# “Written with Paul’s own blood” by John Calvin

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2009/06/18/written-with-pauls-own-blood-by-john-calvin/
- Published: 2009-06-18T22:02:08-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“The chief point on which it turns is to confirm Timothy, both in the faith of the
gospel, and in the pure and constant preaching of it. But yet these exhortations
derive no small weight from the consideration of the time when he wrote them. Paul
had before his eyes the death which he was prepared to endure for the testimony 
of the gospel.

All that we read here, therefore, concerning the kingdom of Christ, the hope of 
eternal life, the Christian warfare, confidence in confessing Christ, and the certainty
of doctrine, ought to be viewed by us as written not with ink but with Paul’s own
blood; for nothing is asserted by him for which he does not offer the pledge of 
his death; and therefore this Epistle may be regarded as a solemn subscription and
ratification of Paul’s doctrine.”

–John Calvin, _Commentaries on the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon_, trans.
William Pringle (repr. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), 179.

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