Lay hands hastily on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep yourself pure.
All Commentaries on 1 Timothy 5:22 Go To 1 Timothy 5
John Chrysostom
AD 407
But who are the elect Angels? It is because there are some not elect. As Jacob calls to witness God and the heap Genesis 31:45, so we often take at once superior and inferior persons to witness; so great a thing is testimony. As if he had said, I call to witness God and His Son and His servants, that I have charged you: so before them I charge you. He impresses Timothy with fear; after which he adds, what was most vital, and bears most on the maintenance of the Church, the matter of Ordinations. Lay hands, he says, suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins. What is suddenly? Not upon a first, nor a second, nor a third trial, but after frequent and strict examination and circumspection. For it is an affair of no common peril. For you will be responsible for the sins committed by him, as well his past as his future sins, because you have delegated to him this power. For if you overlook the past unduly, you are answerable for the future also, as being the cause of them, by placing him in that station, and of the past too, for not leaving him to mourn over them, and to be in compunction. For as you are a partaker of his good actions, so are you of his sins.
Keep yourself pure. This he says with reference to chastity.
