office it was to declare the victor, and to give the crown.

At that day - The day of judgment; the morning of the resurrection from the dead.

Unto all them also that love his appearing - All who live in expectation of the coming of Christ, who anticipate it with joyfulness, having buried the world and laid up all their hopes above. Here is a reward, but it is a reward not of debt but of grace; for it is by the grace of God that even an apostle is fitted for glory. And this reward is common to the faithful; it is given, not only to apostles, but to all them that love his appearing. This crown is laid up - it is in view, but not in possession. We must die first.

I have several times noted the allusions of St. Paul to the Greek poets, and such as seemed to argue that he quoted immediately from them. There is a passage in the Alcestis of Euripides, in which the very expressions used here by the apostle are found, and spoken on the occasion of a wife laying down her life for her husband, when both his parents had refused to do it.

Ουκ ηθελησας ουδ ' ετολμησας θανειν

Του σου προ παιδος· αλλα την δ ' ειασατεΓυναικ ' οθνειαν, ἡν εγω και μητεραπ

Πατερα τε γ ' ενδικως αν ἡγοιμην μονην·

Και τοι καλον γ ' αν τανδ ' αγων ' ηγωνισω,π

Του σου προ παιδος κατθανων.

Alcest. v. 644.