A person who is in fellowship with Christ inevitably suffers persecution; this is one of the major themes of the Pastoral Letters. Christians are therefore urged to remain faithful in the midst of suffering, which is what endurance is. The tense of endure is present, suggesting continuing action: “if we continue to endure,” “if we persist in enduring” (compare Contemporary English Version “If we don’t give up”). For other comments on the word, see verse 10.

Reign with also translates a rare verb, occurring only here and in 1 Cor 4.8. Once again the verb is in the future tense and therefore has eschatological overtones, referring perhaps to the Parousia, when Christ comes to rule as King, and at that time those who endured all the suffering will participate in Christ’s reign. In some languages the verb reign or “rule” will require an object. In such cases one may translate “we shall also rule over the world with him [Christ].”

For deny see 1 Tim 5.8, where it is translated “disowned.” The first deny is intended to be the opposite of endure and refers to apostasy, or the act of repudiating or disowning Christ in the midst of persecution and suffering. Apostasy is of course not tolerated or encouraged, as shown by Christ’s response to it. Contemporary English Version‘s translation “deny that we know him” is a good model. The second instance of deny may be translated in a similar way, namely, “he will deny that he knows us.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .