Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope;
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Timothy is a true son in faith, for his generation is one that will not know death or sickness or pestilence or hunger or thirst, because it is based on God and the future is glorious immortality in the gift of God in the kingdom of God and Christ. .
Of God, our Saviour. God the Father is here called our Saviour, as also to Titus, (iii. 4.) being author of our salvation, as are all the three divine persons. (Witham)
As this letter was to be read to the faithful, it was proper that St. Paul should speak with dignity and authority; and, as in the course of it he reproves false apostles who taught from themselves, he reminds them at the beginning of his letter, that he himself had entered the sacred ministry, and was an apostle by the command of God. (Calmet)
None of these things is hid from you, if ye perfectly possess that faith and love towards Christ Jesus.
Wherefore none of the devices of the devil shall be hidden from you, if, like Paul, ye perfectly possess that faith and love towards Christ.
But, as less than any of you, I desire to guard you beforehand, that ye fall not upon the hooks of vain doctrine, but that ye attain to full assurance in regard to the birth, and passion, and resurrection which took place in the time of the government of Pontius Pilate, being truly and certainly accomplished by Jesus Christ, who is our hope,
Mark well his reference to “my true child.” Timothy is not the biological son of Paul. So what kind of son was he? Does it even make sense to call him a “son”? Someone might say that if he was not the son of Paul, then he must be someone else’s son. What then? Was he of some other substance? Not so, for after saying “my own son,” he adds: “in the faith.” This shows that he was really his own son, and truly from him, there being no essential difference between father and son in the faith. The likeness he bore to him was in respect to his faith, just as in human births there is a substantive likeness. The son is like the father in human beings, but the analogy is even closer in the relation of human beings to God in faith. Though the father and the son may be of the same genetic strain, they may differ in many particulars, as in color, figure, understanding, age, bent of mind, endowments of soul and body, and in many other things they may be like or unlike. But in the relation of the div...
1. Timothy too was one of the disciples of the Apostle Paul. To the extraordinary qualities of this youth testimony is borne by Luke, who informs us, that he was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Acts 16:2 He became at once a disciple and a teacher, and gave this singular instance of his prudence, that hearing Paul preach without insisting upon circumcision, and understanding that he had formerly withstood Peter upon that point, he chose not only not to preach against it, but to submit to that rite. For Paul, it is said, took and circumcised him Acts 16:3, though he was of adult age, and so trusted him with his whole economy.
The affection of Paul for him is a sufficient evidence of his character. For he elsewhere says of him, You know the proof of him, that as a son with a father, he has served with me in the Gospel. Philippians 2:22 And to the Corinthians again he writes: I have sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord. 1...
1. Great and admirable is the dignity of an Apostle, and we find Paul constantly setting forth the causes of it, not as if he took the honor to himself, but as entrusted with it, and being under the necessity of so doing. For when he speaks of himself as called, and that by the will of God, and again elsewhere, a necessity is laid upon me 1 Corinthians 9:16, and when he says, for this I was separated, by these expressions all idea of arrogance and ambition is removed. For as he deserves the severest blame, who intrudes into an office which is not given him of God, so he who refuses, and shrinks from it when offered to him, incurs blame of another kind, that of rebellion and disobedience. Therefore Paul, in the beginning of this Epistle, thus expresses himself, Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God. He does not say here, Paul called, but by commandment. He begins in this manner, that Timothy may not feel any human infirmity from supposing that Paul addresses him on ...
