(1) В¶ Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone; (2) And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:
By Paul's sending Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians, while he himself stood much in need of this young man's services, we plainly discover how little he regarded himself when the welfare of the Church was before him. I have often thought, and prayed for grace to follow it, that the whole life of Christ's ministers ought to be directed in no one pursuit but the Lord's glory, in waiting upon and enquiring into the wants of the Lord's people. If there was less selfishness about my poor heart, I should consider it no interruption, but rather rejoice in the occasion which called me from (otherwise the pleasing employment of) study, to listen to the complaints and enquiries of the humble, and the weak of the Lord's family. And, I believe, that among those faithful ones in Christ's service, who have sought out, without waiting to be sent for, the sorrowful and tempted in the household of faith; they have found their own souls often refreshed, when the Lord hath caused them to minister to the refreshment of others. Paul himself found this to be the case, for he told the Church, that he longed to see them, that he might impart unto them some spiritual gift, to the end they might be established, and himself comforted by the mutual faith both in them and him. Romans 1:11-12. And very sure I am, that next to the word of God, in the Lord's teaching, sick rooms and dying chambers are the best books, under the Spirits explaining them, from whence a minister, ordained of God the Holy Ghost, may learn subjects for preaching.