8 Sep 2011
II Timothy 4:17
II Timothy 4:17: “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”
Knowing what actually went on in Roman times, I suspect that this may not have been just a figure of speech. People actually were fed to lions back then.
It’s also worth noting that when Jesus told people to take up their cross and follow Him, He also may not have been speaking figuratively. Jesus took up a real cross and actually died on it, and some of the people He told that to also carried real crosses and actually died on them. “Be faithful unto death” is not just a metaphor; in many cases being faithful carries a death sentence. Yet, being faithful unto death is the only way by which we can inherit eternal life. As Mark 8:35 says, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”