2 Timothy 4:5
But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Be sober.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Tu vero vigila, in omnibus labora, opus fac evangelistæ, ministerium tuum imple. Sobrius esto.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- σὺ δὲ νῆφε ἐν πᾶσιν, κακοπάθησον, ἔργον ποίησον εὐαγγελιστοῦ, τὴν διακονίαν σου πληροφόρησον.
Haydock's commentary
Be thou vigilant, &c. It may either be expounded, watch in all things; or, take pains in all things. The latter seems the true construction. (Witham)
An evangelist; a diligent preacher of the gospel. (Challoner)
Fulfil thy ministry.4 So even Dr. Wells, in his amendments to the Protestant translation, which hath, make full proof of thy ministry. See Luke i. 1. See also St. Chrysostom on this place.
Be sober. There is nothing for this in the Greek, nor in St. Chrysostom. The Latin interpreter seems to have added it, as being contained in the other Greek words in this verse. (Witham)
4 Ministerium tuum imple, plerophoreson. St. Chrysostom, (log. th. p. 371.) toutesti, pleroson; and so again, (ver. 17) prædicatio impleatur, plerophorethe, toutesti, says St. Chrysostom, p. 376, plerothe. St. Chrysostom doubtless understood Greek as well as Erasmus or Mr. Legh, who therefore need not have accused the Latin interpreter as if he knew not Greek, so as to distinguish betwixt plerophorein and pleroun.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXIX
“And what,” saith one, “is a working?” and what “a gift?” and what “a ministration?” They are mere differences of names, since the things are the same. For what “a gift” is, that is “a ministration,” that he calls “an operation” also. Thus fulfil thy ministry; ( 2 Tim. iv. 5 . ministry .) and, “I magnify my ministration:” ( Rom. xi. 13 . office .) and writing to Timothy, he says, “Therefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee. ( 2 Tim. i. 6 .) And again, writing to the Galatians, he said, “for he that wrought in Peter to the Apostleship, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles. ( Gal. ii. 8 .) Seest thou that he implies that there is no difference in the gifts of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost? Not confounding the Persons, God forbid! but declaring the equal honor of the Essence. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, 2 Timothy 3:16,17
Ver. 5 . “But watch thou in all things, endure affliction.” It was for this therefore, that he foretold these things; as Christ also toward the end predicted that there should be “false Christs and false prophets”; so he too, when he was about to depart, spoke of these things. “But watch thou in all things, endure affliction”; that is, labor, preoccupy their minds before this pestilence assails them; secure the safety of the sheep before the wolves enter in, everywhere endure hardship. “Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” Thus it was the work of an evangelist that he should endure hardship, both in himself, and from those without; “make full proof of” that is, fulfill “thy ministry.” And behold another necessity for his enduring affliction,