that thou keep the commandment spotless, irreproachable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Paul does not simply advise Timothy here; he places him under a formal charge, spoken as if in a courtroom where God and Christ Jesus are looking on. One writer sets the moment beside the day when Moses handed his commission to Joshua, his successor, in front of the whole nation.
When Moses was about to leave this life, God told him to give Joshua a charge in front of the whole congregation (Numbers 27:19). Now, before Paul left, he gave Timothy a charge too. But it was in the sight of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He set Timothy in their presence, aware of it, and told him to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ... Thinking of God in this character would make him bold. Remembering Christ Jesus as a faithful witness would give him courage.
The word is not narrow. It covers everything Paul has laid on Timothy in this letter. Timothy keeps it by refusing every human improvement on it.
This commandment no doubt covered everything the apostle charged Timothy with in this letter. It covered all that concerns behaviour in the house of God, all he was to avoid and all he was to pursue. Timothy was to surrender nothing. He was not to stain the commandment with human tradition, with compromises, or by bringing in anything that came from the heart or mind of man.
Christ's own testimony before Pilate, the Roman governor, sets the standard for Timothy's witness.
Here was God's true Representative in the world, standing before the man who represents the world. How precious and clear His witness, though His words were few. He bore witness to the truth. His kingdom was not of this world, yet He was a real King, God's King, far above everything that only belongs to this passing age... This gives precious character to the commandment Timothy is told to keep unstained and free from reproach. There is to be no lapse, no tarnishing of this testimony that would leave him open to rebuke, because it is all in view of the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Two different events are in view, and Paul names one of them on purpose. One writer shows that Christ's public appearing, not His coming to take His own out of the world, is what settles the question of a servant's faithfulness.
The coming of the Lord does not display us before the world; it takes us right out of it to be with Christ... There the apostle urges his faithful fellow-worker to keep this commandment unstained and free from reproach, until — the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? No; but "the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." The coming of our Lord will not prove whether Timothy has been faithful. His appearing will prove it completely. The appearing of the Lord Jesus therefore is the right and proper word, and none other.
Some read the verse as though Paul expected Timothy to live until that day. Another writer answers that the appearing marks the finish line of responsibility, whatever happens to the servant before it.
Timothy is urged to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of Jesus Christ. This verse is often used to argue the opposite, but it in fact shows how such words are to be taken. The appearing is the goal of responsibility. Whatever fills the time between now and the end of his path here would not change the exhortation. And no one would claim the apostle meant to guarantee that Timothy would live until the appearing.
What keeps a grip like that firm? One writer points to the faith of Christ Himself, and to the promise Timothy was told to hold on to.
The brightness of "the joy set before Him" never dimmed in the perfect faith of Jesus, even though the cross tested His hold on it to the very limit. In the same way, Timothy was to keep his grasp of eternal life, whatever else he might give up. God had set that promise before him. He would bring it out in all its promised blessing and glory at the appearing of Jesus. Timothy was to cling to it despite the whole world.
- Charged — Paul sets Timothy in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, as Moses commissioned Joshua before the whole nation.
- Entrusted — "the commandment" covers all Paul has told him about conduct in God's house. Timothy surrenders nothing and adds nothing of human origin.
- Unstained — Christ's clear witness before Pilate sets the pattern. No lapse, no stain on the testimony, nothing that leaves the servant open to rebuke.
- Until the appearing — Paul names Christ's public appearing, not His coming to take His own out of the world. Only the appearing will show how faithful a servant has been.
- Not till death, but till that day — the appearing is the goal of responsibility, not a promise that Timothy would live to see it. Hope of that day keeps his grip firm against the pull of the world.
which in its own time the blessed and only Ruler shall shew, the King of those that reign, and Lord of those that exercise lordship;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
who only has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor is able to see; to whom [be] honour and eternal might. Amen.
Paul ends his charge to Timothy with worship, not with another instruction. He piles up three claims no creature can share: God alone has immortality, He lives in light no one can come near, and no human eye has ever seen Him. Each claim raises the same question. So how can anyone know such a God?
The word translated "immortality" is rare. Here it marks off something that belongs to God and to no one else.
The Greek word, athanasia, immortality, occurs only three times in the Scriptures. First, as to God Himself. He only has immortality. It is inherent in Him — not given, not gained, but His, belonging to His own nature and being (1 Tim. 6:16). The other two cases (1 Cor. 15:53-54) concern the saints alive on this earth when the Lord comes.
Some have used this line to argue that the human soul must therefore die. Commentators answer that the verse speaks of what God is in Himself, not of what He can give:
When it is said of God that "He only has immortality," the reference is to essential, not to conferred, being. Even those who misuse the text do not deny that the angels are immortal. Our Lord Himself said this is their condition, and that the risen saints will be like them in this way. "They cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels" (Luke 20:36). So God's having immortality alone fits perfectly with the immortality of angels — and, if so, with the immortality of the human soul. The soul is immortal as angels are, but only because God makes both so.
The barrier between God and His creatures is not darkness. It is brightness too great for any eye to bear. The praise that follows carries a lesson about our own place.
He dwells in light unapproachable, not in darkness, but in light infinitely brighter than any created eye can bear. Honour and power everlasting are His alone. The heart that gladly gives Him this praise will willingly accept a place where he himself is given no honour or power.
This letter, more than any other, holds God up in a majesty that stays out of reach.
This character of the epistle is very remarkable. Nowhere else does Scripture present the unapproachable majesty of God, as God, in this way. Elsewhere it often teaches and shows His character. Here He alone has essential immortality. He dwells in inaccessible light. He is always invisible to the eyes of men. He alone has power. He has dominion over all who reign. This is God in His own pure essence, unchanging in His being, holding the rights of His majesty — veiled to all men.
But the Old Testament tells of people who "saw the God of Israel." Writers answer that they saw a display of God, not His own being:
Moses and the privileged group who climbed Sinai with him "saw the God of Israel," and this does not contradict 1 Timothy 6:16, which refers to God in His essential being and glory. As Ezekiel saw "the likeness of the glory of the Lord" (Ezek. 1:28), and as John on Patmos saw One who sat on the throne, who was "like jasper and carnelian" (Rev. 4:3), so these saw a manifestation of God. We note that no attempt to describe Him is made.
No one has seen God. So God must come out and make Himself known — and He has.
He is "the Word" — the expression of all that is in the divine mind — the full and blessed revelation of God. Until He became man, God was unexpressed, and so unknown, for "no one has ever seen God." But "the only God, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known." (John 1:18; older translations read "the only begotten Son.") God is in the light, and the Person of the Son perfectly discloses everything that belongs to His nature and character.
The two truths stand together: believers know the very God whose dwelling they can never enter.
The blessing we are brought into is deep and full, and here is a wonderful witness of it. Through the Holy Spirit — God dwelling in us and we in Him — we come to know Him, and we know the blessedness into which no creature can enter. God dwells in the light which no one can approach — yet we know Him as dwelling there. We know what light is, and we understand that in that essential being and glory He must be unapproachable — and still we know Him there.
- Inherent — God alone cannot die. That life is His by nature: no one gave it to Him, and He never gained it.
- Conferred — What is His by nature He can give. Angels and the risen saints live forever because He makes them so.
- Unapproachable — What keeps us out is light, not darkness. No created eye can bear that brightness, so no one has seen Him or can.
- Veiled — This is God in the rights of His majesty. Moses, Ezekiel and John saw God displayed, not His essential being.
- Declared — The Son came out of that light and made God known. Those who can never approach Him still know Him. Honour and power everlasting are His.