1 Timothy 1:3

1 Timothy 1:3. As I besought thee to abide at Ephesus. See Introduction as to the occasion thus referred to. On the assumption of the conclusion there arrived at, it would be at the close of St. Paul's last visit to Ephesus, after his first imprisonment at Rome. He had seen, as the Epistle shews, much that made him anxious there, and eager as Timothy was to accompany him, bitter as were his tears at parting (2 Timothy 1:4), he ‘besought' him to abide there. There was, as the word implies, probably some reluctance on the part of the young disciple to leave the apostle whom he loved so devotedly, and with whom he had for so many years travelled in the closest companionship.

To teach no other doctrine. Better ‘ no different (or strange) doctrine.' The first part of the word implies (as in 2 Corinthians 6:14) ‘unequally yoked,' something discordant and out of harmony. Found only here and in 1 Timothy 6:3, it is probably a word coined by St. Paul.

That thou shouldest charge some. The undefined way in which St. Paul usually speaks of his Judaizing opponents and others whom he condemns (Galatians 1:7; Galatians 2:12; 1 Timothy 1:6; 1 Timothy 1:19; 1 Timothy 4:1; 1 Timothy 5:15; 1 Timothy 6:10). Timothy would know whom he had in view. Hymenæus, Alexander, Philetus, are afterwards singled out for special mention.