⁴⁰But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. ⁴¹And he was traveling through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. ¹Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, ²and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. ³Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Silas was no less capable a ministry partner than Barnabas; in fact, he had been a “leading” brother in the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:22). Similarly to the commissioning for the first mission tour, Paul and Silas were “committed” by the church in Antioch to the second mission tour (see Acts 14:26, where the same word is used on Paul’s return to his sending church in Antioch). The trip avoids the island of Cyprus, where Barnabas had gone, and we find Paul and Silas traveling by land to Derbe and Lystra.

Here is where Timothy enters the story and becomes Paul’s frequent traveling companion (we know him from the two letters Paul wrote him called 1 & 2 Timothy). At various times the apostle’s entourage grew or shrank according to the needs in the various places they visited. Timothy was of mixed parentage, his Jewish blood coming from his mother (who as it turns out was a believer), and his Gentile blood from his father. Timothy had a good reputation among the believers and was well influenced by his godly mother Eunice and grandmother Lois (2 Tim. 1:5).

Interestingly, after the doctrinal debate in Jerusalem in Acts 15, just before this second mission tour, the issue of circumcision was settled: Gentiles are not required to be circumcised in order to be saved. So why does Paul now have Timothy circumcised? The reason Luke gives in the narrative is that there were Jews in that area who knew Timothy and his father and therefore saw Timothy as a Gentile, not a Jew (similarly, we could suppose, to the way the Jews viewed Samaritans). Rather than making circumcision an issue as it had become in Jerusalem and Antioch, Paul began practicing what he espoused later in writing:

To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law . . . (1 Cor. 9:20).

So, Paul saw the wisdom at this point in side-stepping the potential of making circumcision a distraction to the Jews to avoid hindering his mission.

Lord, help me have wisdom as I share the gospel of grace with religious people.