1 Corinthians 16:6-11 - Perhaps I will stay for a while

16:6-9

Paul contemplated spending a considerable amount of time with them, even spending the whole winter there, “so that you can help me on my journey”. There was a relationship of mutual help and assistance. Paul did not want to make only a brief visit. In the meantime he would “stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost”. Evidently “a great door for effective work had opened” up there for him. “And there are many who oppose me”. We read something of this in Acts. Note that here Paul sees the opposition as a reason for staying in Ephesus!

16:10,11

Timothy was a close companion of Paul, and a “spiritual son”. Timothy was very much Paul’s representative, even more than that. Paul urges them to welcome Timothy warmly. Some see this as an example of Timothy’s “timidity”, but it is actually more likely that it was forces within Corinth that Paul was concerned with. Timothy was not to be treated with contempt, but to be sent away from Corinth in peace.