Survey of the Letters of Paul:  1 Timothy 6:13

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

Now to the other commentaries. We will begin with the general and go to the specific commentaries.

Breaking into the Matthew Henry main commentary...

The apostle here charges Timothy to keep this commandment (that is, the whole work of his ministry, all the trust reposed in him, all the service expected from him) without spot, unrebukable; he must conduct himself so in his ministry that he might not lay himself open to any blame nor incur any blemish. What are the motives to move him to this?

I. He gives him a solemn charge: I give thee charge in the sight of God that thou do this. He charges him as he will answer it at the great day to that God whose eyes are upon us all, who sees what we are and what we do: - God, who quickens all things, who has life in himself and is the fountain of life. This should quicken us to the service of God that we serve a God who quickens all things. He charges him before Christ Jesus, to whom in a peculiar manner he stood related as a minister of his gospel: Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. Observe, Christ died not only as a sacrifice, but as a martyr; and he witnessed a good confession when he was arraigned before Pilate, saying (John 18:36-37), My kingdom is not of this world: I am come to bear witness unto the truth. That good confession of his before Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world, should be effectual to draw off all his followers, both ministers and people, from the love of this world.

II. He reminds him of the confession that he himself had made: Thou hast professed a good profession before many witnesses (1 Timothy 6:12), namely, when he was ordained by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. The obligation of that was still upon him, and he must live up to that, and be quickened by that, to do the work of his ministry. ~Matthew Henry main commentary

Quoted verses:
John 18:36-37
36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

1 Timothy 6:12 [see lesson]
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.

Now to the specific commentaries.

1 Timothy 6:13
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;

The commentaries put this into 3-4 phrases:

1] I give thee charge in the sight of God.
2] Who quickeneth all things.
3] And before Christ Jesus.
4] Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession.


1] I give thee charge in the sight of God.
I give thee charge in the sight God - see the notes on 1 Timothy 5:21 [see lesson].  ~Barnes Notes

Quoted verse:
1 Timothy 5:21
I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

A most earnest request and charge, to observe and keep all the things faithfully, with our eyes set upon the coming of Jesus Christ, whose glory we have to contrast with the vain glittering of this world, and his power with all the terrors of the wicked. ~Geneva Bible Translation Notes

I give thee charge in the sight of God. - Who is omniscient and omnipotent. ~John Gill

2] Who quickeneth all things.
Who quickeneth all things - Giveth life to. ~People's New Testament

Who quickeneth all things - Who gives life to all; notes on Ephesians 2:1. It is not quite clear why the apostle refers to this attribute of God as enforcing the charge which he here makes. Perhaps he means to say that God is the source of life, and that as he had given life to Timothy - natural and spiritual - he had a right to require that it should be employed in his service; and that, if, in obedience to this charge and in the performance of his duties, he should be required to lay down his life, he should bear in remembrance that God had power to raise him up again. This is more distinctly urged in 2 Timothy 2:8-10. ~Barnes Notes

Quoted verses:
Ephesians 2:1
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

2 Timothy 2:8-10
18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.

Who quickeneth all things - God, who is the fountain of life, and who is the resurrection; and who will raise thee up at the last day to a life of ineffable glory, if thou be faithful unto death. And should thy life fall a sacrifice to the performance of thy duty, all will be safe; for thy life is hid with Christ in God, and when he who is thy life shall appear, then shalt thou also appear with him in glory! Thy kingdom is not of this world; remember that this good confession was made by thy Master before Pilate. Keep disentangled from all earthly things, live to and for God, and all will be well. ~Adam Clarke

Who quickeneth all things - all creatures, for all animate creatures have their life, motion, and bring in him; and who quickeneth all his people, at first conversion, when dead in sin, and afterwards when dull and lifeless; and who will quicken the dead at the last day. This seems to be mentioned to strengthen Timothy against the fears of death, that should he die in fighting the Lord's battles, he was able to raise him from the dead, and would do it. ~John Gill

3] And before Christ Jesus.
And before Christ Jesus - As in the presence of Christ, and stimulated by his example. ~Barnes Notes

4] Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession.
Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession - Margin, “profession.” The same Greek word is used which in 1Timothy 6:12 is translated “profession.” The reference is to the fact that the Lord Jesus, when standing at the bar of Pilate who claimed to have power over his life, did not shrink from an open avowal of the truth; John 18:36-37. Nothing can be better fitted to preserve our minds steadfast in the faith, and to enable us to maintain our sacred vows in this world when allured by temptation, or when ridiculed for our religion, than to remember the example of the Lord Jesus; Let us place him before us as he stood at the bar of Pilate - threatened with death in its most appalling form, and ridiculed for the principles which he maintained; let us look on him, friendless and alone, and see with what seriousness, and sincerity, and boldness he stated the simple truth about himself, and we shall have one of the best securities that we can have, that we shall not dishonor our profession. A clear view of the example of Christ our Saviour, in those circumstances, and a deep conviction that his eye is upon us to discern whether we are steadfast as he was, will do more than all abstract precepts to make us faithful to our Christian calling. ~Barnes Notes

A good confession - The confession made by Christ before Pontius Pilate is, that he was Messiah the King; but that his kingdom was not of this world; and that hereafter he should be seen coming in the clouds of heaven to judge the quick and dead. ~Adam Clarke

And before Pontius Pilate - who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; or rather "under Pontius Pilate"; or, as the Arabic and Ethiopic versions render it, "in the time of Pontius Pilate"; for this may refer not only to the confession Christ made in his presence, at his examination by him, when he owned himself to be a King, declared the nature of his kingdom, and signified that the end of his incarnation was to bear a testimony to the truth; but it may also refer to the faithful, plain, and open witness Christ bore to truth throughout the whole of his ministry, under Pontius Pilate, by his doctrine and miracles, and at last by his sufferings and death, which he endured under him; and this is mentioned for Timothy's imitation, and to encourage him, and all other saints, to hold fast the profession of their faith to the end. ~John Gill

Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. - The Greek may be rendered "under Pontius Pilate." Jesus before the Sanhedrim confessed that he was the Christ, the Son of God, and on that confession they condemned him to death and hurried him to Pilate for execution. I believed this is what Paul refers to. Though before Pilate our Lord reaffirmed in substance this same confession. ~People's New Testament

Let us look at related verses from the Bible as listed in the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge:

1] I give thee charge in the sight of God.
1 Timothy 5:21 ...covered above
I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

2] Who quickeneth all things.
Deuteronomy 32:39
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

1 Samuel 2:6
The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.

John 5:21
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

Act 17:25
Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

3] And before Christ Jesus.
John 18:36-37
36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

4] Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession.
Revelation 1:5-6
5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 3:14
And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

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