2 Timothy 4:22

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit,.... To counsel and advise in every difficult matter; to comfort under every distress; to supply with all grace in every time of need; and to strengthen and

Grace be with you - plural; i:e., thee and the members of the Ephesian and neighbouring churches.

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit; se the like, . Grace be with you; the free grace of God, it its various emanations, suited to all your necessities, be with you. Amen. >

22 The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. > Ver. 22. Grace be with you] God’ s blessing be with you always, Amen. Even now toward the offering of a burnt sacrifice, said that martyr (Lau. Saunders) in a letter to certain friends.

Verse 22. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.] This is a prayer addressed to Christ by one of the most eminent of his apostles; another proof of the untruth of the assertion, that prayer is never offered to Christ in the New Testament. He prays that Christ may be with his spirit, enlightening, strengthening, and confirming it to the end. Grace be with you.] These words show that the epistle was addressed to the whole Church, and that it is not to be considered of a private nature. Amen.] Omitted by ACFG and some others. See the note on this word at the end of the preceding epistle. The principal subscriptions, both in the versions and MSS., are the following: - The Second Epistle to Timothy was written from Rome. - SYRIAC. To the man Timothy. - AETHIOPIC, Nothing in the VULGATE. End of the epistle; it was written from the city of Rome when Timothy had been constituted bishop over Ephesus; and when Paul had stood the second time in the presence of Nero Caesar, the Roman emperor. Praise to the Lord of glory, perpetual, perennial, and eternal! Amen, Amen, Amen. - ARABIC. The Second Epistle to Timothy is ended, who was the first bishop of the Church of Ephesus. It was written from Rome when Paul had stood the second time before Nero, the Roman emperor. - PHILOXENIAN SYRIAC. Written from Rome, and sent by Onesimus. - COPTIC. The MSS. are also various: - The Second Epistle to Timothy is finished; that to Titus begins. The second to Timothy, written from Laodicea. - CODEX ALEXANDRINUS. The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy, ordained the first bishop of the Church of the Ephesians, was written from Rome when Paul was brought the second time before Nero Caesar. - COMMON GREEK TEXT. There are other slighter differences in the MSS., but they are unworthy of note. That the epistle was written from Rome, about the year 65 or 66, and a little before St. Paul's martyrdom, is the general opinion of learned men. See the preface. The reader has already been apprized that this is most probably the last epistle the apostle ever wrote; and it is impossible to see him in a more advantageous point of view than he now appears, standing on the verge of eternity, full of God, and strongly anticipating an eternity of glory. For farther observations, see the conclusion of the first epistle. ON 2 Timothy 4:16 I have mentioned the apologies of the primitive fathers, or their vindications of Christianity against the aspersions and calumnies of the Gentiles. Several of these writings are still extant; of the whole I shall here give a short account in chronological order. 1. QUADRATUS. St. Jerome relates that this man was contemporary with the apostles, and one also of their disciples. There is only a fragment of his apology extant; it is preserved by Eusebius, in Hist. Eccles, lib. iv. c. 3, and was addressed to the Emperor Adrian about A. D.

22. The closing benediction is peculiar being twofold, first ‘with thy spirit’ and then ‘with you,’ i.e. ‘thee and thine.’The Lord Jesus Christ] The ms. authority is in favour of ‘The Lord’ alone. Observe how often this one brief name of his Saviour and Master has fallen from his pen in these closing paragraphs, taking the place of the full special title Christ Jesus (see 1 Timothy 1:1) used through the Pastorals; five times in the last fifteen verses, 2 Timothy 4:8; 2 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:17-18; 2 Timothy 4:22, is the ‘Master’s’ presence and aid claimed and acknowledged by one whose highest title of honour as an Apostle had been ‘the Lord’s servant,’ ‘the Master’s bond-slave.’ We are reminded of pious George Herbert, who at his induction to his sacred charge at Bemerton made his resolve and prayer that his humble and charitable life might so win upon others as to bring glory, he said, ‘to my Jesus whom I have this day taken to be my Master and Governor; and I am so proud of this service that I will always observe and obey and do His will; and always call Him Jesus my Master, and I will always contemn my birth, or any title or dignity that can be conferred upon me, when I shall compare them with my title of being a priest and serving at the altar of Jesus my Master’; and who could in his last hours of suffering answer his wife’s anxious enquiry with the reassuring certainties of that Master’s presence; ‘he had passed a conflict with his last enemy and had overcome him by the merits of his Master Jesus.’ Walton, Life of George Herbert.The subscription has no sufficient authority; see note on subscription to 1st Epistle, p. 152. But its statements are in this case more nearly correct. See, as to Timothy’s charge at Ephesus, Introduction, p. 66. For St Paul’s appearances before Nero see note above, ch. 2 Timothy 4:16; and Introduction, p. 44.The oldest ms. authority gives for subscription only second epistle to timothy.

The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit; - see Galatians 6:18; Romans 15:20. The subscription to this Epistle was not added by Paul himself, nor is there any evidence that it was by an inspired man, and it is of no authority.