William Burkitt Notes and Observations - 2 Timothy 4:13 - 4:13

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William Burkitt Notes and Observations - 2 Timothy 4:13 - 4:13


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St. Paul having desired Timothy's company at Rome, requests him to bring with him such things as he wanted, and stood in present need of.

1. His cloak: probably a garment which in the winter season he might want the warmth and benefit of, especially being in a cold prison. So long as we are upon earth, a prudential care mnust be taken to preserve our health; when winter approached, St. Paul sent for his winter garment to keep him warm. The body is the soul's organ or instrument by which it acts; therefore we must do what in us lieth to keep it in tune for the service of the soul.

2. His books; probably the book of the Old Testament; certainly no profane books; he had no leisure for, no liking to, any such.

3. But especially the parchments; these are thought to be note-books of his own collecting, in which he had written several things for the help of his memory, and the benefit of the church.

Behold here, 1. An eminent pattern of pious studiousness in St. Paul. Here was an aged man, an aged minister, that had already read much, a prisoner; no very proper place for study, were prisons then filled with such brutes as generally now; nay, a dying prisoner, one that looked for death and beheading every day; yet aged Paul, dying Paul, cannot live without his books; he must still be reading, learning, studying the scriptures especially, which are such a vast deep, as the line of an inspired apostle could not fathom. Behold, I say, a pattern for such ministers as think they know enough, they have studied enough, and are too old to learn; so was not our apostle, when within a few months of his death.

2. Behold here an eminent pattern of pious humiltiy in Timothy, if bishop of Ephesus now, as some affirm, if only a minister of a particular church as others affirm; yet was he undoubtedly a very humble person, otherwise, St. Paul had not desired, and Timothy had certainly disdained to carry this luggage with him to Rome. Pride would have stooped to nothing of this, but thrown all to the dunghill; whereas true humility disposes a man, especially a minister of Christ, to become all things to all men.