For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. All of them, he says ( οἱ πάντες); Timothy is the one exception. He calls those about him brethren in Philippians 4:21; but, it seems, they were like St.
Paul, not willing to spend and to be spent for the salvation of souls. It was a great sacrifice in one who so yearned for Christian sympathy to submit to the absence of the one true loving friend. St.
Paul's spiritual isolation increases our wonder and admiration for the strain of holy joy which runs through this Epistle.