This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
He resumes 1 Timothy 1:3. The conclusion to the "As I besought thee ... charge" (1 Timothy 1:3) is here given, not formally, but substantially.
This charge - namely, 'That thou in them mightest war,' etc.; i:e., fulfill thy Christian and ministerial calling one function of which is to "charge some that they teach no other doctrine" (1 Timothy 1:3). This verse is the general conclusion; 1 Timothy 1:3-11, the direct charges; 1 Timothy 1:12-16, Paul's authority; 1 Timothy 1:18-19, the substance of his previous injunctions (Ellicott).
I commit, х paratithemai (G3908)] - as a sacred deposit (1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 2:2) for the good of thy hearers.
According to - inconsonance with.
The prophecies which went before on [ epi (G1909 ): referring to] thee - the intimations, given by prophets respecting thy future zeal and success, at thy ordination, 1 Timothy 4:14 (probably by Silas, a companion of Paul and "a prophet," and others; Acts 15:32). Such prophecies and the good report of Timothy given by the two churches, Lystra (the scene of his conversion) and Iconium, where under the elders he probably had been "messenger of the churches" (2 Corinthians 8:23; Acts 14:21; Acts 14:23; Acts 16:2), induced Paul to take him as his companion. Compare similar prophecies (Acts 13:1-3) in connection with laying on of hands; 11:28; 21:10-11: cf. 1 Corinthians 12:10; 1 Corinthians 14:1; Ephesians 4:11. In Acts 20:28, it is expressly said, 'the Holy Spirit had made the Ephesian presbyters overseers.' Clement of Rome, 'Epist. ad Corinthios,' states it was the custom of the apostles 'to make trial by the Spirit' - i:e., by the 'power of discerning'-in order to choose overseers and deacons in the several churches. So Clement of Alexandria says, as to the churches near Ephesus, that the overseers were marked out for ordination by a revelation of the Holy Spirit to John.
By (Greek, in) them - arrayed in them as thine armour.
Warfare - not the mere "fight" (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7), but the whole campaign х teen (G3588) kaleen (G2570) strateian (G4752), 'the good warfare.']