1 Thessalonians 3:2

Verse 1 Thessalonians 3:2. Timotheus, our brother] It appears that Timothy was but a youth when converted to God; he had now however been some years in the work of God; Paul therefore calls him his brother, being one of the same Christian family, a son of God by adoption: elsewhere he calls him his own son, 1 Timothy 1:2; and his dearly beloved son, 2 Timothy 1:2; because he was brought to the knowledge of the true God, and to salvation by Christ, through the apostle's instrumentality. See the preface to the First Epistle to Timothy.

Minister of God] Employed by God to preach the Gospel; this was God's work, and he had appointed Timothy to do it, and to do it at this time in conjunction with St. Paul; and therefore he calls him his fellow labourer. There were no sinecures then; preaching the Gospel was God's work; the primitive preachers were his workmen, and laboured in this calling. It is the same still, but who works?