Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
For this came—that ye may the better "be followers of me" (I Corinthians 4:16), through his admonitions.
sent . . . Timotheus— (I Corinthians 16:10; Acts 19:21-22). "Paul purposed . . . when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem. So he sent into Macedonia Timotheus and Erastus." Here it is not expressly said that he sent Timothy into Achaia (of which Corinth was the capital), but it is implied, for he sent him with Erastus before him. As he therefore purposed to go into Achaia himself, there is every probability they were to go thither also. They are said only to have been sent into Macedonia, because it was the country to which they went immediately from Ephesus. The undesignedness of the coincidence establishes the genuineness of both the Epistle and the history. In both, Timothy's journey is closely connected with Paul's own (compare I Corinthians 4:19). Erastus is not specified in the Epistle, probably because it was Timothy who was charged with Paul's orders, and possibly Erastus was a Corinthian, who, in accompanying Timothy, was only returning home. The seeming discrepancy at least shows that the passages were not taken from one another [PALEY, Horæ Paulinæ].
son—that is, converted by me (compare I Corinthians 4:14-15; Acts 14:6-7; with Acts 16:1-2; I Timothy 1:2, I Timothy 1:18; II Timothy 1:2). Translate, "My son, beloved and faithful in the Lord."
bring you into remembrance—Timothy, from his spiritual connection with Paul, as converted by him, was best suited to remind them of the apostle's walk and teaching (II Timothy 3:10), which they in some respects, though not altogether (I Corinthians 11:2), had forgotten.
as I teach . . . in every church—an argument implying that what the Spirit directed Paul to teach "everywhere" else, must be necessary at Corinth also (I Corinthians 7:17).
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Corinthians 4:17:
Acts 16:3
Acts 19:22
1 Corinthians 1:2
1 Corinthians 4:16
1 Corinthians 16:10
2 Corinthians 1:1
2 Corinthians 1:15
1 Thessalonians 3:2
1 Timothy 1:2
Titus 1:4
Hebrews 13:23
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