For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my {i} ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.

(i) What way and rule I follow everywhere in teaching the churches.

People's New Testament

4:17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus. Timothy, Paul's son in the gospel (Ac 16:1-3 Php 2:22), had already been sent onward toward Corinth (1Co 16:10), but going round by land would not arrive until after this letter, if it went across by sea.

Who will bring you into remembrance. Timothy will revive their remembrance of

Of my ways which be in Christ. Paul's life, conduct and teachings, so that they can the better follow him (1Co 4:16).

Wesley's Notes

4:17 My beloved son - Elsewhere he styles him brother, 2Cor 1:1; but here paternal affection takes place. As I teach - No less by example than precept.

Scofield Reference Notes

Margin son Gr.

teknon, child, "born one."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. For this came-that ye may the better "be followers of me" (1Co 4:16), through his admonitions.

sent . Timotheus-(1Co 16:10; Ac 19:21, 22). "Paul purposed . when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem. So he sent into Macedonia Timotheus and Erastus." Here it is not expressly said that he sent Timothy into Achaia (of which Corinth was the capital), but it is implied, for he sent him with Erastus before him. As he therefore purposed to go into Achaia himself, there is every probability they were to go thither also. They are said only to have been sent into Macedonia, because it was the country to which they went immediately from Ephesus. The undesignedness of the coincidence establishes the genuineness of both the Epistle and the history. In both, Timothy's journey is closely connected with Paul's own (compare 1Co 4:19). Erastus is not specified in the Epistle, probably because it was Timothy who was charged with Paul's orders, and possibly Erastus was a Corinthian, who, in accompanying Timothy, was only returning home. The seeming discrepancy at least shows that the passages were not taken from one another [Paley, Horæ Paulinæ].

son-that is, converted by me (compare 1Co 4:14, 15; Ac 14:6, 7; with Ac 16:1, 2; 1Ti 1:2, 18; 2Ti 1:2). Translate, "My son, beloved and faithful in the Lord."

bring you into remembrance-Timothy, from his spiritual connection with Paul, as converted by him, was best suited to remind them of the apostle's walk and teaching (2Ti 3:10), which they in some respects, though not altogether (1Co 11:2), had forgotten.

as I teach . in every church-an argument implying that what the Spirit directed Paul to teach "everywhere" else, must be necessary at Corinth also (1Co 7:17).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:14-21 In reproving for sin, we should distinguish between sinners and their sins. Reproofs that kindly and affectionately warn, are likely to reform. Though the apostle spoke with authority as a parent, he would rather beseech them in love. And as ministers are to set an example, others must follow them, as far as they follow Christ in faith and practice. Christians may mistake and differ in their views, but Christ and Christian truth are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Whenever the gospel is effectual, it comes not in word only, but also in power, by the Holy Spirit, quickening dead sinners, delivering persons from the slavery of sin and Satan, renewing them both inwardly and outwardly, and comforting, strengthening, and establishing the saints, which cannot be done by the persuasive language of men, but by the power of God. And it is a happy temper, to have the spirit of love and meekness bear the rule, yet to maintain just authority.