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| 1 Timothy 6:15 |
Which in his times he shall shew, who
is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of
kings, and Lord of lords;
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This section has six verses:
1 Timothy 6:11-16
11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and
follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
patience, meekness.
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on
eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and
hast professed a good profession before many
witnesses.
13 I give thee charge in the sight of God, who
quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who
before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;
14 That thou keep this commandment without spot,
unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus
Christ:
15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the
blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and
Lord of lords;
16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light
which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath
seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power
everlasting. Amen.
We will begin with the Barclay commentary.
CHALLENGE TO TIMOTHY
1 Timothy 6:11–16
First the paraphrase of the verses:
But you, O man of God, flee from these things.
Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of
faith; lay hold on eternal life, to which you are
called, now that you have witnessed a noble
profession of your faith in the presence of many
witnesses. I charge you in the sight of God, who
makes all things alive, and in the sight of Christ
Jesus, who, in the days of Pontius Pilate, witnessed
his noble confession, that you keep the commandment,
that you should be without spot and without blame,
until the day when our Lord Jesus Christ appears,
that appearance which in his own good times the
blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and
the Lord of lords, will show, he who alone possesses
immortality, he who dwells in the light that no man
can approach, he whom no man has seen or ever can
see, to whom be honour and everlasting power. Amen.
THE letter comes to an end with a tremendous
challenge to Timothy, a challenge all the greater
because of the deliberate sonorous [high-flown;
grandiloquent or lofty style] nobility of
the words in which it is clothed.
Right at the outset, Timothy is challenged to excel.
He is addressed as man of God. That is one of the
great Old Testament titles. It is a title given to
Moses. Deuteronomy 33:1 speaks of ‘Moses, the man of
God.’ The title of Psalm 90 is ‘A Prayer of Moses,
the man of God.’ It is a title of the prophets and
the messengers of God. God’s messenger to Eli is a
man of God (1 Samuel 2:27). Samuel is described as a
man of God (1 Samuel 9:6). Shemaiah, God’s messenger
to Rehoboam, is a man of God (1 Kings 12:22). John
Bunyan in The Pilgrim’s Progress calls Great-Grace
‘God’s Champion’.
Here is a tide of honour. When the challenge is
presented to Timothy, he is not reminded of his own
weakness and sin, which might well have reduced him
to pessimistic despair; rather, he is challenged by
the honour given to him, of being God’s man. It is
the Christian way, not to depress people by branding
them as lost and helpless sinners, but rather to
uplift them by summoning them to be what they have
it in them to be. The Christian way is not to fling
a humiliating past in someone’s face, but to set
before that person the splendour of the potential
future. The very fact that Timothy was addressed as
‘man of God’ would make him stand up straight and
throw his head back as one who has received his
commission from the King.
The virtues and noble qualities set before Timothy
are not just heaped haphazardly together. There is
an order in them. First, there comes righteousness,
dikaiosune¯. This is defined as ‘giving both to
other people and to God their due’. It is the most
comprehensive of the virtues; the righteous are
those who do their duty to God and to their
neighbours.
Second, there comes a group of three virtues which
look towards God. Godliness, eusebeia, is the
reverence of the person who never ceases to be aware
that all life is lived in the presence of God.
Faith, pistis, here means fidelity, and is the
virtue of the person who, through all the chances [opportunities]
and the changes of life, down even to the gates of
death, is loyal to God. Love, agape, is the virtue
possessed by those who, even if they tried, could
not forget what God has done for them nor the love
of God to all people.
Third, there comes the virtue which looks to the
conduct of life. It is hupomone¯. The Authorized
Version translates this as patience; but hupomone¯
never means the spirit which sits quietly and simply
puts up with things, letting the experiences of life
flow like a tide over it. It is victorious
endurance. ‘It is unswerving constancy to faith and
piety in spite of adversity and suffering.’ It is
the virtue which does not so much accept the
experiences of life as conquer them.
Fourth, there comes the virtue which considers
others. The Greek word is paupatheia. It is
translated as gentleness, but is really
untranslatable. It describes the spirit which never
blazes into anger for its own wrongs but can be
devastatingly angry about wrongs done to other
people. It describes the spirit which knows how to
forgive and yet knows how to wage the battle of
righteousness. It describes the spirit which walks
in humility and yet also in pride of its high
calling from God. It describes the virtue which
enables people to keep a true balance between
concern and respect for others and self-esteem.
MEMORIES WHICH INSPIRE
As Timothy is challenged to the task of the future,
he is inspired with the memories of the past.
(1) He is to remember his baptism and the vows he
took there. In the circumstances of the early
Church, baptism was inevitably adult baptism, for
men and women were coming straight from the old
religions to Christ. It was confession of faith and
witness to all that the baptized person had taken
Jesus Christ as Saviour, Master and Lord. The
earliest of all Christian confessions was the simple
creed: ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’ (Romans 10:9;
Philippians 2:11). But it has been suggested that
behind these words to Timothy lies a confession of
faith which said: ‘I believe in God the Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth, and in Christ Jesus who
suffered under Pontius Pilate and will return to
judge; I believe in the resurrection from the dead
and in the [eternal life].’ It may well have been a
creed like that to which Timothy gave his
allegiance. So, first of all, he is reminded that he
is a man who has given his promise. Christians are
first and foremost men and women who have pledged
themselves to Jesus Christ.
(2) He is to remember that he has made the same
confession of his faith as Jesus did. When Jesus
stood before Pilate, Pilate said: ‘Are you the king
of the Jews?’ and Jesus answered: ‘You say so’ (Luke
23:3). Jesus had witnessed that he was a king, and
Timothy had always witnessed to the lordship of
Christ. When Christians confess their faith, they do
what their Master has already done; when they suffer
for their faith, they undergo what their Master has
already undergone. When we are engaged on some great
enterprise, we can say: ‘We are treading where the
saints have trod’, but when we confess our faith
before others, we are able to say even more; we can
say: ‘I stand with Christ’; and surely this must
lift up our hearts and inspire our lives.
(3) He is to remember that Christ comes again. He is
to remember that his life and work must be made fit
for him to see. Christians are not working to
satisfy other people; they are working to satisfy
Christ. The question a Christian must always ask is
not: ‘Is this good enough to pass the judgment of
others?’ but: ‘Is it good enough to win the approval
of Christ?’
(4) Above all, he is to remember God. And what a
memory that is! He is to remember the one who is
King of every king and Lord of every lord; the one
who possesses the gift of life eternal to give to
men and women; the one whose holiness and majesty
are such that no one can ever dare to look upon
them. Christians must always remember God and say:
‘If God is for us, who is against us?’ (Romans
8:31). ~Barclay Commentary
Let us go to the other commentaries now.
Again, our lesson for tonight is verse 15:
1 Timothy 6:15
Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed
and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of
lords;
What we are going to see from this verse is that we
are talking about both God the Father and Jesus
Christ...the Godhead. All actions carried out
in the Universe by these two supreme spirit beings
are manifested from the Godhead.
Let us begin with the Matthew Henry main commentary.
Concerning Christ and God the Father the apostle
here speaks great things.
(1.) That God is the only Potentate; the powers of
earthly princes are all derived from him, and depend
upon him. The powers that exist are ordained of God,
Romans 13:1. He is the only Potentate that is
absolute and sovereign, and perfectly independent.
Note:
"Potentate" means One who has the power and position
to rule over others; a monarch.
(2.) He is the blessed and the only Potentate,
infinitely happy, and nothing can in the least
impair his happiness.
(3.) He is King of kings, and Lord of lords. All the
kings of the earth derive their power from him; he
gave them their crowns, they hold them under him,
and he has a sovereign dominion over them. This is
Christ's title (Revelation 19:16), upon his vesture
and his thigh; for he has a name higher than the
kings of the earth.
(4.) He only has immortality. He only is immortal in
himself, and has immortality as he is the fountain
of it, for the immortality of angels and spirits
derived from him.
(5.) He dwells in inaccessible light, light which no
man can approach unto: no man can get to heaven but
those whom he is pleased to bring thither, and admit
into his kingdom.
(6.) He is invisible: Whom no man hath seen, nor can
see. It is impossible that mortal eyes should bear
the brightness of the divine glory. No man can see
God and live. ~Matthew
Henry
Quoted verses:
Romans 13:1
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
For there is no power but of God: the powers that be
are ordained of God.
Revelation 19:16
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name
written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Which in his times he shall
shew - R.V. in its own times, apparently
because sometimes it must be so, e.g. 1 Timothy 2:6;
and this would point to a set meaning and
quasi-adverbial use. But in Titus 1:2 inconsistently
‘his own seasons.’
~Cambridge commentary
Quoted verses:
1 Timothy 2:6 [See
Lesson]
Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified
in due time.
Note: In our
lesson of this verse we see, "in due time" as the
proper time.
Titus 1:2
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie,
promised before the world began;
Who is the blessed and only
Potentate - The ‘only,’ without being
polemical, states the grand truth positively, which
is the antidote to the questionings of the heretical
negations.
King of kings, and Lord of
lords - A title given to our Lord, Revelation
17:14, as the Lamb; clearly here to God the
Father—an addition to the many similar proofs of the
Unity of the Godhead.
~Cambridge commentary
Quoted verse:
Revelation 17:14
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb
shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and
King of kings: and they that are with him are
called, and chosen, and faithful.
Now to the more specific commentaries. The verse is
generally divided into four parts:
1] Which in his times he shall show.
2] Who is the blessed and only Potentate.
3] The King of Kings.
4] And Lord of Lords.
1] Which in his times he shall
show.
Which in his times he shall
show - Which God will reveal at such times as
he shall deem best. It is implied here that the time
is unknown to people; see the notes on Acts 1:7.
~Barnes Notes
Quoted verse:
Acts 1:7
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the
times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in
his own power.
Which in his times he shall
show - Jesus will appear in the most proper
time; the time which the infinite God in his wisdom
has appointed for the second coming of his Son.
~Adam Clarke
Which in his times he shall
show - For though the time of Christ's
appearing is unknown, yet the thing itself is
certain; God will bring it about, and make it
manifest in his own time, in the time that is fixed
and appointed by him; and which is only known unto
him, and which he keeps in his own power, and has
reserved in his own breast:
~John Gill
In his times — Greek,
“His own [fitting]
times”. The plural implies successive stages in the
manifestation of the kingdom of God, each having its
own appropriate time, the regulating principle and
knowledge of which rests with the Father (2 Timothy
1:9). ~Jamieson, Fausset,
Brown
Quoted verse:
2 Timothy 1:9
Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according
to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began.
He shall show —
“display”: an expression appropriate in reference to
His “APPEARING,” which is stronger than His
“coming,” and implies its visibility; “manifest”:
make visible: “He” is the Father.
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
Which in his times. -
The words qualify the expectation just expressed ["until
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ."--verse 14].
He leaves the times and the seasons in the hands of
the Great Ruler. ~The
Popular commentary
Which in his times he shall
show - Appearing. In his own times - The
power, the knowledge, and the revelation of which,
remain in his eternal mind.
~John Wesley Explanatory Notes
Which in his times he shall
show - Better, his own seasons, or its own
seasons. Either the seasons proper to the appearing,
or the seasons which God shall see fit to select.
~Vincent's Word Studies
2] Who is the blessed and only
Potentate.
Who is the blessed and only
Potentate - God, who is the ruler over all.
The word used here - δυνάστης dunastēs - means one
who is “mighty”, then a prince or ruler;
compare Acts 8:27. It is applied here to God as the
mighty ruler over the universe.
~Barnes Notes
Quoted verse:
Acts 8:27
And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of
Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all
her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to
worship,
The blessed and only Potentate
- Δυναστης, Potentate, is applied to secular
governors; but none of these can be styled ὁ
μακαριος και μονος, the happy and only One; ὁ
Βασιλευς των βασιλευοντων, the King of kings, or the
King over all kings; and Κυριος των κυριευοντων, the
Lord over all lords or rulers. These are titles
which could not be given to any mortals. This is
made more specific by the verse following.
~Adam Clarke
Who is the blessed -
the Syriac version reads, "the blessed God"; who is
blessed in himself, in his Son and Spirit, in the
perfections of his nature; who is God
all-sufficient, has enough in himself for himself,
and for all his creatures; who is the fountain and
the author of all blessedness, temporal, spiritual,
and eternal, which any of them are, or shall be
possessed of: ~John Gill
And only Potentate - or
Governor of the whole world, which can be said of
none but himself: he is the Governor among the
nations, and over all the nations of the earth; his
kingdom rules over all other kingdoms; and he has
his power and government from himself, whereas all
other potentates have their power from him, as
follows: ~John Gill
The Blessed and only
potentate. - All power in heaven and earth
had been placed in Jesus Christ's hands [Matthew
28:18]. ~People's New
Testament
Quoted verse:
Matthew 28:18
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
3] The King of Kings.
The King of kings - Who
claims dominion over all the kings of the earth. In
Revelation 7:14 [quoted
above], the same appellation is applied
to the Lord Jesus, ascribing to him universal
dominion. ~Barnes Notes
The King of kings, and Lord of
lords - from whom they receive their sceptres,
crowns, and kingdoms; by whom they reign, and are
continued in their power; for he sets up kings, and
removes kings at his pleasure, and to him they must
be accountable for all their administrations another
day; and at present they are under his influence,
and at his control; he has their hearts, and their
counsels, as well as kingdoms, in his hands, and
under his overruling providence; and causes all to
answer his wise and eternal purposes. These titles
are used by the Jews, who style him, אדון כל האדונים
מלך על כל המלכים, "Lord of all lords, King over all
kings" (s). The
same name is given to Christ, Revelation 19:16 [quoted
above], which shows him to be equal with
the Father. ~John Gill
4] And Lord of Lords.
Lord of lords - The
idea here is, that all the sovereigns of the earth
are under his sway; that none of them can prevent
the accomplishment of his purposes; and that he can
direct the winding up of human affairs when he
pleases. ~Barnes Notes
The blessed and only
Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords
- He combines many words together for one purpose:
by which he confirms the power of God, which if we
trust steadfastly in, we will not be moved out of
our position. ~Geneva Bible
Translation Notes
What we
learn in this lesson:
1] God is king of every king.
2] All earthy presidents, kings, queens, prime
ministers and dictators derive their positions and
power from God.
3] All individuals in any position of authority
and/or power were put there by God.
4] God is in absolute control of time and what
happens at specific points in time.
5] Jesus Christ will appear at the most proper time.
6] The fact that Christ will appear is certain.
7] God is the fountain and author of all blessedness
- temporal, spiritual and eternal.
8] God is the blessed God; who is blessed in
Himself, in His Son and Spirit [His
essence].
9] All power in heaven and earth has been placed in
the hands of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18).
10] No human, including all those in power can
prevent the accomplishment of God's will and
purpose. |
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