Bible Strands
2 Timothy 2:11
This is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him;
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul writes to Timothy from what is almost certainly a first-imprisonment context, anchoring a series of "trustworthy sayings" (2:11, 13; 3:1; 4:7–8) as doctrinal ballast for a young leader under pressure.
The words — συναπεθάνομεν (sunapethanomen, "we have died with") is aorist — a completed, settled fact — while συζήσομεν (suzēsomen, "we will live with") is future; the prefix συν- ("together with") binds both verbs to the same object, making the pair a single logical unit rather than two separate claims.
The thread — Romans 6:5 and 6:8 state the same death-life sequence in participial form; Colossians 3:3 compresses it into a present reality ("your life is hidden with Christ in God"). The immediate context, 2 Timothy 2:12, extends the pattern to endurance and reign.
Why it lands — The "if" is not a wager; it is a premise the reader must own. The verse asks you to stop treating your union with Christ's death as a theological abstraction and accept that the future it guarantees is already structurally determined.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
Cross-references
- Romans 6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.
- Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
- Romans 6:5 For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.
- 1 Timothy 1:15 This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.
- John 14:19 In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.
- 2 Corinthians 4:10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
- 2 Corinthians 13:4 For He was indeed crucified in weakness, yet He lives by God’s power. For we are also weak in Him, yet by God’s power we will live with Him concerning you.
- Galatians 2:19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:17 After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.