The mission of Timothy.
The apostle comforts the Philippians with the intimation that, if he cannot himself visit them, he will send them Timothy, who was already well known to them all.
I. HIS OBJECT IN SENDING TIMOTHY. It was twofold.
1. To comfort his own heart. "That I also may be of good heart, when I know your state." The apostle had a tender anxiety respecting the best beloved of all the Churches.
2. To give them guidance for Timothy was one who would "naturally care for their state" with an almost instinctive devotion to their interests.
II. HIS REASON FOR SENDING TIMOTHY IN PREFERENCE TO ANY OTHER.
1. They already known Timothy's devotion to the apostle and to the gospel of Christ. "But ye know the proof of him, that, as a child serveth a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the gospel." When the apostle was at Philippi, Timothy—"mine own son in the faith"—was his congenial assistant, obeying his counsel, and imitating his example, in everything that tended to the edification of the Church.
2. There was no other helper with the apostle at the time possessed of the same quick sympathy with their state as Timothy. "For I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your state: for they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ."
(a) It was a concern for their spiritual state.
(b) It was, as the word imports, an anxious care on their behalf, testifying at once to his own personal interest in their welfare and to his profound appreciation of the worth of immortal souls.
(c) It was a concern natural to one inheriting the interests and the affections of his spiritual father.
(d) It was implanted in his soul by the Lord himself; for it was with him as with Titus; "Thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus" (2 Corinthians 8:16).—T.C.