It seems that for him death would be profitable and life would be more a penalty. For this reason Paul says “for me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” The death of the body is nothing amid the spirit of life. So we too are ready to die with Christ that we may live with him.
What others had contrived for his death proved to be life for him. This is life: if Christ is preached. He is fully prepared to meet death so that this can be accomplished. He knows that a great blessing will be given to him for his prayer and constancy. Clumsy malice will continue to work against him in ignorance. To trample down the malevolence of those who were laying snares against his life under a covering of deceit, he bears patient witness. He is fortified by the protection of God. –.
I bid you, most blessed and most beloved brethren, ever farewell in the Lord, and always and everywhere remember me.
Remembering which truth, the blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle lays it down, saying, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain; ".
Moreover, also, the blessed Apostle Paul exclaimed, and said, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
It is not death itself that is gain, but to die in Christ. Life is Christ. The one who has hope in him is always alive, both now and forever…. Therefore, they achieve nothing, whether they hand me over to death or to tortures in life. Neither alternative harms me. Life under torments is no punishment for me, since Christ is my life. And if they kill me, that too is no punishment for me, since Christ for me is life and to die is gain.
To live is Christ. If it be his will that I live, my life shall be spent in his service.
To die, and suffer martyrdom, will be my gain, by coming to the enjoyment of Christ sooner. (Witham)
For even in dying, he means, I shall not have died, for I have my life in myself: then would they truly have slain me, had they had power through this fear to cast faith out of my soul. But as long as Christ is with me, even though death overtake me, still I live, and in this present life, not this, but Christ is my life. Since, then, not even in the present life is it so, but that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith; so I say in that state also, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Galatians 2:20 Such ought a Christian to be! I live not, he says, the common life. How do you live then, O blessed Paul? Do you not see the sun, do you not breathe the common air? Are you not nourished with the same food as others? Do you not tread the earth as we? Do you not need sleep, nor clothing, nor shoes? What do you mean by, I live not? How do you not live? Why boastest you yourself? No boasting is here. For if indeed the fact did not witness to him, a man might with some show h...
