2 Timothy 2:9

‘In which (or ‘in whom’) I suffer hardship unto bonds, as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound.’

And it is because of this Gospel (in which), or because he is in Christ Jesus (in Whom), and for no other reason that he is at present suffering hardship, that is, roughing it, in his manacles as though he was an evildoer. At his previous trial he had made known to the judges the full message of the Gospel and that time he had been released. And he was now here because he had insisted on proclaiming the same message and serving the same Christ Jesus. But the fact that he is suffering ‘as a criminal’ suggests that the charge against him was not that he was a Christian. Possibly he was being blamed for pubic affrays that had arisen as a result of his preaching, or for incendiarism with regard to the fire in Rome which was blamed by Nero on the Christians because most people thought that he himself was responsible, or it may simply have been because he was the leader of an unauthorised society (all societies were strictly regulated lest they ferment rebellion).

‘But the word of God is not bound (manacled).’ In spite of the fact that he is bound, he wants Timothy to know that the word of God was not bound. It was going freely to the Roman soldiers who were manacled to him. It was going to all who visited him. It was going out in his letters, so that, although he was manacled, his words were not. It was going out through all the hundreds of thousands of Christians who were still freely proclaiming the Gospel throughout the Empire and beyond. Nothing could bind the word of God. Rome would attempt it by political means, Rome would then try it again by ecclesiastical means, but both times it failed. And whoever tries to bind it anywhere at any time they will also fail.