2 Timothy 4:17

‘But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.’

But the Lord had proved more than sufficient for Paul. He had stood by him. He had been with him and had strengthened him, and Paul had thus been able to witness boldly to the gathered Gentiles, fully proclaiming the Christian message in front of them all. This was in fact one way by which Jesus had said that God would reach prominent Gentiles, ‘yes, and you will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles’ (Matthew 9:18. Compare also Mark 13:9; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11-12). There may in ‘all the Gentiles might hear’ be a reflection of these words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew, as he points out how the Lord’s words were fulfilled in the reaching of the Gentiles by testifying before their leaders. Furthermore the transcripts of trials might well often have become public knowledge, and the trial of so prominent man as Paul had become might well have become a talking point on a wide scale. Or it may simply be that the preliminary hearing was open to all and well attended.

On the other hand it may be that ‘that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear’ reflects his feeling that now, by his testimony before these Gentiles in Rome, he has capped off and fulfilled his ministry as the Apostle to the Gentiles (see Romans 1:5 where ‘all the Gentiles’ is also used). He had proclaimed the message of the Gospel throughout the empire, and now he was proclaiming it at its centre. It had thus been fully proclaimed. Now ‘all the Gentiles’ had heard (compare the thought in Romans 1:8).

‘And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.’ Being ‘delivered out of the mouth of the lion’ may have become a popular way among Christians of describing rescue from adversity, taking into account Psalms 22:21 and on the basis of what had happened to Daniel (compare Daniel 6:16-24). Alternatively the thought here may have been of the Devil seen popularly as a roaring lion (compare 1 Peter 5:8). Or it may have been an indirect way of referring to Nero. Paul would hardly wish to mention him by name in case his letter was intercepted.