For the cowardly or unkind abstention of the rest the Apostle has no stronger word of condemnation than “may it not be laid to their account.” No one knew better than himself how weak-hearted many of these disciples were, and how great were the dangers of his own position and of all those who ventured to associate themselves with him. It was otherwise in his first imprisonment. Then Nero was not quite the monster that he had since become. At that time the burning of Rome had not yet taken place, nor had the cruel outcry against the Christians, of which the conflagration was made the occasion, as yet been raised. It was quite otherwise now. To be known as a Christian might be dangerous; and to avow oneself as the associate of so notorious a leader as Paul could not fail to be so. Therefore, “May it not be laid to their account” (μὴ αὐτοῖς λογισθείη). This is the very spirit which the Apostle himself years before had declared to be a characteristic of Christian charity; “it taketh not account of evil” (οὐ λογίζεται τὸ κακόν): and of God Himself, Who in dealing with mankind, “lays not to their account their trespasses” (μὴ λογιζόμενος αὐτοῖς τὰ παραπτώματα αὐτῶν).[99]
“But,” in contrast to these timid friends, “the Lord stood by me and strengthened me.” Christ did not desert His faithful servant in the hour of need, but gave him courage and strength to speak out bravely before the court all that it was right that he should say. The contrast which the Apostle here makes between the many who forsook him and the One who stood by him reminds us of a similar contrast made by the Lord Himself. “Behold, the hour cometh, yea is come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John xvi. 32). In this respect also the saying remains true “A servant is not greater than his lord” (John xv. 20); and Apostles must expect no better treatment than their Master received. If they are deserted by their disciples and friends in the hour of danger, so also was He. But in each case those who are deserted are not alone, because, although human help fails, Divine support is always present.
“The Lord” in this passage, both here and a few lines further on, means Christ rather than the Father. This is in accordance with St. Paul’s usage. “Lord” here has the article (ὁ κύριος): and when that is the case it commonly means Jesus Christ (comp. ii. 7, 14, 22; iii. 11; iv. 14, 22; 1 Tim. i. 2, 12, 14; vi. 3, 14; 1 Cor. iv. 5; vi. 13; vii. 10, 12, 34; etc., etc. In Titus the word does not occur). Where “Lord” has no article in the Greek (κύριος) St. Paul usually means God and not Christ. Some would assert that, excepting where he quotes from the Old Testament (e.g., 1 Cor. x. 26), this usage is invariable; but that is probably too sweeping an assertion. Nevertheless, there is no reason for doubting that in this passage “the Lord” means Jesus Christ. We may compare our own usage, according to which “our Lord” almost invariably means Christ, whereas “the Lord” more commonly means God the Father.
The word for “strengthen” (ἐνδυναμοῦν) means literally “to infuse power into” a person. It is one of which the Apostle is rather fond; and outside his writings it occurs in the New Testament only in the Acts and in Hebrews, once in each (Rom. iv. 20; Eph. vi. 10; Phil. iv. 13; 1 Tim. i. 12; 2 Tim. ii. 1). It is worth while to compare the passage in which he speaks to Timothy of Christ having given him power to turn to Him and become His servant; and still more the passage in which, during his first Roman imprisonment, he tells the Philippians “I can do all things in Him that strengthened me.” The same thing was true in the second imprisonment.
The special purpose for which Christ stood by His Apostle and put strength and power into him is stated. “That through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear.” Those who follow Eusebius in the mistake of supposing that the “first defence” refers to the trial which ended in St. Paul’s release after the first imprisonment, understand this proclamation of the message to the Gentiles as referring to the missionary work which St. Paul was enabled to do during the few years of interval (c. A.D. 63–66) before he was again arrested. But if the proclamation of the message took place in consequence of the Apostle’s release, then it would have been placed after, and not before, the mention of deliverance out of the mouth of the lion. It is not said that he was delivered in order that through him the message might be proclaimed, but that he was strengthened in order that it might be proclaimed. And the special strengthening by Christ took place in reference to the first hearing of the case in court, when all human friends forsook him, while Christ stood by him. It was in court, therefore, that the proclamation of the message was made, and that through the instrumentality of the Apostle the preaching of the Gospel reached its culmination (τὸ κήρυγμα πληροφορηθῇ). This was the climax;—that in the metropolis of the world, in open court, before the imperial tribunal, the Gospel proclamation should be made with all solemnity and power. It is quite possible that this event, which the Apostle of the Gentiles regards as the completing act of his own mission and ministry, took place in the forum itself. Here Tiberius had caused a tribunal to be erected for causes which he had to hear as Emperor. But Claudius sometimes heard such cases elsewhere; and his successors probably followed his example. So that in the reign of Nero we cannot be certain that such a case as St. Paul’s would be heard in the forum. But at any rate it would be held in a court to which the public had access; and the Roman public at this time was the most representative in the world. The Apostle is fully justified, therefore, in the language which he uses. This opportunity and power were granted “in order that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear.” In that representative city and before that representative audience he preached Christ; and through those who were present and heard him the fact would be made known throughout the civilized world that in the imperial city and before the imperial bench the Apostle of Christ had proclaimed the coming of His Kingdom.
And the result of it was that he was “delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” This was a second consequence of the Lord’s standing by him and strengthening him. He was enabled to speak with such effect, that the sentence of condemnation, which had been feared, was for the present averted. He was neither acquitted nor convicted; but the court, being unable to arrive at a satisfactory decision, granted an extension of time (ampliatio); that is an adjournment. In technical phraseology the actio prima ended in a verdict of non liquet, and an actio secunda became necessary; and as this second trial might have a similar result, the amount of delay that was possible was almost boundless.
To ask who is meant by the lion is a futile question. Whom did the Psalmist mean by the lion, when he prayed “Save me from the lion’s mouth”? (Ps. xxii. 21.) He meant no one by the lion; but by the lion’s mouth he meant some great and imminent danger. And that is what we must understand here. All kinds of gratuitous conjectures have been made by those who have insisted on identifying the lion;—the lion of the amphitheatre, to whom the Apostle might have been thrown, had he been condemned; the Emperor Nero, or, as he was possibly in Greece at this time, his prefect and representative Helius; or, the chief accuser; or again, Satan, whom St. Peter describes as “a roaring lion.” All these are answers to a question which does not arise out of the text. The question is not, “Who is the lion?” but, “What is the meaning of the lion’s mouth?” And the answer to that is, “a terrible danger,” and especially “peril of death.”
The goodness of the Lord does not end with this welcome, but temporary deliverance. “The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom.” Paul’s enemies are not likely to be idle during the extension of time granted by the court. They will do their utmost to secure a sentence of condemnation at the second hearing of the case, and thus get the man whom they detest removed from the earth. Whether they will succeed in this or not, the Apostle does not know. But one thing he knows;—that whatever is really evil in their works against him will be powerless to harm him. The Lord will turn their evil into good. They may succeed in compassing his death. But, even if they do so, the Lord will make their work of death a work of salvation; and by the severing of the thread which still binds Paul to this life “will save him unto,” that is, will translate him safe into, “His heavenly kingdom.”
It is utterly improbable that by “every evil work,” St. Paul means any weakness or sin into which he himself might be betrayed through want of courage and steadfastness. Even if the lion’s mouth could mean Satan, this would not be probable; for it would be Satan’s attacks from without, by means of opposition and persecution, and not his attempts from within by means of grievous temptations, that would be meant. What is said above about Alexander the coppersmith shows what kind of “evil” and what kind of “works” is intended in “every evil work.” The expression evidently refers to the machinations of Paul’s enemies.
It is also highly improbable that “will save me unto His heavenly kingdom” means “will keep me alive until He returns in glory.” There was a time when the Apostle expected, like most other Christians of that day, to live to behold the second coming of Christ. But what we have already seen in this Epistle shows that in St. Paul’s mind that expectation is extinct. He no longer thinks that he will be one of those “that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord” (1 Thess. iv. 15, 17); that he will be among the living, who “shall be changed,” rather than among the dead, who “shall be raised” at the sounding of the last trump (1 Cor. xv. 53). He does not repeat, what seems almost to have been a familiar watchword among the Christians of that day,—“Maran atha”; “the Lord is at hand” (1 Cor. xvi. 22; Phil. iv. 5). On the contrary, it is his own hour that is at hand: “I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come.” He is fully persuaded now that he will not live to see Christ’s return in glory; and he does not expect that return to come speedily; for, as we have seen, one of his chief anxieties is that there should be a permanently organized ministry in the Churches, and that provision should be made for handing on the faith intact from generation to generation (Tit. i, 5; 2 Tim. ii. 2). There can be little doubt, therefore, that when the Apostle expresses a conviction that the Lord will save him unto His heavenly kingdom, he is not expecting to reach that kingdom without first passing through the gate of death. What he is sure of is this,—that the evil works of his adversaries will never be allowed to prevent him from reaching that blessed resting place. Christ’s kingdom is twofold; He has a kingdom on earth and a kingdom in heaven. The saints who are in the kingdom on earth are still exposed to many kinds of evil works; and the Apostle is persuaded that in his case such works will be overruled by the Lord to further his progress from the earthly to the heavenly kingdom.