If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
If we share Christ's sufferings on earth we will share His glory and reign with Him in the world to come, and if we deny Him He will deny us. Suffering with Him does not mean the ordinary hardships of mortal life, but willingly giving up ease, pleasure, comfort and self-will for His cause and bearing shame, reproach and hardship for His sake. No one can hope to reign with Him while living for self and the world and refusing that cost, for there is no crown without a cross. To deny Him is to profess godliness while refusing to share His humiliation and follow His life, evading the cross, misrepresenting Him by a low standard, and contradicting true religion by pride, love of pleasure and worldly conduct. Those who endure will sit with Him on His throne, receive the crown of life, see Jesus in glory and share His joy, while those who deny Him will be denied when His glory is revealed and at the judgment.
Context in Timothy's Charge
The saying belongs to a fatherly charge to Timothy as a son in the gospel to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, to hold fast the form of sound words in faith and love, and to keep by the Holy Ghost the good thing committed to him. That keeping includes committing what was heard to faithful men who will be able to teach others also, putting others in remembrance, and charging them not to strive about words to the subverting of hearers. It includes shunning foolish and unlearned questions that gender strifes, and, as the servant of the Lord, being gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing opposers so they may repent, acknowledge the truth, and recover themselves out of the snare of Satan. This training goes beyond mere head knowledge of the Scriptures to knowing the true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, nourished by prayer and diligent study of the Word and not by merely reading and teaching it.
It stands within a faithful saying that joins suffering unto reigning with dying with Christ in order to live with Him, and with Christ abiding faithful. Suffering for His sake leads to rejoicing with Him in His kingdom, and being dead with Him leads to living with Him. Denial met with denial belongs to the same saying, with the faithful outcome secured by Christ’s own faithfulness.
It is given as a charge to be remembered, set alongside the call to avoid fruitless disputes over words and to rightly divide the word of truth. Teaching and discussion are to serve a spiritual purpose, overcoming resistance so that truth can take root in hearts. Enduring hardship for the sake of others’ salvation is thus joined to a warning not to let strife about words undermine faith needed for salvation.
The whole chapter, with its suffering unto reigning and denial unto denial, is to be impressed on the heart and brought into practical life, especially in a time of special evangelistic blessing. That means awaking from self-satisfaction, indifference, and backsliding, drawing near to God, confessing sin, living in harmony, clearing the way and helping with means, and attending meetings armed and equipped for service. It means talking with those who are interested and praying and working daily for lost souls as laborers together with Christ, drawing strength from Him with gratitude and overcoming indifference by active support of the work. The chapter so used turns minds away from new and strange ideas resting on human imagination, since salvation does not depend on side issues.
Meaning of Suffering with Christ
Suffering with Christ does not mean the ordinary sufferings of mortal life under the curse, for those by themselves do not make anyone a fellow heir with Him. It means willingly sacrificing ease, pleasure, comfort, convenience, one's own will and selfish wishes for His cause, and only those who endure in that costly faithfulness share His reign.
Sharing His sufferings means bearing His cross and accepting shame, reproach, humiliation and hardship for His sake. It means following His path of self-denial from the manger to the cross and giving up the world's pomp and pleasures while following Him. It includes patiently bearing painful trials, denying self, and doing difficult work for Him. It includes enduring the cross and the suffering part of religion, including trials and close-cutting truths that must not be shunned but endured in order to overcome as He overcame. It includes accepting God's pruning through disappointment, loss or bereavement, which cuts away what hinders fruitfulness and draws believers closer to Christ and helps prepare them to share His reign.
There is no crown without a cross, and trial is necessary to be strong. Faith becomes strong by being tried just as physical strength comes by exercise, and every temptation resisted and every trial bravely borne gives new experience and advances character building. This suffering is education and discipline in the school of trial, walking in narrow paths on earth and being purified in the furnace of affliction like gold purged of dross until without spot or wrinkle. By that painful experience of opposition, hatred, calumny, sore conflicts, self-denial and bitter disappointments endured for His sake, believers learn the evil of sin, its power, its guilt and its woe, and look upon it with abhorrence. A sense of the infinite sacrifice made for its cure humbles them and fills their hearts with gratitude and praise and great love because they have been forgiven much.
It is part of being purified and fitted for service, and anyone who would share His reign must accept that cost. Fellowship with Him in service and acceptance of the cross are part of the training that builds strength and nobility of character, and that privilege must not be rejected nor withheld from children, lest rejecting it leave them vulnerable to temptation and bring harm in both this life and the future. Those who draw near to God in order to reign with Him must be willing to be partakers with Him in His sufferings, and God accepts their efforts and draws near to them and sends angels to minister to those whose earnest prayers ascend to heaven. They must keep on every piece of the armor without laying it off for a moment, because faith will be tried in every way in the most trying, severe and testing manner, and when asked if they can drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism they answer, We can, Lord. Bearing a cross while clinging to a harmful indulgence for convenience contradicts following Him, as using tobacco while claiming to follow the crucified Christ makes that claim a mockery.
Promise of Reigning with Christ
If suffering is shared with Christ on earth in close union with Him, reigning with Him in glory and kingdom and eternal throne in the world to come will be shared also. Patient endurance of hardship and disappointment for His sake is partaking of His sufferings with a view to future glorification with Him. Suffering with Him is the condition of being glorified with Him and of sharing the hope of God's children and heirs. Those who share His trials and sufferings here share His glory there and sit with Him on His throne.
Sharing His reign and glory requires sharing His sufferings here, and those who hope to reign cannot please themselves, live like the world, live for self and worldly pleasures, or refuse this cost. Christians must patiently endure trials and seek to please God rather than themselves or follow the world's ways. Sacrificing comfort, pleasure, convenience, and selfish wishes for His cause now leads to reward in His kingdom, while those who refuse this cost will not share His reign. Christ was anointed head of the human family through humiliation, self-denial and self-sacrifice, and all who receive Him by faith are appointed to that same life as co-laborers in saving souls. As the Redeemer is heir of God, those who labor together with Him are joint heirs with Him, and to overcome is to be placed among those who have the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Christ asks the Father that His people may be where He is and share His glory, pleading for His church before accepting honor. His request is granted because the church is justified and accepted through Him as its representative and head. He identifies its interests with His own before the heavenly universe. This future honor has not yet come, for the church is still militant, not triumphant; those who suffer on earth will finally see Him in glory, become like Him, and reign with Him.
The promise includes sitting with Him on His throne, receiving the crown of life and crown of glory, seeing Jesus in glory, sharing His joy including the joy of seeing souls saved, and casting crowns at His feet in praise. In overcoming, suffering and self-denial can be welcomed because they look forward to sharing His eternal throne and receiving glory. Thrones and kingdoms belong to those who endure God's testing, and only the loyal enter bliss. Those who persevere will soon see Jesus and reign with Him in glory, a glory and inheritance beyond words, so believers are urged to hold fast rather than give up. Enduring opposition while remaining faithful leads to triumph in God's kingdom.
Even fallen creatures capable of revolting crimes can through Christ's grace become victors and more than conquerors and reign with Him forever in His everlasting kingdom. God in wonderful love bears with perversity and sends help, and this is given to every soul that desires to do His will and forsake sin and cooperate with the agencies of Heaven, including those won from the side of the great apostate to loyalty to God. Jesus' life was marked by toil, sorrow and suffering, and those who serve in His place must expect hardship as they seek to reconcile people to God.
Warning Against Denying Christ
Those who suffer with Christ will reign with Him, while those who deny Him will be denied by Him. This is a faithful saying that also speaks of dying with Him in order to live with Him and of His remaining faithful. It is a charge to be remembered, joined to avoiding fruitless disputes over words and rightly teaching the word of truth so that truth can take root and faith is not undermined. Everyone engaged in serving God must therefore put trust in God, keep hold of Him, stand at the post of duty, depend not on personal doing but on what an abiding Christ can accomplish, allow no murmuring over others' work, see to personal duty, and in perplexity go to the living God rather than any human source.
To deny Him while professing godliness is to refuse to share His humiliation and to follow His life and character, and this causes Him to deny such ones when His glory is revealed and given to the faithful. Those who evade the cross and deny Him will be denied by Him at the judgment. Denying Him includes misrepresenting Him through a low standard of Christian living, while true faith is shown by a godly life. Professing Christ while acting against Him is itself denial of Him, for vanity, pride, love of pleasure and self, and worldly conduct contradict true religion, encourage sinners in unbelief, and can leave souls unready for heaven.
Living the Verse Today
Everyone engaged in serving God is to put trust in God, for suffering with Him leads to reigning with Him and denying Him leads to being denied by Him. Each worker is to keep hold of God and stand at the post of duty, depending not on personal doing but on what an abiding Christ can accomplish. No murmuring and fretting over the work of others is to be heard, and each is to see that personal duty is not neglected. When in perplexity the way is to go to the living God and not to any human source, trusting and leaning upon Him.
The verse belongs to a training that goes beyond mere head knowledge of Scripture to knowing the true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. That knowledge is nourished by prayer and diligent study of the Word, not by only reading and teaching it. It is bound up with being strong in grace, enduring hardness as a good soldier, holding fast sound words in faith and love, keeping what was committed by the Holy Spirit, and committing it to faithful people who will teach others. It is bound up also with reminding others, refusing strife about words and foolish questions, and as the Lord's servant being gentle, apt to teach, patient, and meekly instructing opposers so they may repent and escape Satan's snare.
It calls for the spirit of conversion and a high estimate of souls as worth saving, instead of letting down to a low level. It calls for drinking the Holy Spirit of God and not the wine of Babylon, which is doctrines of error dealt to the kings of the earth. Thoughts are to be brought into captivity to the will of Christ and of heaven, until He puts His own superscription upon His workers. By beholding, believers become changed from glory to glory and from character to character, placing a right estimate upon humanity under God's controlling power and influence. They are to stand to the front to speak the words God has given, and to fall upon the Rock and be broken in order to feel the power of Christ.
Suffering for faithfulness is the portion of God's people in all ages, as it was for Christ, for Abel and the patriarchs, for the apostles, martyrs, and Reformers. Those who have the hope of immortality at Christ's appearing are not to shrink from it, but like Moses are to be willing to endure affliction with God's people. Those who reach eternal life have come through great tribulation, having chosen faithfulness through affliction unto the reward.
Sharing Christ's reign and victory requires sharing His conflicts and suffering after His pattern of self-denial and sacrifice. Such suffering is not cause for complaint but part of the path to the crown of victory. Serving His kingdom brings opposition, difficulty, and discouragement, so His workers must keep building and defending the work rather than give up or join those who undermine it. Reigning with Him means sharing the suffering of the crucified Christ before sharing His throne.
Sharing His sufferings means accepting self-denial and sacrifice in service to others, including hardship in self-supporting mission work in foreign fields. Those who persevere in His self-denial and cross-bearing will share His joy in the kingdom, including the joy of seeing people saved. Those unwilling to bear this cost have no place in God's kingdom.
If we share Christ's sufferings on earth we will share His glory and reign with Him in the world to come, and if we deny Him He will deny us. Suffering with Him does not mean the ordinary hardships of mortal life, but willingly giving up ease, pleasure, comfort and self-will for His cause and bearing shame, reproach and hardship for His sake. No one can hope to reign with Him while living for self and the world and refusing that cost, for there is no crown without a cross. To deny Him is to profess godliness while refusing to share His humiliation and follow His life, evading the cross, misrepresenting Him by a low standard, and contradicting true religion by pride, love of pleasure and worldly conduct. Those who endure will sit with Him on His throne, receive the crown of life, see Jesus in glory and share His joy, while those who deny Him will be denied when His glory is revealed and at the judgment.
Context in Timothy's Charge
The saying belongs to a fatherly charge to Timothy as a son in the gospel to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, to hold fast the form of sound words in faith and love, and to keep by the Holy Ghost the good thing committed to him. That keeping includes committing what was heard to faithful men who will be able to teach others also, putting others in remembrance, and charging them not to strive about words to the subverting of hearers. It includes shunning foolish and unlearned questions that gender strifes, and, as the servant of the Lord, being gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing opposers so they may repent, acknowledge the truth, and recover themselves out of the snare of Satan. This training goes beyond mere head knowledge of the Scriptures to knowing the true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, nourished by prayer and diligent study of the Word and not by merely reading and teaching it.
It stands within a faithful saying that joins suffering unto reigning with dying with Christ in order to live with Him, and with Christ abiding faithful. Suffering for His sake leads to rejoicing with Him in His kingdom, and being dead with Him leads to living with Him. Denial met with denial belongs to the same saying, with the faithful outcome secured by Christ’s own faithfulness.
It is given as a charge to be remembered, set alongside the call to avoid fruitless disputes over words and to rightly divide the word of truth. Teaching and discussion are to serve a spiritual purpose, overcoming resistance so that truth can take root in hearts. Enduring hardship for the sake of others’ salvation is thus joined to a warning not to let strife about words undermine faith needed for salvation.
The whole chapter, with its suffering unto reigning and denial unto denial, is to be impressed on the heart and brought into practical life, especially in a time of special evangelistic blessing. That means awaking from self-satisfaction, indifference, and backsliding, drawing near to God, confessing sin, living in harmony, clearing the way and helping with means, and attending meetings armed and equipped for service. It means talking with those who are interested and praying and working daily for lost souls as laborers together with Christ, drawing strength from Him with gratitude and overcoming indifference by active support of the work. The chapter so used turns minds away from new and strange ideas resting on human imagination, since salvation does not depend on side issues.
Meaning of Suffering with Christ
Suffering with Christ does not mean the ordinary sufferings of mortal life under the curse, for those by themselves do not make anyone a fellow heir with Him. It means willingly sacrificing ease, pleasure, comfort, convenience, one's own will and selfish wishes for His cause, and only those who endure in that costly faithfulness share His reign.
Sharing His sufferings means bearing His cross and accepting shame, reproach, humiliation and hardship for His sake. It means following His path of self-denial from the manger to the cross and giving up the world's pomp and pleasures while following Him. It includes patiently bearing painful trials, denying self, and doing difficult work for Him. It includes enduring the cross and the suffering part of religion, including trials and close-cutting truths that must not be shunned but endured in order to overcome as He overcame. It includes accepting God's pruning through disappointment, loss or bereavement, which cuts away what hinders fruitfulness and draws believers closer to Christ and helps prepare them to share His reign.
There is no crown without a cross, and trial is necessary to be strong. Faith becomes strong by being tried just as physical strength comes by exercise, and every temptation resisted and every trial bravely borne gives new experience and advances character building. This suffering is education and discipline in the school of trial, walking in narrow paths on earth and being purified in the furnace of affliction like gold purged of dross until without spot or wrinkle. By that painful experience of opposition, hatred, calumny, sore conflicts, self-denial and bitter disappointments endured for His sake, believers learn the evil of sin, its power, its guilt and its woe, and look upon it with abhorrence. A sense of the infinite sacrifice made for its cure humbles them and fills their hearts with gratitude and praise and great love because they have been forgiven much.
It is part of being purified and fitted for service, and anyone who would share His reign must accept that cost. Fellowship with Him in service and acceptance of the cross are part of the training that builds strength and nobility of character, and that privilege must not be rejected nor withheld from children, lest rejecting it leave them vulnerable to temptation and bring harm in both this life and the future. Those who draw near to God in order to reign with Him must be willing to be partakers with Him in His sufferings, and God accepts their efforts and draws near to them and sends angels to minister to those whose earnest prayers ascend to heaven. They must keep on every piece of the armor without laying it off for a moment, because faith will be tried in every way in the most trying, severe and testing manner, and when asked if they can drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism they answer, We can, Lord. Bearing a cross while clinging to a harmful indulgence for convenience contradicts following Him, as using tobacco while claiming to follow the crucified Christ makes that claim a mockery.
Promise of Reigning with Christ
If suffering is shared with Christ on earth in close union with Him, reigning with Him in glory and kingdom and eternal throne in the world to come will be shared also. Patient endurance of hardship and disappointment for His sake is partaking of His sufferings with a view to future glorification with Him. Suffering with Him is the condition of being glorified with Him and of sharing the hope of God's children and heirs. Those who share His trials and sufferings here share His glory there and sit with Him on His throne.
Sharing His reign and glory requires sharing His sufferings here, and those who hope to reign cannot please themselves, live like the world, live for self and worldly pleasures, or refuse this cost. Christians must patiently endure trials and seek to please God rather than themselves or follow the world's ways. Sacrificing comfort, pleasure, convenience, and selfish wishes for His cause now leads to reward in His kingdom, while those who refuse this cost will not share His reign. Christ was anointed head of the human family through humiliation, self-denial and self-sacrifice, and all who receive Him by faith are appointed to that same life as co-laborers in saving souls. As the Redeemer is heir of God, those who labor together with Him are joint heirs with Him, and to overcome is to be placed among those who have the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Christ asks the Father that His people may be where He is and share His glory, pleading for His church before accepting honor. His request is granted because the church is justified and accepted through Him as its representative and head. He identifies its interests with His own before the heavenly universe. This future honor has not yet come, for the church is still militant, not triumphant; those who suffer on earth will finally see Him in glory, become like Him, and reign with Him.
The promise includes sitting with Him on His throne, receiving the crown of life and crown of glory, seeing Jesus in glory, sharing His joy including the joy of seeing souls saved, and casting crowns at His feet in praise. In overcoming, suffering and self-denial can be welcomed because they look forward to sharing His eternal throne and receiving glory. Thrones and kingdoms belong to those who endure God's testing, and only the loyal enter bliss. Those who persevere will soon see Jesus and reign with Him in glory, a glory and inheritance beyond words, so believers are urged to hold fast rather than give up. Enduring opposition while remaining faithful leads to triumph in God's kingdom.
Even fallen creatures capable of revolting crimes can through Christ's grace become victors and more than conquerors and reign with Him forever in His everlasting kingdom. God in wonderful love bears with perversity and sends help, and this is given to every soul that desires to do His will and forsake sin and cooperate with the agencies of Heaven, including those won from the side of the great apostate to loyalty to God. Jesus' life was marked by toil, sorrow and suffering, and those who serve in His place must expect hardship as they seek to reconcile people to God.
Warning Against Denying Christ
Those who suffer with Christ will reign with Him, while those who deny Him will be denied by Him. This is a faithful saying that also speaks of dying with Him in order to live with Him and of His remaining faithful. It is a charge to be remembered, joined to avoiding fruitless disputes over words and rightly teaching the word of truth so that truth can take root and faith is not undermined. Everyone engaged in serving God must therefore put trust in God, keep hold of Him, stand at the post of duty, depend not on personal doing but on what an abiding Christ can accomplish, allow no murmuring over others' work, see to personal duty, and in perplexity go to the living God rather than any human source.
To deny Him while professing godliness is to refuse to share His humiliation and to follow His life and character, and this causes Him to deny such ones when His glory is revealed and given to the faithful. Those who evade the cross and deny Him will be denied by Him at the judgment. Denying Him includes misrepresenting Him through a low standard of Christian living, while true faith is shown by a godly life. Professing Christ while acting against Him is itself denial of Him, for vanity, pride, love of pleasure and self, and worldly conduct contradict true religion, encourage sinners in unbelief, and can leave souls unready for heaven.
Living the Verse Today
Everyone engaged in serving God is to put trust in God, for suffering with Him leads to reigning with Him and denying Him leads to being denied by Him. Each worker is to keep hold of God and stand at the post of duty, depending not on personal doing but on what an abiding Christ can accomplish. No murmuring and fretting over the work of others is to be heard, and each is to see that personal duty is not neglected. When in perplexity the way is to go to the living God and not to any human source, trusting and leaning upon Him.
The verse belongs to a training that goes beyond mere head knowledge of Scripture to knowing the true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. That knowledge is nourished by prayer and diligent study of the Word, not by only reading and teaching it. It is bound up with being strong in grace, enduring hardness as a good soldier, holding fast sound words in faith and love, keeping what was committed by the Holy Spirit, and committing it to faithful people who will teach others. It is bound up also with reminding others, refusing strife about words and foolish questions, and as the Lord's servant being gentle, apt to teach, patient, and meekly instructing opposers so they may repent and escape Satan's snare.
It calls for the spirit of conversion and a high estimate of souls as worth saving, instead of letting down to a low level. It calls for drinking the Holy Spirit of God and not the wine of Babylon, which is doctrines of error dealt to the kings of the earth. Thoughts are to be brought into captivity to the will of Christ and of heaven, until He puts His own superscription upon His workers. By beholding, believers become changed from glory to glory and from character to character, placing a right estimate upon humanity under God's controlling power and influence. They are to stand to the front to speak the words God has given, and to fall upon the Rock and be broken in order to feel the power of Christ.
Suffering for faithfulness is the portion of God's people in all ages, as it was for Christ, for Abel and the patriarchs, for the apostles, martyrs, and Reformers. Those who have the hope of immortality at Christ's appearing are not to shrink from it, but like Moses are to be willing to endure affliction with God's people. Those who reach eternal life have come through great tribulation, having chosen faithfulness through affliction unto the reward.
Sharing Christ's reign and victory requires sharing His conflicts and suffering after His pattern of self-denial and sacrifice. Such suffering is not cause for complaint but part of the path to the crown of victory. Serving His kingdom brings opposition, difficulty, and discouragement, so His workers must keep building and defending the work rather than give up or join those who undermine it. Reigning with Him means sharing the suffering of the crucified Christ before sharing His throne.
Sharing His sufferings means accepting self-denial and sacrifice in service to others, including hardship in self-supporting mission work in foreign fields. Those who persevere in His self-denial and cross-bearing will share His joy in the kingdom, including the joy of seeing people saved. Those unwilling to bear this cost have no place in God's kingdom.