Acts 16 is indeed an amazing chapter. It is filled with the history of Paul and Silas on their missionary journey and lessons about the power of God and the conversions of Lydia and the Philippian jailer. Let us delve into this amazing chapter in the life of the apostle Paul and his companion, Silas.
Paul's Choice of the Young Man Timothy to Be His Companion
Paul's choice of Timothy (Timotheus) resulted from his faith in him as a promising servant of the Lord. Upon hearing of a plot by the unbelieving Jews and gentiles in Iconium, while there on Paul's First Missionary Journey, to "use them despitefully, and to stone them" (Acts 14:52), Paul and Barnabas fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and preached there. It was apparently on this missionary trip that Timothy was baptized. On the occasion before us, Paul and Silas had come to check on the converts in Derbe and Lystra on his Second Missionary Journey to see how they were doing (Acts 16:36). Paul would later write the First and Second Epistles of Timothy to Timothy. Timothy's father was a Greek, apparently not circumcised, which would have been the case if he were a Jew, as was Timothy's mother (Eunice, 2 Tim. 1:5).
As he intended to take him with him on this trip, Paul had Timothy circumcised. As James Burton Coffman points out:
This was not for the purpose of enabling Timothy to become a Christian, for that he already was, having obeyed the gospel on the first tour. Neither was it for the purpose of admitting Timothy into any higher fellowship, or any more abundant grace; the reason for it being simply the one bluntly stated: "because of the Jews that were there."
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