Philippians 2:22

The proof of him. — The allusion is justified by their intimate personal knowledge. Timothy was at Philippi with St. Paul on his first visit (Acts 16:12); we find him sent to Thessalonica shortly after (1 Thessalonians 3:2), and he probably then paid a second visit to Philippi; from Ephesus (Acts 19:22) he is sent again to Macedonia; and with St. Paul on the way to Jerusalem he was at Philippi once more (Acts 20:4).

As a son with the father. — The original construction is curiously broken here. It runs, As a son to a father — as though St. Paul was going to speak of Timothy’s dutiful ministration and following of his example; but then the sentence changes, in a characteristic humility, and makes Timothy and himself merely fellow-servants — he served with me in the gospel. If we may judge of Timothy’s character from the general character of St. Paul’s directions to him in the Pastoral Epistles, and especially the significant exhortation, “Let no man despise thy youth, (1 Timothy 4:12), it would seem to have been gentle and warm-hearted rather than commanding. Hence, perhaps, the necessity for this singularly emphatic commendation of him. (Comp. 1 Corinthians 16:10, “If Timotheus come, see that he be with you without fear.”)