John Chrysostom : Here he shows his great love, seeing that for this purpose he sent him, and this was the cause of his journey; and so when writing to the Thessalonians, he said, "Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone, and sent Timothy our brother." (1 Thess. iii. 1, 2.) And to the Ephesians he sends this very same person, and for the very same cause, "That he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts." (Eph. vi. 21, 22.) See what he saith, not "that ye might know my estate," but "that I might know yours." So in no place doth he mention what is his own. He shows that they were in trials too, by the expression, "comfort your hearts." — Homily on Colossians 11