To suffer hardship in company with
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G4777 occurs twice, both as a direct command to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1:8, Paul tells him not to be ashamed of the Lord's testimony or of Paul as the Lord's prisoner, but to join in suffering for the gospel by God's power.
Reader summary
Full entry for συγκακοπαθέω (G4777) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4777 occurs twice, both as a direct command to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1:8, Paul tells him not to be ashamed of the Lord's testimony or of Paul as the Lord's prisoner, but to join in suffering for the gospel by God's power.
The BSB source-word alignment has 2 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include join me in suffering (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 2 Timothy 1:8. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Timothy (2).
G4777 occurs twice, both as a direct command to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1:8, Paul tells him not to be ashamed of the Lord's testimony or of Paul as the Lord's prisoner, but to join in suffering for the gospel by God's power. In 2 Timothy 2:3, the command returns beside the comparison to a good soldier of Christ Jesus. The verb joins participation with hardship; it does not make pain, danger, imprisonment, or opposition good in itself.
The first command is bounded by gospel testimony, Paul's imprisonment, and God's power. It does not require uncritical loyalty to every imprisoned teacher or assume that every criticized ministry suffers for the gospel. The second is bounded by Christ's service and the nearby soldier, athlete, and farmer comparisons. Those figures emphasize focused endurance and patient labor without turning a church into a military chain of command or making a leader's instructions unquestionable.
Both forms address Timothy in a particular apostolic charge. Wider Christian application may call disciples to costly solidarity, but the rare verb cannot make every hardship a divine assignment. It cannot require someone to remain with an abusive spouse, dangerous leader, exploitative employer, violent congregation, unsafe mission, or untreated illness. Reporting harm, leaving danger, obtaining medical or mental-health care, seeking legal protection, and supporting an investigation can be faithful acts rather than shameful retreat.
Shared endurance also differs from manufactured suffering. Churches must not test loyalty through deprivation, overwork, humiliation, secrecy, financial pressure, sleep loss, unsafe travel, or suppression of dissent. A sufferer's story does not establish the truth of every claim, remove the need for evidence, or grant authority over others. The two commands direct Timothy toward Christ and the gospel, not toward suffering as a status marker.
The two governed forms are singular aorist active imperatives addressed to Timothy. One joins gospel suffering with God's power; the other places endurance beside a soldier comparison under Christ.
Join me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God
The object, cause, and enabling power are stated within the sentence.
Join me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus
The soldier is one of several nearby work-and-endurance comparisons and remains subordinate to Christ.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Shared suffering in hardship; willingly enduring mistreatment alongside others in common cause.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
1 Greek text appearance shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I suffer hardships together with
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 2 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 2 lexical occurrence verses.
συγκακοπαθέω is built from these roots:
Christian ministry involves shared endurance in the face of opposition and difficulty. 2 Timothy 2:1-7
G4777 gives Timothy two commands to share gospel hardship rather than retreat through shame. The command is neither a celebration of pain nor a blank check for a ministry leader. God's power, grace in Christ, gospel testimony, and focused service define the participation. Faithful solidarity stays near people who bear real cost, supplies practical care, and refuses to make them suffer alone.
It also distinguishes unavoidable gospel cost from harm manufactured by abusive systems. Christians may leave danger, report wrongdoing, receive treatment, protect dependents, and test leaders while still practicing courageous endurance.
2Tim.1.8
Both governed forms are second-person singular aorist active imperatives. The compound places a togetherness element before the hardship verb. Grammar shows a direct summons to Timothy in each verse; it does not establish that every believer must enter every danger or reproduce Paul's circumstances.
Israel's Scriptures portray faithful servants who endure opposition, lament honestly, receive provision, seek refuge, and remain answerable to God. Those patterns can inform Christian endurance, but no Old Testament hardship account is another occurrence of this Greek verb or a command to imitate every danger.
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