Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
This charge - See the note on I Timothy 1:5. It was a charge that the Judaizing teachers should not teach differently from that doctrine which the apostle had delivered to him. See I Timothy 1:3.
According to the prophecies - This may refer to some predictions by inspired men, relative to what Timothy should be: and he wishes him to act in all things conformably to those predictions. It was predicted that he should have this high and noble calling; but his behavior in that calling was a matter of contingency, as it respected the use he might make of the grace of his calling. The apostle therefore exhorts him to war a good warfare, etc. He was now called to that estate to which the prophecies referred; and now he is to act worthily or unworthily of that calling, according as he fought or did not fight the good warfare, and according as he held or did not hold faith and a good conscience.
Some think that the , the foregoing prophecies, refer to revelations which the apostle himself had received concerning Timothy; while others think that the word is to be understood of advices, directions, and exhortations, which the apostle had previously delivered to him; we know that signifies to speak to men to edification, to exhortation, and to comfort. See I Corinthians 14:3. This is a very sober and good sense of the passage.
War a good warfare - The trials and afflictions of the followers of God are often represented as a warfare or campaign. See Isaiah 40:2; I Corinthians 9:7; II Corinthians 10:4; and see the reasons of this metaphorical form of speech, in the notes on Ephesians 6:13.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
2 Corinthians 10:4
1 Timothy 4:14
1 Timothy 6:20
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