1 Timothy 5:24

Ver. 24. The sins of some men are manifest πρόδηλοί, the πρό having respect to place rather than to time, manifest before or in the sight of men going before to judgment; with some, again, they follow after. The connection of this passage with the preceding cannot be regarded as very close. That it has respect to persons seeking ordination seems to me improbable. It may most fitly be viewed as a supplementary remark that on reflection presented itself to the apostle in respect to the sins of men, which had been the subject of discourse a little previously. Thoughts more directly personal to Timothy, yet growing out of that subject, had meanwhile been introduced by the apostle; and now he reverts to the subject itself, for the purpose of drawing a distinction between one class of sins and another. Some are so notorious, whether from their own nature or from the manner of their committal, that no doubt or uncertainty can prevail respecting them: they are unmistakeable violations of the law of God, and, as it were, herald the doers of them to judgment, crying (like the blood of Abel) for vengeance. By judgment, therefore, I would understand chiefly God's, though not excluding man's. It is not said how Timothy should deal with persons guilty of such offences; but the conclusion was obvious. What so manifestly defied the authority and provoked the condemnation of Heaven, must meet with an uncompromising opposition on the part of Christian pastors, and call forth merited rebuke. But besides these, there are sins of a less heinous and more covert kind, which seem rather to follow after than to go before the person who commits them, yet so follow as inevitably some time to let the mournful secret out. But as this may not be immediately, all needful precautions should be taken that the real state of things should be ascertained.