1. 'A^orfroXos, an apostle) This title serves to confirm Timothy. Familiarity must be laid aside, where the cause of God is con cerned. — xar tKtrayw, according to the commandment) So Rom. xvi. 26 ; comp. 1 Cor. i. 1, note. — trarJjpog JI/AUV, our Saviour) So God the Father is also called, ch. ii. 3, iv. 10 ; Tit. i. 3, ii. 10, iii. 4 ; Jude ver. 25 ; Luke i. 47. The reason [for the Father being so called] is explained, 2 Tim. i. 9. — r$js !X?r/do£ JIJAUV, who is our Hope) Synonymous with Swr/jpog, our Saviour.
2. Tiftodsu, to Timothy) The epistles sent to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, as being addressed to individuals, have some things which are rather sealed, than explicitly set forth, for example ver. 18. If there were no epistle to Timothy extant, we should have particularly wished that there was one, in order that we might see what Paul would chiefly recommend to Timothy; now, since there are two, we ought the more earnestly to turn them to use. — rsxi/w, son) Acts xvi. 12. — x,c*f"$> '£'^g°£> sipwfy grac^ mercy, peace) Paul, when addressing the churches, writes, grace to you and peace. When writing to Timothy, he adds mercy in this passage, and many years after, in 2 Tim. i. 2 : comp. Jer. xvi. 5 ; Gal. vi. 16. Mercy implies grace, as it were, of a more tender kind towards the miserable, and the ex perience of this divine mercy produces fitness for the Gospel ministry; ver. 13, 16 ; 2 Cor. iv. 1 ; 1 Cor. vii. 25 : comp. Heb.