2 Timothy 3:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But what, the Apostle continues, am I saying about myself? Everyone who desires to live piously will be persecuted. By persecutions he here means afflictions and sorrows. Truly, it is impossible for a man walking the path of virtue to be without sorrow, lamentation, affliction, and temptations. How could this be possible for one walking the narrow and afflicted way, and hearing, "In the world you will have tribulation" (Jn 16:33)? If Job in his time says, "Is not the life of man on earth a trial, and are not his days like the days of a hired servant?" (Job 7:1), how much more now?

And in this there is very great consolation. What, the Apostle continues, am I saying about myself alone? All who desire to live piously and according to the Gospel will be persecuted. By persecutions the Apostle here means not only persecution by unbelievers, but simply afflictions and sorrows to which those who walk the path of virtue are subject. For human life is a trial, as Job says. Whoever walks the narrow path necessarily suffers.

What the same teacher said, “All who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” can be applied to every age.

There may be a certain time when external enemies do not rage. It seems peaceful, and indeed it is so. It brings great consolation, especially to the weak.

Yet even then there exist within the Church, and very many of them, people who by their corrupt morals torment the feelings of those who live piously.

When such corrupt morals and errors, and others like them, exist, those who desire to live piously in Christ endure persecutions. This is so even when no one attacks or tortures their bodies.

"And all who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted," because the common ill-wisher of all wages war against men either through other men or through their own thoughts.

Do not think that every sorrow comes upon men only for sins. Some who are well-pleasing to God are tempted. For it is written: "The lawless shall be cast out" (Ps 36:28). Likewise, "all who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

Germanus: Since you have given us a remedy against all deceptions, and by your teaching, with God’s help, the devil’s snares that shook us have been exposed, we ask you also to explain what is said in the Gospel: “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt 11:30).

This seems to be very much at variance with the saying of the prophet, who says: “By the word of Your lips, I have kept hard paths” (Ps 16:4). The Apostle also says: “All who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

Everything hard and subject to persecution cannot be light and pleasant.

Abraham: That the saying of our Lord and Savior is entirely true, we have easily confirmed by the proof of experience itself, if we travel the path to perfection lawfully and according to Christ’s will.

“Indeed, all who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” says the Apostle. They are attacked by enemies. Therefore everyone who travels the path of his life with Christ’s help must be continually armed and always remain in the military camp.

So you also, if you wish always to keep watch and know that you serve in the Lord’s camp, observe the words of Saint Paul: “No soldier entangles himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please the one who enlisted him” (2 Tim 2:4).

Do not seek in your pilgrimage what awaits you in your homeland. Since you must daily fight the devil under Christ’s command, do not demand your reward in the battle. It has been prepared for you in His Kingdom.

Blessed Mark the Monk said: "Every virtue is called a cross when it fulfills the commandment of the Spirit." Therefore "all who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

This is a prophetic word, or rather a prophecy of Jesus Christ Himself, Who said: “Before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and governors for My name’s sake” (Lk 21:12).

He confirmed this prophecy by His own example, saying: “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (Jn 15:20).

We see the fulfillment of this prophecy when we read in the histories about the persecutions of all the Apostles, Martyrs, and holy Confessors.

Christ the Master and His divine Apostle had the same purpose in proclaiming this prediction. It was to prepare the faithful to undergo every calamity and affliction out of love for piety.

But for the greater profit of the faithful, the divine Apostle adds the following: “But evil men and sorcerers will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

"And all who desire to live piously in Christ." To the example from his own life the Apostle adds an incentive drawn from the common destiny of all the pious: to suffer and undergo persecutions.

We should not expect anything better, you and I. Such is already the earthly lot of all people who are of one race with us.

Those who have resolved to live piously in Christ Jesus have their paradise not on earth, but in heaven. The earth gives them nothing except privations, sorrows, and persecutions.

The principles that guide Christ’s followers are altogether different from those that govern those who live for the earth and hope to find their paradise on earth.

These two classes of people do not dwell together well. The earthly, as masters, press upon those who seek heaven, as strangers and sojourners.