Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.
Ver. 25. Necessary to send to you] It is not meet that a pastor be long absent from his people. Moses was away but 40 days, and before he came again Israel had made them a golden calf. A godly minister when he is abroad is like a fish in the air; whereinto if it leap for recreation or necessity, yet it soon returns to his own element.