Paul’s fellow workers and fellow soldiers, as he himself called them, numbered many thousands, the majority of whom he considered worthy of an everlasting memorial, for he has made his testimony to them enduring in his own letters. Moreover, Luke also, as he lists those known to him, makes mention of them by name. So Timothy is recorded as the first one called to oversee the church of Ephesus, just as Titus was for the churches in Crete.
Not to teach otherwise; i.e. than what I taught them. (Witham)
The distinctive mark of a heretic, is the teaching differently from that which they found generally taught and believed in the unity of the Catholic Church before their time. The Greek word admirably expresses this; eterodidaskalein. Had Luther and the other original reformers attended to this, the peace of the Church would not have been so disturbed.
Observe the gentleness of the expression, more like that of a servant than of a master. For he does not say I commanded, or bade or even exhorted, but I besought you. But this tone is not for all: only meek and virtuous disciples are to be treated thus. The corrupt and insincere are to be dealt with in a different manner, as Paul himself elsewhere directs, Rebuke them with all authority Titus 2:15; and here he says charge, not beseech, but charge some that they teach no other doctrine. What means this? That Paul's Epistle which he sent them was not sufficient? Nay, it was sufficient; but men are apt sometimes to slight Epistles, or perhaps this may have been before the Epistles were written. He had himself passed some time in that city. There was the temple of Diana, and there he had been exposed to those great sufferings. For after the assembly in the Theater had been dissolved, and he had called to him and exhorted the disciples, he found it necessary to sail away, though afterwards ...
