4 

4:9 Come to me - Both that he might comfort him, and be strengthened by him. Timotheus himself is said to have suffered at Ephesus.

4:10 Demas - Once my fellowlabourer, Pmn 1:24.Hath forsaken me. Crescens, probably a preacher also, is gone, with my consent, to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, having now left Crete. These either went with him to Rome, or visited him there.

4:11 Only Luke - Of my fellowlabourers, is with me - But God is with me; and it is enough. Take Mark - Who, though he once "departed from the work," is now again profitable to me.

4:13 The cloak - Either the toga, which belonged to him as a Roman citizen, or an upper garment, which might be needful as winter came on. Which I left at Troas with Carpus - Who was probably his host there. Especially the parchments - The books written on parchment.

4:14 The Lord will reward him - This he spoke prophetically.

4:16 All - My friends and companions. Forsook me - And do we expect to find such as will not forsake us? My first defence - Before the savage emperor Nero.

4:17 The preaching - The gospel which we preach.

4:18 And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work - Which is far more than delivering me from death. Yea, and,over and above, preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom - Far better than that of Nero.

4:20 When I came on, Erastus abode at Corinth - Being chamberlain of the city, Rom 16:23.But Trophimus I have left sick - Not having power (as neither had any of the apostles) to work miracles when he pleased, but only when God pleased.

15 

15:1 All the publicans - That is, all who were in that place.It seems our Lord was in some town of Galilee of the Gentiles, from whence he afterward went to Jerusalem, Luk 17:11.

15:3 He spake - Three parables of the same import: for the sheep, the piece of silver, and the lost son, all declare (in direct contrariety to the Pharisees and scribes) in what manner God receiveth sinners.

15:4 Leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness - Where they used to feed: all uncultivated ground, like our commons, was by the Jews termed wilderness or desert. And go after - In recovering a lost soul, God as it were labours. May we not learn hence, that to let them alone who are in sin, is both unchristian and inhuman! Mat 18:12.

15:7 Joy shall be - Solemn and festal joy, in heaven - First, in our blessed Lord himself, and then among the angels and spirits of just men, perhaps informed thereof by God himself, or by the angels who ministered to them. Over one sinner - One gross, open, notorious sinner, that repenteth - That is, thoroughly changed in heart and life; more than over ninety and nine just persons - Comparatively just, outwardly blameless: that need not such arepentance - For they need not, cannot repent of the sins which they never committed. The sum is, as a father peculiarly rejoices when an extravagantchild, supposed to be utterly lost, comes to a thorough sense of his duty; or as any other person who has recovered what he had given up for gone, has a more sensible satisfaction in it, than in several other things equally valuable, but not in such danger: so do the angels in heaven peculiarly rejoice in the conversion of the most abandoned sinners. Yea, and God himself so readily forgives and receives them, that he may be represented as having part in the joy.