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Act_16:1-3
The wise providence of God had, however, provided for this exigency by the fact that one of the two distinguished persons who had been sent by the church at Jerusalem to Antioch, with Paul and Barnabas, as vouchers for the decree, in which they are, indeed, expressly named, still remained at Antioch. This was Silas; and it is at once apparent, even to us, that this was the most suitable person to be his companion for the intended journey, whom it could be well possible to find as a substitute for Barnabas. He was a leading man in the church; he was endowed with special gifts; the church at Jerusalem had avouched his character and qualifications; and Paul had been enough in his company to know that he should find in him a valuable coadjutor. Silas readily responded to the call thus made upon him; and the two, having been in united prayer “recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God,” set forth upon their important journey. That journey, though it included all the places where churches had been founded in the former missionary tour with Barnabas, became much more extensive than had been originally contemplated. It commenced, however, by the intended visitation of the churches formerly established. They were, however, visited in a reverted order, those being first reached which had been established last in the previous journey. Departing from Antioch, Paul and Silas necessarily passed through the northernmost part of Syria, and the eastern part of Cilicia, “confirming the churches” in their way. These were, no doubt, churches which had been of earlier establishment. Their names are not given, but we may be allowed to suppose that on this occasion Paul once more saw his native city of Tarsus.
They then passed into Lycaonia, lying to the north of Cilicia, and we find them once more at Derbe; but of the circumstances of this, any more than of the former visit to this town, no particulars are given. They now proceeded on their way, and passing the gate before which was the temple or image of Jupiter, stood within the streets of Lystra, where Paul had been first worshipped as a god, and then stoned as an offender. All that is recorded at this place relates to the acquisition of an addition to the missionary party, in the person of a young convert named Timothy. This youth seems to have been a native of Lystra—the son of a Jewish mother, but of a Greek father. He had been very carefully brought up, even from a child, by his grandmother and his mother, in the knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, which had thus become familiar to him; and, under such holy training, he inherited, in full measure, the “unfeigned” Messianic “faith that dwelt first in his grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice.” The soil being thus prepared, received favorably the good seed which Paul had sown, in his former visit to these parts. His name, indeed, does not occur in that journey; but we now see that the young man was already a Christian when Lystra was revisited; and as Paul addresses him as “his own son in the faith,”—that is, one converted by himself, it is clear that his conversion must have taken place in the former journey. It was but lately that we called attention to a passage in one of Paul’s epistles to this person, in which he appeals to his intimate knowledge of the persecutions he had endured at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra; and this knowledge was probably personal, at least at Lystra, at which place—if that indeed was his ordinary residence—he had been doubtless an eye-witness of the evil treatment the apostle received, and was probably one of “the brethren” who stood mournfully around him as he lay for dead.
What Timothy had heard from Paul, what he had witnessed of his conduct, the example he had so unostentatiously offered of valor for the truth, could hardly fail to make the most profound and salutary impression upon a mind so youthfully impressible as his. It was nutritive; and blessed by the Divine Spirit, it so ministered to his spiritual growth, that by the time Paul had now come back, he had become a marked person in the esteem of the brethren in this and the neighboring towns, particularly at Iconium. His love to Christ was so touchingly profound, his faith so invincible, his devotedness so entire, his zeal so fervent, his endowments so manifest, that the local churches cherished the belief that notwithstanding his delicate health and “often infirmities,” eminent services in the church of Christ might be expected from him. Paul heard of this before he again saw him, and the tidings filled his heart with joy. He gladly yielded to the young man’s entreaty to be permitted to attend him in his journey; and very soon the apostle conceived for his young convert that beautiful paternal regard which shines through his epistles to him, and which will to many minds appear as one of the most charming things in the history of Paul.
Before, however, Paul took Timothy with him, he thought proper to subject him to the initiatory Jewish rite. This has occasioned some perplexity, seeing that not long ago Paul had very firmly, and with the sanction of the apostles of the circumcision, resisted the attempts made to impose this rite upon Titus. Some of the early Christian writers made much of this difficulty, and could not surmount it but by supposing that a similar concession had subsequently been made in the case of Titus—a most unwarrantable and wholly needless supposition. The cases were altogether different, and sufficient to explain and justify a difference of procedure. Titus was wholly a Greek; and the object in his case was to withstand false teachers, and protect the flock from their requisitions. In the case of Timothy, the object was to procure admission for him into the synagogues in which the Gospel had not yet been preached, and with which Paul had to connect his labors but to which he could not otherwise have had access. Paul testifies of himself that to the Jews he became a Jew, to win those who would not else be won. Note: 1Co_9:20. Of Timothy he asked no more than this: and he was entitled to ask it; for, according to the Jewish rules, the child should follow the mother, so that the son of a mixed marriage, whose mother was a Jewess, should be circumcised, otherwise (and the Roman Catholic Church now makes similar conditions) the marriage would not have been recognized by the Jewish law. This had been neglected in the case of Timothy, probably from the opposition of the father. The Jews of the neighborhood must have been aware of this; and he would not have been admitted among them had not Paul made good the omission.