AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N
S,
OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO
T I M O T H Y
HITHERTO
Paul's epistles were directed to churches; now follow some to particular
persons: two to Timothy, one to Titus, and another to Philemon--all three
ministers. Timothy and Titus were evangelists, an inferior order to the
apostles, as appears by Eph. iv. 11, Some prophets, some apostles, some
evangelists. Their commission and work was much the same with that of the
apostles, to plant churches, and water the churches that were planted; and
accordingly they were itinerants, as we find Timothy was. Timothy was first
converted by Paul, and therefore he calls him his own son in the faith:
we read of his conversion, Acts xvi. 3.
The scope of these two epistles is to direct Timothy how to discharge his duty
as an evangelist at Ephesus, where he now was, and where Paul ordered him for some time to reside, to
perfect the good work which he had begun there. As for the ordinary pastoral
charge of that church, he had very solemnly committed it to the presbytery, as
appears from Acts xx. 28, where he charges the presbyters to feed the flock
of God, which he had purchased with his own blood.
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