2 Timothy 3:10 - Exposition

Didst follow my teaching for hast fully known my doctrine , A.V. and T.R.; conduct for manner of life , A.V.; love for charity , A.V. Didst follow ( παρηκολούθησας , which is the R.T. for παρηκολούθηκας , in the perfect, which is the T.R.). The evidence for the two readings is nicely balanced. But St. Paul uses the perfect in l Timothy 2 Timothy 4:6 (where see note), and it seems highly improbable that he here used the aorist in order to convey a rebuff to Timothy by insinuating that he had once followed, but that he was doing so no longer. The sentence, "thou didst follow," etc., is singularly insipid. The A.V. "thou hast fully known" gives the sense fully and clearly. Timothy had fully known St. Paul's whole career, partly from what he had heard, and partly from what he had been an eyewitness of. My teaching. How different from that of those impostors! Conduct ( ἀγωγῇ ); here only in the New Testament, but found in the LXX . in Esther 2:20 ( τὴν ἀγωγὴν αὐτῆς , "her manner of life"—her behaviour towards Mordecai, where there is nothing to answer to it in the Hebrew text); 2 Macc 4:16 ( τὰς ἀγωγάς ); 6:8; 11:24. Aristotle uses ἀγωγή for "conduct," or "mode of life" ('Ethics'), and Polybius (4:74, 14), quoted by Alford, has ἀγωγὴ and ἀγωγαὶ τοῦ βίου , "way" or "manner of life." The A.V. "manner of life" is a very good rendering. Purpose ( πρόθεσιν ); that which a person sets before him as the end to be attained ( Acts 11:23 ; Acts 27:13 ; 2Ma Acts 3:8 ; and in Aristotle, Polybius, and others). Used often of God's eternal purpose, as e . g . 2 Timothy 1:9 ; Ephesians 1:11 , etc. In enumerating these and the following," faith, long suffering, charity, and patience," St. Paul doubtless had in view, not self-glorification, which was wholly alien to his earnest, self-denying character, but the mention of those qualities which he saw were most needed by Timothy. Long suffering ( τῇ μακροθυμίᾳ ); as 1 Timothy 1:16 , of the long suffering of Jesus Christ towards himself, and elsewhere frequently of human patience and forbearance towards others. Patience ( τῇ ὑπομονῇ ). This is exercised in the patient endurance of afflictions for Christ's sake. It is coupled, as here, with μακροθυμία , long suffering, in Colossians 1:11 .