So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.

And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am.

2 Timothy 1:8, 11, 12

Stop for a moment, what is Paul saying?  Is he declaring that he is not a prisoner of Rome but a prisoner of Jesus Christ and the Gospel?  Precisely.

It sure sounds like Paul is a prisoner of Rome.  Is he not chained to a Roman guard in a Roman prison under rule of the mighty Roman Emperor, Nero, the most powerful ruler in the world at the time?  Has not Rome declared Paul unfit to live?  The shackles were made in a Roman forge.  Romans wrote in legal Latin that Paul deserved death.  Paul knew the anger of Rome.   That anger would have its way, very soon.  Paul was about to die as a prisoner of Rome.  Who could have argued that Rome did not have absolute power over Paul’s fate?

The answer to that question is at the heart of the letter to Timothy.  Paul declares that he is in the hands of Jesus Christ who reigns in glory, not in the hands of any human being, not even the most powerful person in the world at the time, Emperor Nero. This is the secret to Paul’s entire life.  He serves the Lord in glory, not the Emperor who sits on his bloody, gilded earthly throne.

Jesus taught almost incessantly about his kingdom that he came to establish, the kingdom of God’s all-embracing grace.  Here it is, in stark reality.  It appears as weak as a straw before the power of Rome’s mighty legions.  Paul knew that full well.

Over two thousand years have passed since then.  The followers of Jesus Christ are to be found now in almost every corner of the earth.  Rome is a chapter in a history book, gone.

It is this understanding of the reign of Christ that enables Paul to say, And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am.  Furthermore, he invited young Timothy to suffer likewise.

Kingdoms come and go, the Kingdom of God grows from a small seed to a huge tree, not dependent at all on any culture to sustain it.  It is God’s Kingdom.  It is to that Kingdom we are called.  Our citizenship is in that Kingdom, where the Triune God reigns.