Charles Spurgeon Commentary 2 Timothy 1:16-17

"The Lord grant mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus: for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain; but, when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently, and found me" — 2 Timothy 1:16-17 (ASV)

The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: but, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.

He did not know exactly where the apostle was, in which prison he was confined; but he went from place to place until at last he found him, and then he was not ashamed to be seen ministering to the poor chained prisoner. We read of various corporations spending a great deal of money in buying chains of office for their mayors; but this chain, worn by the apostle in his prison-cell at Rome, was far more valuable than any of them.

What an eternal honour it will be to him, and how it is that anyone should have been ashamed of his fetters when he was so bravely suffering for Christ's sake! There was more value in those chains on Paul's wrists than in all the chains that were ever worn on the necks of the great ones of this world.

The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me (2 Timothy 1:16–17).

You could not tell in Rome where a prisoner was. The registers were not open to investigation. You had to go from prison to prison, and pay the guards to get admission or to be told who might be there. Onesiphorus was determined to find Paul.

I suppose that he went to the Mamertine, a dungeon in which some of us have been—one dungeon beneath another. The first one has no light, except through a round hole at the top, and the second has a round hole through which you are dropped into the lower one. We think that Paul was there. Then there is the Palatine prison, which was at the guardhouse of the Praetorian guards, near the palace on the Palatine Hill.

Paul was certainly there, and Onesiphorus went from one jail to another. "Have you seen a little Jew with a weak eye?" I dare say that was his description of Paul. "He is a friend of mine. I want to speak with him."

"What! That Paul?—the man who is chained to one or another of us every morning? We have twelve hours of it, and he preaches to us most of the time." "Oh! That is the man," said Onesiphorus. "That is the man. Does he talk about Jesus Christ?"

"Oh! Nothing else but that. He will not let any soldier go from being bound to him without hearing about Jesus Christ." "That is my man," said Onesiphorus. He sought him out very diligently, and he found him.