1:15 {11} This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
(11) He prevents an offence which arose by the means of certain ones that fell from God and the faith, and utters also their names that they might be known by all men. But he sets against them the singular faith of one man, that one good example alone might counterbalance and weigh down all evil examples.
1:15 All they which are in Asia be turned away from me. The language seems to mean that there had been a large defection in Asia already. Some think that Paul refers to professors of Christ from the province of Asia, then in Rome, who had all deserted him.
Phygellus and Hermogenes. Nothing more than this reference is known of them.
1:15 All who are in Asia - Who had attended me at Rome for a while. Are turned away from me - What, from Paul the aged, the faithful soldier, and now prisoner of Christ! This was a glorious trial, and wisely reserved for that time, when he was on the borders of immortality. Perhaps a little measure of the same spirit might remain with him under whose picture are those affecting words, The true effigy of Francis Xavier, apostle of the Indies, forsaken of all men, dying in a cottage.
1:15-18 The apostle mentions the constancy of Onesiphorus; he oft refreshed him with his letters, and counsels, and comforts, and was not ashamed of him. A good man will seek to do good. The day of death and judgment is an awful day. And if we would have mercy then, we must seek for it now of the Lord. The best we can ask, for ourselves or our friends, is, that the Lord will grant that we and they may find mercy of the Lord, when called to pass out of time into eternity, and to appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
