2 Timothy 2:6

The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.—Again the picture is painted from every-day life. “The husbandman that laboureth”—with an emphasis upon “that laboureth”—is the successful tiller of the ground; “the labouring husbandman” it is, for whom the earth brings forth her increase. It is the enduring, patient, self-sacrificing toil that is rewarded in the affairs of common life—the man that “endures hardness,” whether as a soldier, or athlete, or tiller of the ground, wins the reward; and as in the world, so in religion. Further on in the Epistle the Apostle speaks of his having won the crown of righteousness. He had endured hardness of every conceivable kind; every affliction for the Lord’s sake he had endured save death, and that he was expecting, and knew it could not long tarry. The teaching of St. Paul in this triple picture is—not every soldier wins its commander’s applause, but only the veteran who devotes himself heart and soul to his profession; not every athlete wins the crown or prize, but only he who trains with anxious, painful care; not every tiller of the ground gathers the earth’s fruits, but only the patient toiler. So must it be in religious life. It is not enough to say we are Christians, or even to wish to be of the brotherhood of Christ. Men must really live the life they say they love.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-7 As our trials increase, we need to grow stronger in that which is good; our faith stronger, our resolution stronger, our love to God and Christ stronger. This is opposed to our being strong in our own strength. All Christians, but especially ministers, must be faithful to their Captain, and resolute in his cause. The great care of a Christian must be to please Christ. We are to strive to get the mastery of our lusts and corruptions, but we cannot expect the prize unless we observe the laws. We must take care that we do good in a right manner, that our good may not be spoken evil of. Some who are active, spend their zeal about outward forms and doubtful disputations. But those who strive lawfully shall be crowned at last. If we would partake the fruits, we must labour; if we would gain the prize, we must run the race. We must do the will of God, before we receive the promises, for which reason we have need of patience. Together with our prayers for others, that the Lord would give them understanding in all things, we must exhort and stir them up to consider what they hear or read.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The husbandman that laboureth - The margin is, "labouring first, must be partaker." The idea, according to the translation in the text, is, that there is a fitness or propriety (δει dei) that the man who cultivates the earth, should enjoy the fruits of his labor. See the same image explained in the notes at 1 Corinthians 9:10. But if this be the meaning here, it is not easy to see why the apostle introduces it. According to the marginal reading, the word "first" is introduced in connection with the word "labour" - "labouring first, must be partaker." That is, it is a great law that the husbandman must work before be receives a harvest. This sense will accord with the purpose of the apostle. It was to remind Timothy that labor must precede reward; that if a man would reap, he must sow; that he could hope for no fruits, unless he toiled for them. The point was not that the husbandman would be the first one who would partake of the fruits; but that he must first labor before he obtained the reward. Thus understood, this would be an encouragement to Timothy to persevere in his toils, looking onward to the reward. The Greek will bear this construction, though it is not the most obvious one.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. must be first partaker—The right of first partaking of the fruits belongs to him who is laboring; do not thou, therefore, relax thy labors, as thou wouldest be foremost in partaking of the reward. Conybeare explains "first," before the idler.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

As the apostle had before compared the minister of the gospel to a soldier, and from thence concluded his duty not to entangle himself unnecessarily in secular employments; and to those that exercised themselves in their public games, and from thence concluded the obligation upon him to keep to the Divine rule in the management of his office, and of himself under the opposition he should meet with; so here he compares him to a husbandman, (as Christ himself had done, Matthew 13:1, &c.), either to mind him of his duty, first to look to save his own soul, then the souls of others, or of his advantage, it being the privilege of a husbandman, being the proprietor of the fruits, (if he will), first to eat thereof, thereby intimating the privilege of those who turn many to righteousness, Daniel 12:3.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The husbandman that laboureth,.... In manuring his ground, in ploughing, in sowing, in weeding, in reaping, &c.

must be first partaker of the fruits; of his labour, before others; and the design may be to observe that the ministers of the word ought first to be partakers of the grace of God, the fruits of the Spirit, and of the Gospel, and rightly and spiritually understand it, before they preach it to others; or that such who labour in the word and doctrine, ought in the first place to be taken care of, and have a sufficient maintenance provided for them, 1 Corinthians 9:7 or that as they shall have in the first place some seals and fruits of their ministry, in the conversion of souls, so they shall shine in the kingdom of heaven as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever. Though the words may be rendered, and which seems more agreeable to the context, and to the apostle's argument, "the husbandman must first labour before he partakes of the fruits"; so a minister of the Gospel must first labour, and endure hardships in this life, before he sits down in the kingdom of heaven, and takes his rest, and enjoys the crown of glory, which fades not away, which the chief Shepherd shall give unto him.

Geneva Study Bible

{4} The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.

(4) Another similarity with respect to the same matter: no man may look for the harvest, unless he first take pains to plow and sow his ground.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

2 Timothy 2:6. To the two foregoing sentences Paul adds still another, expressed figuratively: τὸν κοπιῶντα γεωργὸν δεῖ πρῶτον κ.τ.λ. Many expositors assume that there is here an inversion of phrase, and explain the words as equivalent to τὸν γεωργόν, κοπιῶντα πρῶτον, δεῖ τῶν καρπῶν μεταλ., or as Wahl and Winer (in the earlier editions of his Grammar) put it, τὸν γεωργὸν, τὸν θέλοντα τῶν καρπῶν μεταλ., δεῖ πρῶτον κοπιᾷν, so that πρῶτον is attached to κοπιᾷν in meaning, and the sentence contains an exhortation; Beza: necesse est agricolam, ut fructus percipiat, prius laborare. Heinrichs, on the other hand, remarks: nihil attinet, mutare quidquam, aut transponere, dummodo πρῶτον cum Grotio adverbialiter pro ita demum dictum putemus, emphasinque ponamus in τὸν κοπιῶντα. But this explanation of πρῶτον cannot be justified. Matthies, de Wette, and others reject the supposition of any inversion, and explain πρῶτον as “first before all others,” so that the meaning would be: “as the husbandman first enjoys the fruits of the field, so, too, has the servant of the gospel a notable reward to expect for his work” (de Wette); but this thought diverges entirely from that contained in 2 Timothy 2:4-5, and neglects, besides, the emphasis laid on κοπιῶντα.

It is accordingly to be explained: Not every one, but that husbandman who toils hard at his work, is first to enjoy the fruits; Wiesinger: “the working farmer has the right of first enjoying the fruits, not he who does not work; therefore, if thou dost wish to enjoy the fruits, work.” So, too, van, Oosterzee. Hofmann, against this explanation, upholds the meaning of δεῖ, which does not express what ought to happen, but what must happen, in so far as it lies in the nature of things. Δεῖ certainly has this meaning of necessity (not that of duty); but if κοπιῶντα be regarded as furnishing the condition under which the husbandman tilling the ground must, before all others, be partaker of the fruits of the ground tilled, then δεῖ in the former explanation presents no difficulty; in this case it cannot be said, with Hofmann, that the πρῶτον is meaningless. It is to be observed that κοπιῶντα does not contrast the husbandman who works with the husbandman who does not work, but the husbandman who works hard with the husbandman who carries on his work lazily.

Hofmann, in interpreting the sentence as declaring that Timothy must bear everything, whether good or bad, that arises from his work, departs from the figure, which clearly does not say that the husbandman must content himself alike with good fruit and with weeds, but rather that in the nature of things the husbandman should before all others enjoy the fruit for which he has laboured. It is incorrect, with Theodoret and Oecumenius, to understand πρῶτον of the preference over the pupil which is the teacher’s due; or to find in the words of the apostle the thought that the teacher must appropriate to himself the fruits of the spirit which he wishes to impart to others. Even Chrysostom rightly rejected the opinion,[24] that here the apostle is speaking of the bodily support due to the teacher; but he himself gives the words a wrong subsidiary sense when he thinks that Paul wishes to console Timothy regarding the preference shown in the reward.

[24] This opinion is also brought forward by Otto, who refers all three sentences to anxiety regarding bodily wants, as if Timothy had become careless in his office through fear of suffering want in it. This, however, is a reproof which cannot be justified. Van Oosterzee rightly says: It is undoubtedly a Pauline principle that the teacher has a right to suitable support from the church; but this is not the principle taught here.

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Timothy 2:6. The difficulty in this verse is that the principle here laid down seems to be employed in 1 Corinthians 9:7; 1 Corinthians 9:9, as an argument from analogy in support of the liberty of Christian ministers to enjoy some temporal profit from their spiritual labours; whereas here St. Paul is urging a temper of other-worldliness. It is sufficient to say that there is no practical inconsistency between the two passages; “each man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that”. There is a time to insist on one’s liberty to “use the world,” and there is a time to warn ourselves and others that self-repression is necessary to keep ourselves from “using it to the full”. The main connexion here lies in the word κοπιῶντα, which is emphatic; while πρῶτον, which is also emphatic, expresses in the illustration from the γεωργός the idea corresponding to τῷ στρατ. ἀρέσῃ, and to στεφανοῦται in the others respectively. The labourer receives his hire, no matter how poor the crop may be: his wages are the first charge on the field. Cf. γῆ … τίκτουσα βοτάνην εὔθετον ἐκείνοις διʼ οὓς καὶ γεωργεῖται (Hebrews 6:7); his reward is sure, but then he must really labour. “The fruits” are the reward of faithful labour in the Lord’s vineyard, the “well done!” heard from the Captain’s lips, “the crown of glory that fadeth not away”. We must not press all the details of an allegory.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. The husbandman that laboureth] This third illustration is well known from St Paul’s use, 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, where the substantive corresponding to ‘farmer’ or ‘husbandman’ occurs. ‘Ye are God’s husbandry’; lit., ‘God’s farmed, tilled, land.’ The stress of meaning lies on the participle ‘that laboureth’ and we must give the old full sense to the English word; as the Vulgate putting the participle in the emphatic first place in the sentence ‘laborantem agricolam oportet primum de fructibus percipere.’ See the bearing of the same word, 1 Timothy 4:10, and especially 1 Timothy 5:17 where see note. It is true, as the Wise man says, ‘the profit of the earth is for all,’ Ecclesiastes 5:9, and the laziest vagabond can claim from the Poor-law his ‘right to live.’ But the husbandman who has ‘toiled with honest sweat,’ putting sinews, brains, and conscience into his work, must be the first to partake of the fruits, as the R.V. rightly renders, more clearly shewing the point. If the Christian knight wishes for any prize worth having, the farmer’s, as well as the athlete’s and the soldier’s life, will say ‘no pains no gains’:

‘For more of wisdom, health, or wealth,

We’ll trust and labour on;

They come to neither life by stealth,

No cross no crown.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - The first to partake for first partaker, A.V. That laboureth (τὸν κοπιῶντα). Let not Timothy think to shirk labour and yet enjoy its fruits. (For κοπιάω, see note on 1 Timothy 5:17.) 2 Timothy 2:6

Vincent's Word Studies

The husbandman that laboreth (τὸν κοπιῶντα γεωργὸν)

The verb implies hard, wearisome toil. See on 1 Thessalonians 1:3; see on 1 Thessalonians 5:12. Γεωργός husbandman, only here in Pastorals. oP. See on John 15:1.

Must be first partaker (δεῖ πρῶτον - μεταλαμβάνειν)

Better, Must be the first to partake. His is the first right to the fruits of his labor in the gospel. The writer seems to have in his eye 1 Corinthians 9:7, where there is a similar association of military service and farming to illustrate the principle that they who proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel. Μεταλαμβάνειν to partake, oP, and only here in Pastorals. Paul uses μετέχειν. See 1 Corinthians 9:10, 1 Corinthians 9:12; 1 Corinthians 10:17, 1 Corinthians 10:21, 1 Corinthians 10:30.