Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Timothy · About this commentary
All Who Desire to Live Godly
2 Timothy 3:10-12
10 But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, · WEB
Against imitators Paul sets a life Timothy watched at close range, including three towns where it went badly.
But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness. The list moves outward from what Paul said to how he lived to what he aimed at, and Timothy is credited with having followed all of it — the verb means to accompany closely enough to observe.
Then verse 11 names three places, and they are not successes. Antioch , Iconium , and Lystra — the towns of the first journey, where Paul was driven out, threatened, and finally stoned and dragged out as dead Acts 14:19. Lystra was Timothy's own town Acts 16:1, so the young man had likely seen the aftermath before he ever joined the mission.
Paul's summary of it holds two things together without strain: I endured those persecutions, and the Lord delivered me out of them all. Deliverance did not mean avoidance. It meant coming through.
Verse 12 generalizes in a sentence with no exceptions in it. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. The letter has just described people with a form of godliness who suffer nothing, and the contrast is left to speak.
settled What this mark means