1 Corinthians 4:17

“For this cause have I sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord; he shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every Church.”

We need not take the aorist ἔπεμψα in the sense of the Greek epistolary past, when the author, transporting himself to the time when his letter shall be read, speaks in the past of a present fact. The passage 1 Corinthians 16:10-11, proves that the apostle means, I have sent, for Timothy had really started when Paul was writing, though he was not to arrive till after the letter; comp. Acts 19:21-22. How do such coincidences prove the accuracy of the narrative of the Acts!

In calling Timothy his son, he alludes to his conversion of which he had been the instrument, no doubt during his first visit to Lystra; comp. 2 Timothy 1:2. By this title he gives him, as it were, the position of an elder son relatively to the Corinthians, who, as younger children, should take rule from him. He characterizes him as beloved, which recommends him to their affection, and as faithful in the Lord, which is his title to their confidence. The term πιστός is used, like our word faithful, in the active sense: one who believes, or in the passive sense: one who may be believed, who should be trusted. It is the second sense which at least prevails here; he will be to them a sure counsellor in the things of the Lord.

His mission is to bring them into remembrance. This phrase, designedly chosen, distinguishes the part of Timothy from that of the apostle, and insinuates at the same time that the Corinthians are not ignorant, but that they have only forgotten.

What does the apostle understand by his ways which be in Christ? Is it the way in which he regulates his own conduct? But the words, “As I teach everywhere,” do not suit this meaning. Meyer thinks that the words, as I teach, may be applied to the way in which he acted when carrying out his office as a preacher. This is an inadmissible makeshift. Or should we, on the contrary, apply the phrase, my ways in Christ, to the contents of the apostolic preaching? This meaning is no less forced. It only remains, as it seems to me, to apply the καθὼς διδάσκω, as I teach, to the apostle's practical teaching (as it is summed up Romans 12-14), to the true method of Christian life: the humility, abnegation, self-forgetfulness, consecration to the Lord, which ought to characterize a true believer. This is the course which Paul himself has followed since he was in Christ (my ways in Christ); and it was this mode of acting pursued by the apostle which he inculcated in all the Churches. The word καθώς, even as, brings out the harmony between his life and this teaching.

The words everywhere and in every Church seem to be tautological. But the first signifies: in every sort of country, in Asia as in Greece. Timothy, who had followed him in all his journeys, could bear witness to this. In every Church signifies: in each Church which I found. He seeks to impress the same direction on these new communities; there is always the call to come down by humility, not to be exalted by boasting. No doubt there was the disposition to believe that Paul was imposing exceptional demands on the Corinthians. But no; they are the same as are accepted and practised by each of his Churches; comp. 1 Corinthians 1:2, 1 Corinthians 14:33; 1 Corinthians 14:35-36. Timothy, who has himself witnessed all these foundations, will be able to certify them of the fact.

But this sending of Timothy might lead them to suppose that the disciple was a substitute for the apostle, and that after this visit the latter would not think of coming himself. This conclusion had already been expressly drawn, some had even made a triumph of it at the expense of the apostle. He had doubtless been informed of this by the three deputies, and it is to this insulting supposition that the final passage refers, 1 Corinthians 4:18-21.