Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - 2 Timothy 4:1-22
2 Timothy 4:2 Observe, he puts longsuffering before doctrine, and that because nothing except patience answers with those who are hard to win. Patience enables us to possess not only our own souls but those of others also. St. Francis de Sales. 2 Timothy 4:2 In the ninth chapter of The Saints' Everlasting Rest, Baxter observes that 'we are commanded to "exhort one another daily," and "with all longsuffering" (2 Timothy 4:2 ). The fire is not always brought out of the flint at one stroke; nor... read more
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 2 Timothy 4:5
(5) But watch thou in all things.—“But do thou,” continued St. Paul, “do thou be watchful.” The Greek word translated “watch thou,” signifies literally, be sober. It has been well paraphrased, “Keep thy coolness and presence of mind, that thou be not entrapped into forgetfulness, but as one ever wakeful and ready, be on the watch.” The word, as it were, sums up all those last directions of St. Paul, from 2 Timothy 2:14, in which St. Paul charged Timothy to abstain from vain arguments and... read more