2 Timothy 4:18

Paul writes this expecting to be executed, and it is important to read it knowing that.

A few verses earlier he has said the time of his departure has come. A few verses later he asks Timothy to bring the coat he left at Troas, and the books. He is cold, he is running out of time, and at his first defence everyone deserted him.

So when he says the Lord will deliver me from every evil work, he is not predicting release. He knows what is coming. Deliverance, in his usage here, is not the same as escape.

The second clause tells you what he means: and will preserve me for his heavenly Kingdom. Preserve for, not preserve from. He is describing safe delivery to a destination rather than avoidance of the road. A parcel is preserved through a journey, not spared one.

That is a definition of protection that survives the fact of his death, which the more comfortable definition does not.

And he ends with a doxology — to whom be the glory forever and ever — which is an odd thing to write in a cell while asking for warm clothing. Both are in the same paragraph. Paul does not appear to have thought the coat and the glory belonged to different registers.