Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Timothy 1:2
To Timothy, [my] dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, [and] peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
2. my dearly beloved son ] Or my beloved child. ‘Child’ as in 1Ti 1:1; ‘beloved’ in place of ‘mine own,’ but surely not a weaker word, when we remember its use to express ‘the only begotten,’ Mat 3:17.
mercy ] Omitted in the greeting to Titus is in both the letters to Timothy, and may imply St Paul’s inner oneness with his ‘beloved child’ in the feeling ‘he shewed me all the mercy as he shewed me all the sin.’ Cf. note 1Ti 1:2. All is ‘writ large’ in 2Ti 1:8-12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
To Timothy, my dearly beloved son; – See the notes at 1Ti 1:2.
Grace, mercy, and peace – see the notes at Rom 1:7.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. To Timothy, my dearly beloved son] See the note in 1Ti 1:2.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
See Poole on “1Ti 1:2“; there he calls him his own son, testifying his relation, here his beloved son, to testify his affection to him. The salutation is the same with that in 1Ti 1:2.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. my dearly beloved sonIn1Ti 1:2; Tit 1:4,written at an earlier period than this Epistle, the expression usedis in the Greek, “my genuine son.” ALFORDsees in the change of expression an intimation of an altered tone asto Timothy, more of mere love, and less of confidence, as though Paulsaw m him a want of firmness, whence arose the need of his stirringup afresh the faith and grace in Him (2Ti1:6). But this seems to me not justified by the Greek wordagapetos, which implies the attachment of reasoning andchoice, on the ground of merit in the one “beloved,”not of merely instinctive love. See TRENCH[Greek Synonyms of the New Testament].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
To Timothy, my dearly beloved son,…. Not in a natural, but in a spiritual sense; and not on account of his being an instrument of his conversion, but by reason of that instruction in the doctrines of the Gospel which he gave him, it being usual to call disciples children; and he calls him so, because as a son, he, being young in years, served with him, and under him, as a father, in the Gospel of Christ; for whom he had a very great affection, on account of his having been a companion with him in his travels, and very useful to him in the ministry, and because of his singular and eminent gifts, great grace, religion, and holiness: Grace, mercy, and peace, &c. [See comments on 1Ti 1:2].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Beloved (). Instead of (genuine) in 1Ti 1:2. He had already called Timothy (verbal adjective of ) in 1Co 4:17, an incidental and strong proof that it is Paul who is writing here. This argument applies to each of the Pastorals for Paul is known by other sources (Acts and previous Pauline Epistles) to sustain precisely the affectionate relation toward Timothy and Titus shown in the Pastorals.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Dearly beloved [] . Better, beloved. (Comp. 1Co 4:17. In 1Ti 1:2, Timothy is addressed as gnhsiov, and Tit. in Tit 1:4.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “To Timothy, my dearly beloved son” (Timotheo agapeto tekno) “To Timothy, a beloved child.” These are the last known written words of Paul to Timothy, his last will and testament, mixed with joy and gloom, meant to give courage to Timothy and the church he had pastored in Ephesus.
2) “Grace, mercy, and peace” (charis, heleos, erene) “Grace, mercy (and) peace.” the term mercy is used as an element of salutation directed first to preachers only, in First and Second Timothy, and later in an informal benediction, Gal 6:16; Heb 2:17.
3) “From God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord “ (apo theou patros kai christou iesou tou kuriou hemon) “From God (our) Father and (from) Christ Jesus the Lord or master of us; Each and all of these graces are from the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. Paul desired they pour forth to or toward Timothy and the Ephesus church continuously, 1Co 1:3-4; Joh 16:33; Rom 1:7. Grace makes for all sufficiency, 2Co 12:8; 2Co 12:10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1) “Whereunto I am appointed a preacher” (eis ho etethen ego keruks) “Unto which I was appointed an herald, a preacher,” 1Ti 1:11-12; 1Ti 2:7; 1Co 9:17. Paul affirmed that God put him in the ministry, but the churches ordained and sent him out.
2) “And an apostle” (kai apostolos) “And an apostle, one sent out on a mission;” by the Lord called, by the church sent, Act 13:3; Mat 28:18-20. It was the “church ye,” not the “preacher ye,” that Jesus commissioned to go unto all the world and make, baptize, and teach.
3) “And a teacher of the Gentiles.” (kai didaskalos) “And a teacher,” or instructor (of the Gentiles). The church, with “apostello authority” committed to her, effect the preaching and teaching through obeying our Lord’s commission and precept, by ordaining and sending forth and supporting missionaries, Col 1:25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
2 My beloved son By this designation he not only testifies his love of Timothy, but procures respect and submission to him; because he wishes to be acknowledged in him, as one who may justly be called his son, (137) The reason of the appellation is, that he had begotten him in Christ; for, although this honor belongs to God alone, yet it is also transferred to ministers, whose agency he employs for regenerating us.
Grace, mercy The word mercy, which he employs here, is commonly left out by him in his ordinary salutations. I think that he introduced it, when he poured out his feelings with more than ordinary vehemence. Moreover, he appears to have inverted the order; for, since “mercy” is the cause of “grace,” it ought to have come before it in this passage. But still it is not unsuitable that it should be put after “grace”, in order to express more clearly what is the nature of that grace, and whence it proceeds; as if he had added, in the form of a declaration, that the reason why we are loved by God is, that he is merciful. Yet this may also be explained as relating to God’s daily benefits, which are so many testimonies of his “mercy”; for, whenever he assists us, whenever he delivers us from evils, pardons our sins, and bears with our weakness, he does so, because he has compassion on us.
(137) “ Comme en celuy qui pent a bon droict estre nomme son fils.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) To Timothy, my dearly beloved son.More accurately, (my) beloved son. The words used in the address of the First Epistle were my own son ( ). The change in the words was probably owing to St. Pauls feeling that, in spite of his earnest request for Timothy to come to him with all speed, these lines were in reality his farewell to his trusted friend and more than son, hence the loving word.
Grace, mercy, and peace . . .See Notes on 1Ti. 1:2.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Beloved In 1Ti 1:2, genuine son, (see note there,) a difference arising from the fact that the first epistle is more official, this more personal and hearty.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.’
He then names the recipient. It is Timothy his ‘beloved child’. Timothy was especially dear to him, and was like a son to him. He may well have been his son in the Gospel.
‘Grace, mercy and peace.’ Compare 1Ti 1:2; Tit 1:4; 2Jn 1:3). This was in contrast to the regular ‘Grace and peace to you’ of the earlier letters. But in fact this is what we might have expected, for as godly men grow older they grow more contemplative, and become more aware of the mercy and compassion of God, as had happened to Paul here. He had become conscious that he was ‘the chief of sinners’ (1Ti 1:15). Thus do we continually need grace, God’s unmerited love active towards us; His mercy and compassion poured out on a continual basis; and peace, peace with God and peace in our hearts through Him.
‘From God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Here ‘God’ parallels ‘Christ’ and ‘the Father’ parallels ‘the Lord’. Compare Jas 3:9, ‘the Lord and Father’. Here Jesus is ‘the Lord’. Both share the same status and deity, with the Father as Lord over Creation, and Jesus as Lord over salvation, for His Name means ‘YHWH is salvation’. We will see in Titus that this also applies to the designation ‘our Saviour’ which is used in a parallel way there of both God and the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2 To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ver. 2. Grace, mercy, and peace ] See Trapp on “ 1Ti 1:2 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2 . ] “Can it be accidental,” says Mack, “that instead of ., as Timotheus is called in the first Epistle, 2Ti 1:2 , and Tit 1:4 , here we have ? Or may a reason for the change be found in this, that it now behoved Timotheus to stir up afresh the faith and the grace in him, before he could again be worthy of the name in its full sense?” This may be too much pressed: but certainly there is throughout this Epistle an altered tone with regard to Timotheus more of mere love, and less of confidence, than in the former: and this would naturally shew itself even in passing words of address. When Bengel says, “in Ep. i., scripserat, genuino: id compensator hic versu 5,” he certainly misses the delicate sense of 2Ti 1:5 ; see below. To find in more confidence, as Heyd. (and Chrys., maintaining that , , ), can hardly be correct: the expression of feeling is different in kind, not comparable in degree: suiting an Epistle of warm affection and somewhat saddened reminding, rather than one of rising hope and confidence. I regret to be, on this point, at issue throughout this second Epistle, with my friend Bishop Ellicott, who seems to me too anxious to rescue the character of Timotheus from the slightest imputation of weakness: thereby marring the delicate texture of many of St. Paul’s characteristic periods, in which tender reproof, vigorous reassurance, and fervent affection are exquisitely intermingled.
See reff. and notes.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Ti 1:2 . : On the variation here from , which occurs in 1Ti 1:2 and Tit 1:4 , see the note in the former place. 2Ti 1:5 (“the unfeigned faith that is in thee”) proves that St. Paul did not wish to hint that Timothy had ceased to be his . Timothy is St. Paul’s also in 1Co 4:17 . is complete in itself: it does not require the explanatory addition, , or .
, . . .: See note on 1Ti 1:2 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
dearly beloved. App-135.
son. App-108.
Grace. App-184.
from. App-104.
Father. App-98.
Lord. App-98. Compare Php 1:2; 1Th 1:1. 1Ti 1:1, 1Ti 1:2.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
2. ] Can it be accidental, says Mack, that instead of ., as Timotheus is called in the first Epistle, 2Ti 1:2, and Tit 1:4,-here we have ? Or may a reason for the change be found in this, that it now behoved Timotheus to stir up afresh the faith and the grace in him, before he could again be worthy of the name in its full sense? This may be too much pressed: but certainly there is throughout this Epistle an altered tone with regard to Timotheus-more of mere love, and less of confidence, than in the former: and this would naturally shew itself even in passing words of address. When Bengel says, in Ep. i., scripserat, genuino: id compensator hic versu 5, he certainly misses the delicate sense of 2Ti 1:5; see below. To find in more confidence, as Heyd. (and Chrys., maintaining that , , ), can hardly be correct: the expression of feeling is different in kind, not comparable in degree: suiting an Epistle of warm affection and somewhat saddened reminding, rather than one of rising hope and confidence. I regret to be, on this point, at issue throughout this second Epistle, with my friend Bishop Ellicott, who seems to me too anxious to rescue the character of Timotheus from the slightest imputation of weakness: thereby marring the delicate texture of many of St. Pauls characteristic periods, in which tender reproof, vigorous reassurance, and fervent affection are exquisitely intermingled.
See reff. and notes.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Ti 1:2. , dearly beloved) An appropriate epithet; for the strongest declaration of love follows. In the first epistle he had written, my genuine []: that is compensated for here in 2Ti 1:5 [by the expression, , the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which corresponds to it].
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Ti 1:2
to Timothy, my beloved child:-He had tender affection for Timothy whom he had taught the faith in Christ, and who had proved himself worthy of his confidence and affection.
Grace, mercy, peace,-There is invoked grace on him as unworthy, mercy on him as exposed to suffering, peace on him as the result of his being graciously dealt with.
from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.-It is the fatherly feeling in God-that which is highest in his nature and with which redemption originated-that he made his appeal for saving blessings to rest on Timothy. Christ is the dispenser of the blessings in the Fathers house, of which there is enough for all.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Timothy: 1Ti 1:2, Rom 12:19, Phi 4:1
Grace: Rom 1:7
Reciprocal: Joh 17:20 – for them Act 16:1 – named Act 20:4 – Timotheus Rom 16:21 – Timotheus 1Co 4:17 – who is Phi 2:22 – as 1Th 1:1 – Timotheus 1Ti 1:18 – son 2Ti 2:1 – my Tit 1:4 – mine
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ti 1:2. My dearly beloved son. The last word is from HUIOS, and it is explained in detail at 1Ti 1:2. The salutation or good wishes expressed here are virtually repeated in all of Paul’s epistles, and are commented upon at 1Co 1:3.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Ti 1:2. My dearly beloved son. The change of epithet from the true son of the First Epistle may be only a casual variation without any conscious purpose. To the extent, however, in which we may trace in modern correspondence a variation of feeling in yours faithfully and yours affectionately, we may recognise a shade of difference here. There is the same warmhearted love. There is not, perhaps, the same entire confidence. He has seen signs of timidity and weakness which lead him throughout the Epistle to earnest and almost vehement exhortation. The rest of the salutation is as before.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
2. To Timothy, a beloved child. Here we have the same tenderly affectionate epithet used in the introductory of the first letter.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
1:2 To Timothy, [my] dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, [and] peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Grace, mercy, and peace – come from God – why would we ever look for them from any other source.
Many in our world look for peace in material gain, in marital bliss, or mental gymnastics (philosophy), but only God can give real true peace. The other may give a sense of peace for a time but all reveal themselves ultimately as false peace.
Note that Paul uses a very endearing greeting with Timothy. Most agree that Paul may have lead Timothy to the Lord, or at the least had a great impact on his life – they were spiritual father and son or very nearly so.
Paul knew Timothy well spiritually. He declared that Christ was “their” Lord – he knew where Timothy lived in relation to God.
Now, this business of Christ being Lord is the relationship all believers should have with God, but not all do – many there are that believe but hold God out at arms length and never make Him Lord.
Recently I read an article that set forth the premise that pastors should not preach expositorally but that they should preach evangelistically. The authors thinking was that since most of the congregation is most likely lost that the pastor ought to try to get them saved. I would add that he might want to give a dose of Lordship teaching as well those that do believe in our churches arent living like it.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
Chapter 2
1 Timothy
TIMOTHY THE BELOVED DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL-HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER.- 1Ti 1:2; 2Ti 1:2
IN the relation of St. Paul to Timothy we have one of those beautiful friendships between an older and a younger man which are commonly so helpful to both. It is in such cases, rather than where the friends are equals in age, that each can be the real complement of the other. Each by his abundance can supply the others wants, whereas men of equal age would have common wants and common supplies. In this respect the friendship between St. Paul and Timothy reminds us of that between St. Peter and St. John. In each ease the friend who took the lead was much older than the other; and (what is less in harmony with ordinary experience) in each ease it was the older friend who had the impulse and the enthusiasm, the younger who had the reflectiveness and the reserve. These latter qualities are perhaps less marked in St. Timothy than in St. John, but nevertheless they are there, and they are among the leading traits of his character. St. Paul leans on him while he guides him, and relies upon his thoughtfulness and circumspection in cases requiring firmness, delicacy, and tact. Of the affection with which he regarded Timothy we have evidence in the whole tone of the two letters to him. In the sphere of faith Timothy is his “own true child” (not merely adopted, still less supposititions), and his “beloved child.” St. Paul tells the Corinthians that as the best means of making them imitators of himself he has sent unto them “Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every Church.” {1Co 4:17} And a few years later he tells the Philippians that he hopes to send Timothy shortly unto them, that he may know how they fare. For he has no one like him, who will have a genuine anxiety about their welfare. The rest care only for their own interests. “But the proof of him ye know, that, as a child a father, so he slaved with me for the Gospel.” {2Ti 2:22} Of all whom he ever converted to the faith Timothy seems to have been to St. Paul the disciple who was most beloved and most trusted. Following the example of the fourth Evangelist, Timothy might have called himself “The disciple whom Paul loved.” He shared his spiritual fathers outward labors and most intimate thoughts. He was with him when the Apostle could not or would not have the companionship of others. He was sent on the most delicate and confidential missions. He had charge of the most important congregations. When the Apostle was in his last and almost lonely imprisonment it was Timothy whom he summoned to console him and receive his last injunctions.
There is another point in which the beloved disciple of the Pastoral Epistles resembles the beloved disciple of the Fourth Gospel. We are apt to think of both of them as always young. Christian art nearly invariably represents St. John as a man of youthful and almost feminine appearance. And, although in Timothys case, painters and sculptors have not done much to influence our imagination, yet the picture which we form for ourselves of him is very similar to that which we commonly receive of St. John. With strange logic this has actually been made an argument against the authenticity of the Pastoral Epistles. Myth, we are told, has given to this Christian Achilles the attributes of eternal youth. Timothy was a lad of about fifteen when St. Paul converted him at Lystra, in or near A.D. 45; and he was probably not yet thirty-five when St. Paul wrote the first Epistle to him. Even if he had been much older there would be nothing surprising in the tone of St. Pauls letters to him. It is one of the commonest experiences to find elderly parents speaking of their middle-aged children as if they were still boys and girls. This trait, as being so entirely natural, ought to count as a touch beyond the reach of a forger rather than as a circumstance that ought to rouse our suspicions, in the letters of “Paul the aged” to a friend who was thirty years younger than himself.
Once more, the notices of Timothy which have come down to us, like those which we have respecting the beloved disciple are very fragmentary; but they form a beautiful and consistent sketch of one whose full portrait we long to possess.
Timothy was a native, possibly of Derbe, but more probably of the neighboring town of Lystra, where he was piously brought up in a knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. It was probably during St. Pauls first visit to Lystra, on his first missionary journey, that he became the boys spiritual father, by converting him to the Christian faith. It was at Lystra that the Apostle was stoned by the mob and dragged outside the city as dead: and there is no improbability in the suggestion that, when he recovered consciousness and re-entered the town, it was in the home of Timothy that he found shelter. In any case Lystra was to the Apostle a place of strangely mixed associations; the brutality of the pagan multitude side by side with the tender friendship of the young Timothy. When St. Paul on his next missionary journey again visited Lystra he found Timothy already enjoying a good report among the Christians of that place and of Iconium for his zeal and devotion during the six or seven years which had elapsed since his first visit. Perhaps he had been engaged in missionary work in both places. The voices of the prophets had singled him out as one worthy of bearing office in the Church; and the Apostle, still grieving over the departure of Barnabas with John Mark, recognized in him one who with Silas could fill the double vacancy. The conduct of the Apostle of the Gentiles on this occasion has sometimes excited surprise. Previously to the ordination, Paul, the great proclaimer of the abrogation of the Law by the Gospel, circumcised the young evangelist. The inconsistency is more apparent than real. It was an instance of his becoming “all things to all men” for the salvation of souls, and of his sacrificing his own convictions in matters that were not essential, rather than cause others to offend. Timothys father had been a Gentile, and the son, though brought up in his mothers faith, had never been circumcised. To St. Paul circumcision was a worthless rite. The question was, whether it was a harmless one. This depended upon circumstances. If, as among the Galatians, it caused people to rely upon the Law and neglect the Gospel, it was a superstitious obstacle with which no compromise could be made. But if it was a passport whereby preachers, who would otherwise be excluded, might gain access to Jewish congregations, then it was not only a harmless, but a useful ceremony. In the synagogue Timothy as an uncircumcised Jew would have been an intolerable abomination, and would never have obtained a hearing. To free him from this crippling disadvantage, St. Paul subjected him to a rite which he himself knew to be obsolete. Then followed the ordination, performed with great solemnity by the laying on of the hands of all the elders of the congregation: and the newly ordained Evangelist forthwith set out to accompany Paul and Silas in their labors for the Gospel. Wherever they went they distributed copies of the decrees of the Apostolic Council at Jerusalem, which declared circumcision to be unnecessary for Gentiles. Their true position with regard to circumcision was thus made abundantly evident. For the sake of others they had abstained from availing themselves of the very liberty which they proclaimed.
In the Troad they met Luke the beloved physician (as indicated by the sudden use of the first person plural in the Acts), and took him on with them to Philippi. Here probably, as certainly afterwards at Beroea, Timothy was left behind by Paul and Silas to consolidate their work. He rejoined the Apostle at Athens, but was thence sent back on a mission to Thessalonica, and on his return found St. Paul at Corinth. The two Epistles written from Corinth to the Thessalonians are in the joint names of Paul and Timothy. At Corinth, as at Lystra, Iconium, and Philippi, Timothy became prominent for his zeal as an evangelist; and then for about five years we lose sight of him. We may think of him as generally at the side of St. Paul, and as always working with him; but of the details of the work we are ignorant. About A.D. 57 he was sent by St. Paul on a delicate mission to Corinth. This was before 1 Corinthians was written; for in that letter St. Paul states that he has sent Timothy to Corinth, but writes as if he expected that the letter would reach Corinth before him. He charges the Corinthians not to aggravate the young evangelists natural timidity, and not to let his youth prejudice them against him. When St. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians from Macedonia later in the year, Timothy was again with him, for his name is coupled with Pauls: and he is still with him when the Apostle wrote to the Romans from Corinth, for he joins in sending salutations to the Roman Christians. We find him still at St. Pauls side on his way back to Jerusalem through Philippi, the Troad, Tyre, and Caesarea. And here we once more lose trace of him for some years. We do not know what he was doing during St. Pauls two years imprisonment at Caesarea; but he joined him during the first imprisonment at Rome, for the Epistles to the Philippians, the Colossians, and Philemon are written in the names of Paul and Timothy. From the passage already quoted from Philippians we may conjecture that Timothy went to Philippi and returned again before the Apostle was released. At the close of the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, “Know ye that our brother Timothy hath been set at liberty.” It is possible that the imprisonment to which this notice refers was contemporaneous with the first imprisonment of St. Paul, and that it is again referred to in 1 Timothy {1Ti 6:12} as “the good confession” which he “confessed in the sight of many witnesses.”
The few additional facts respecting Timothy are given us in the two letters to him. Some time after St. Pauls release the two were together in Ephesus; and when the Apostle went on into Macedonia he left his companion behind him to warn and exhort certain holders of erroneous doctrine to desist from teaching it. There were tears, on the younger friends side at any rate, to which St. Paul alludes at the opening of the Second Epistle; and they were natural enough. The task imposed upon Timothy was no easy one; and after the dangers and sufferings to which the Apostle had been exposed, and which his increasing infirmities continually augmented, it was only too possible that the friends would never meet again. So far as we know, these gloomy apprehensions may have been realized. In his first letter, written from Macedonia, St. Paul expresses a hope of returning very soon to Timothy; but, like some other hopes expressed in St. Pauls Epistles, it was perhaps never fulfilled. The second letter, written from Rome, contains no allusion to any intermediate meeting. In this second letter he twice implores Timothy to do all he can to come to him without delay, for he is left almost alone in his imprisonment. But whether Timothy was able to comply with this wish we have no means of knowing. We like to think of the beloved disciple as comforting the last hours of his master; but, although the conjecture may be a right one, we must remember that it is conjecture and no more. With the Second Epistle to him ends all that we really know of Timothy. Tradition and ingenious guesswork add a little more which can be neither proved nor disproved. More than two hundred years after his death, Eusebius tells us that he is related to have held the office of overseer of the diocese of Ephesus; and five centuries later Nicephorus tells us, that he was beaten to death by the Ephesian mob for protesting against the licentiousness of their worship of Artemis. It has been conjectured that Timothy may be the “Angel” of the Church of Ephesus, who is partly praised and partly blamed in the Apocalypse, and parallels have been drawn between the words of blame in Rev 2:4-5, and the uneasiness which seems to underlie one or two passages in the Second Epistle to Timothy. But the resemblances are too slight to be relied upon. All we can say is, that even if the later date be taken for the Apocalypse, Timothy may have been overseer of the Church of Ephesus at the time when the book was written.
But of all the scattered memorials that have come down to us respecting this beautiful friendship between the great Apostle and his chief disciple, the two letters of the older friend to the younger are by far the chief. And there is so much in them that fits with exquisite nicety into “the known conditions of the case that it is hard” to imagine how any forger of the second century could so have thrown himself into the situation. Where else in that age have we evidence of any such literary and historical skill? The tenderness and affection, the anxiety and sadness, the tact and discretion, the strength and large-mindedness of St. Paul are all there; and his relation to his younger but much-trusted disciple is quite naturally sustained throughout. Against this it is not much to urge that there are some forty words and phrases in these Epistles which do not occur in the other Epistles of St. Paul. The explanation of that fact is easy. Partly they are words which in his other Epistles he had no need to use; partly they are words which the circumstances of these later letters suggested to him, and which those of the earlier letters did not. The vocabulary of every man of active mind who reads and mixes with other men, especially if he travels much, is perpetually changing. He comes across new metaphors, new figures of speech, remembers them, and uses them. The reading of such a work as Darwins “Origin of Species” gives a man command of a new sphere of thought and expression. The conversation of such a man as “Luke the beloved physician” would have a similar effect on St. Paul. We shall never know the minds or the circumstances which suggested to him the language which has now become our own possession; and it is unreasonable to suppose that the process of assimilation came to a dead stop in the Apostles mind when he finished the Epistles of the first imprisonment. The re-suit, therefore, of this brief survey of the life of Timothy is to confirm rather than to shake our belief that the letters which are addressed to him were really written by his friend St. Paul.
The friendship between these two men of different gifts and very different ages is full of interest. It is difficult to estimate which of the two friends gained most from the affection and devotion of the other. No doubt Timothys debt to St. Paul was immense: and which of us would not think himself amply paid for any amount of service, and sacrifice, in having the privilege of being the chosen friend of such a man as St. Paul? But, on the other hand, few men could have supplied the Apostles peculiar needs as Timothy did. That intense craving for sympathy which breathes so strongly throughout the writings of St. Paul, found its chief human satisfaction in Timothy. To be alone in a crowd is a trial to most men; and few men have felt the oppressiveness of it more keenly than St. Paul. To have some one, therefore, who loved and reverenced him, who knew his “ways” and could impress them on others, who cared for those for whom Paul cared and was ever willing to minister to them as his friends missioner and delegate all this and much more was inexpressibly comforting to St. Paul. It gave him strength in his weaknesses, hope in his many disappointments, and solid help in his daily burden of “anxiety for all the Churches.” Specially consoling was the clinging affection of his young friend at those times when the Apostle was suffering from the coldness and neglect of others. At the time of his first imprisonment the respect or curiosity of the Roman Christians had moved many of them to come out thirty miles to meet him on his journey from Caesarea to Rome; yet as soon as he was safely lodged in the house of his jailor they almost ceased to minister to him. But the faithful disciple seems to have been ever at his side. And when the Romans treated Paul with similar indifference during his second imprisonment, it was this same disciple that he earnestly besought to come with all speed to comfort him. It was not merely that he loved and trusted Timothy as one upon whose devotion and discretion he could always rely: but Timothy was the one among his many disciples who had sacrificed everything for St. Paul and his Master. He had left a loving mother and a pleasant home in order to share with the Apostle a task which involved ceaseless labor, untold anxiety, not a little shame and obloquy, and at times even danger to life and limb. When he might have continued to live on as the favorite of his family, enjoying the respect of the presbyters and prophets of Lycaonia, he chose to wander abroad with the man to whom, humanly speaking, he owed his salvation, “in journeyings often,” in perils of every kind from the powers of nature, and from the violence or treachery of man, and in all those countless afflictions and necessities of which St. Paul gives us such a touching summary in the second letter to the Corinthians. All this St. Paul knew, and he knew the value of it to himself and the Church; and hence the warm affection with which the Apostle always speaks of him and to him.
But what did not Timothy owe to his friend, his father in the faith, old enough to be his father in the flesh? Not merely his conversion and his building up in Christian doctrine, though that was much, and the chief item of his debt. But St. Paul had tenderly watched over him among the difficulties to which a person of his temperament would be specially exposed. Timothy was young, enthusiastic, sensitive, and at times showed signs of timidity. If his enthusiasm were not met with a generous sympathy, there was danger lest the sensitive nature would shrivel up on contact with an unfeeling world, and the enthusiasm driven in upon itself would be soured into a resentful cynicism. St. Paul not only himself gave to his young disciple the sympathy that he needed; he encouraged others also to do the same. “Now if Timothy come,” he writes to the Corinthians, “see that he be with you without fear; for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do: let no man therefore despise him.” He warned these factious and fastidious Greeks against chilling the generous impulses of a youthful evangelist by their sarcastic criticisms. Timothy might be wanting in the brilliant gifts which Corinthians adored: in knowledge of the world, in address, in oratory. But he was real. He was working Gods work with a single heart and with genuine fervor. It would be a cruel thing to mar that simplicity or quench that fervor, and thus turn a genuine enthusiast into a cold-blooded man of the world. On their treatment of him might depend whether he raised them to his own zeal for Christ, or they dragged him down to the level of their own paralyzing superciliousness.
The dangers from which St. Paul thus generously endeavored to shield Timothy, are those “which beset many an ardent spirit, especially in England at the present day.” Everywhere there is a cynical disbelief in human nature and a cold contempt for all noble impulses, which throw a damp and chilling atmosphere over society. At school and at the university, in family life and in domestic service, young men and young women are encouraged to believe that there is no such thing as unselfishness or holiness, and that enthusiasm is always either silly or hypocritical. By sarcastic jests and contemptuous smiles they are taught the fatal lesson of speaking slightingly, and at last of thinking slightingly, of their own best feelings. To be dutiful and affectionate is supposed to be childish, while reverence and trust are regarded as mere ignorance of the world. The mischief is a grave one, for it poisons life at its very springs. Every young man and woman at times has aspirations which at first are only romantic and sentimental, and as such are neither right nor wrong. But they are natures material for higher and better things. They are capable of being developed into a zeal for God and for man such as will ennoble the characters of all who come under its influence. The sentimentalist may become an enthusiast, and the enthusiast a hero or a saint. Woe to him who gives to such precious material a wrong turn, and by offering cynicism instead of sympathy turns all its freshness sour. The loss does not end with the blight of an exuberant and earnest character. There are huge masses of evil in the world, which seem to defy the good influences that from time to time are brought to bear upon them. Humanly speaking, there seems to be only one hope of overcoming these strongholds of Satan, -and that is by the combined efforts of many enthusiasts. “This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith.” It will be a grievous prospect for mankind, if faith in God, in ourselves, and in our fellowmen becomes so unfashionable as to be impossible. And this is the faith which makes enthusiasts. If we have not this faith ourselves, we can at least respect it in others. If we cannot play the part of Timothy, and go forth with glowing hearts to whatever difficult and distasteful work may be placed before us, we can at least avoid chilling and disheartening others; and sometimes at least we may so far follow in the footsteps of St. Paul as to protect from the worlds cynicism those who, with hearts more warm perhaps than wise, are laboring manfully to leave the world purer and happier than they found it.