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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 2 Timothy 1:16 - 1:17
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Vers. 16, 17. There was, however, a noble exception to this faint-hearted procedure: The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, because he ofttimes refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain—that, namely, which bound him as a felon to the soldier who guarded him. It implies that others were ashamed, and, shrinking from the ignominious treatment which his unflinching zeal had brought on him, turned away. The more gratifying must have been the conduct of Onesiphorus, whose Christian principle and fellow-feeling carried him above the discouragements and perils of the time, and, regardless of consequences, enabled him to do the part of a genuine comforter. He ofttimes did it, says the apostle—even after the chain had turned to imprisonment in the capital; for it is added, when he had arrived in Rome ( ãåíüìåíïò ἐí Ῥþìῃ , not merely was there, but had come to the city, or arrived in it), he sought me out with greater diligence, and found me. The expression is striking, as showing that what led others to turn away from the apostle was the very thing which prompted the friendly search and beneficent ministrations of Onesiphorus. “The comparative [in óðïõäáéï ́ ôåñðí ] does not imply any contrast between Onesiphorus and others, nor with the diligence that might have been expected, but refers to the increased diligence with which Onesiphorus sought out the apostle when he knew that he was in captivity. He would have sought him out óðïõäáßùò in any case; now he sought for him óðïõäáéï ́ ôåñðí ” (Ellicott).