The Example of Christ
The supreme example for every believer is Christ himself. Christ suffered and died; the faithful servant of Christ must be willing to share in suffering. Paul often saw his ministry in terms of sharing Christ’s sufferings (Rom 8:17; Col 1:24). He was doing so now in the confines of a Roman prison, treated like a common criminal (vs 9). Yet, though he was in chains, the gospel itself remained unchained, just as it had in an earlier imprisonment (Phi 1:12-18), just as it had in his first roman imprisonment (Acts 28:30-31). Paul had no doubt about his own salvation; God would hold him in trust until the final day (2 Tim 1:12). Paul wanted all Gods chosen to experience the same assurance of salvation, and so he boldly shared the gospel, willing to endure whatever hardship might result, whether chains or even death. He urged Timothy to have the same resolve, the same willingness to suffer.

The reminder of Christ's suffering and of his own suffering led Paul to include a fifth and final "faithful saying." like the others, this one is confessional and poetic. Paul may have taken it from the worship of the church, more likely, he composed it himself; it is thoroughly within his own language and thought. It consists of four balanced couplets, each beginning with a conditional ("If") clause. The first looks to the initial Christian conversion experience of dying with Christ and rising to new life (Rom 6:8). The second focuses on perseverance: if we endure in our commitment to Christ, we will reign with him in his heavenly kingdom.