1 Timothy 4:13

1 Timothy 4:13. Till I come. The words seem to imply that Timothy's work at Ephesus was thought of as temporary and provisional. On St. Paul's return that delegated work would naturally cease, and the Church be left afterwards to the normal government of its bishop-elders.

To reading. All the words that are joined with this imply public official acts, and so probably does this. One work of the special mission of the young disciple was to read in the Ecclesia (1) with scarcely the shadow of a doubt, the Scriptures of the Old Testament; (2) less certainly, apostolic records of our Lord's ministry, now beginning to take the place of the earlier oral tradition; (3) apostolic Epistles, according to the directions given in Colossians 4:16.

To exhortation, to doctrine. The two words are contrasted as in 1 Timothy 6:2, the former being more practical, ethical, individual; the latter (‘teaching' rather than ‘doctrine') more systematic and intellectual.