1 Timothy 6:11-16: The Man of God’s Pursuits
2021-11-27
1 Timothy 6:11
In contrast with those who seek to be rich, the man of God should have a different ambition. The man of God should seek “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness” (1 Timothy 6:11). Note that these things all originate with God, as opposed to riches, which originate with the world. Compare these words and the love of money:
Righteousness is being just and loving justice. The love of money perverts justice. An example is bribes: “And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous” (Exodus 23:8). Another example is having different weights. Money was weighed to see its value. False weights could cause one to take advantage of another: “Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good” (Proverbs 20:23).
Godliness is piety and being Christlike. The love of money is contrary to Christ. Jesus purposely chose to be born into a poor family. He put the thief in charge of the money bag. To seek riches is to seek to be contrary to Christ.
Faith “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). To walk by faith, you are not trusting in the stuff you see. The love of money is to seek security in the things you can see.
Love is sacrificial service for another. The love of money is another word altogether, but if we applied the concept to money, money is served rather than another person. This changes what love really is. Love originates with God, because God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). Love for money corrupts the very essence of love.
Patience is longsuffering and the ability to accept delay without anger. The love of money will do anything to acquire wealth. One can think of the get rich quick schemes, which is condemned by the Bible: “A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent” (Proverbs 28:20).
Meekness is humility. The love of money often exalts self. Look at me, and how rich I am! It creates a competition between those who want to have the most “stuff.” There are Joneses that need to be kept up with. It is covetousness.
Fight the Good Fight of Faith
1 Timothy 6:12
Faith is fighting a good fight. Everything in the world system is trying to convince you to live by sight and not by faith. It is a minutely struggle. It is a spiritual battle. This is reminiscent of 1 Timothy 1:18, where we discussed warring a good warfare. The phrase may be a little different, but the concept is the same. The world system gives you more than a million reasons to abandon faith in favor of false security and comfort.
To “lay hold on eternal life” is to choose the eternal over the temporal. It is choosing Christ over the things of this world. We will be with Christ forever, and the things of the world will be gone tomorrow. Furthermore, Christ is the source of eternal life, and everything else is an impostor. To “lay hold on eternal life” is to lay hold on Christ Himself. We believed to be saved, but we also continue in belief when living the Christian life.
We are called to lay hold on the eternal life. The Lord Himself calls us to abandon the previous life and lay hold of the Christ-life. The profession is what we say: we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins and rose from the dead. However, with profession, witnesses see your faith lived out daily.
All of this is the good fight of faith: abandoning the old life for the Christ-life, sharing and professing that life in Christ, and witnesses seeing it lived out. The world system is constantly pulling us away from these.
A Solemn Charge and Benediction
Paul charged Timothy to “keep this commandment” (1 Timothy 6:14). The immediate context implies that this commandment is to flee the things of the world, follow after certain characteristics (1 Timothy 6:11), and fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12). The solemnity of this charge is like that of 1 Timothy 5:21, as he evokes the name of God and enumerates attributes that reflect His power.
1 Timothy 6:13
The charge is given before God (presumably the Father) and Jesus Christ. There are qualifications given with both the Father and the Son.
God the Father “quickeneth all things.” This means He brings all things back to life in resurrection. “The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up” (1 Samuel 2:6). “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” (Deuteronomy 32:39).
There are three waves of resurrection mentioned in Scripture: Christ the firstfruits, the resurrection of the just (judgment seat of Christ), and the resurrection of the unjust (the great white throne) (see also Acts 24:15).
In 1 Corinthians 15:20-24, we see this order. Christ is considered the “firstfruits.” He is “first begotten of the dead” (Revelation 1:5). Others may have been risen from the dead, such as in the days Elijah and Elisha, and Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus. There is no reason to believe that they did not die again later of old age or something. Jesus is the first risen from the dead to never die again: “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him” (Romans 6:9).
Revelation 20:1-6 talks about the resurrection of the just, or the first resurrection. This is before the judgment seat of Christ. After Christ returns, He condemns Satan to the bottomless pit for 1,000 years. Then the saved are judged, and presumably rewarded. There we also give an account to God (Romans 14:10-12). There is a reckoning there that takes place (2 Corinthians 5:10-11). Though rewards are given, it is a scary time (“terror of the Lord”). Many will receive no reward at all (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).
The rest of the dead do not get raised until after the 1,000 years. This is the second resurrection, which is also the second death (Revelation 20:11-15). Books that recorded all their deeds judged them. The book of life records who is saved, and those who were not found there are eternally condemned in the lake of fire. They were in hell, which was in the earth, when they died. Now they are sent to the lake of fire, which is in outer darkness, for all eternity.
Paul also charges Timothy before the Son, Jesus Christ. The Lord “before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession” (1 Timothy 6:13). There is not much exchange recorded between Pilate and Jesus in the Synoptics. In these, they record that Pilate asked Jesus if He were the king of the Jews, and the Lord affirmed that He is. When He is accused of the Jewish leaders, Pilate pushed Jesus to answer their accusations, but Jesus did not respond with anything.
The Gospel of John gives us more details of this exchange (John 18:33-40). It is here where we get the real meat as to Jesus’ “good confession.” Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. His methods are not the same as the world’s methods. His servants do not fight wars to expand His kingdom. This is the first part of Christ’s good confession: His kingdom is not from this world; it is from the Father in heaven.
Moreover, His role as a King is to proclaim His kingdom, which is to proclaim truth. The truth is His Word (John 17:17). Another part of His good confession is to proclaim the truth of His Word.
John also has additional dialogue that takes place after Jesus’ scourging (John 19:6-11). Jesus does not initially answer about where He came from. However, He stated, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin” (John 19:11). Christ’s kingdom has power over Pilate’s kingdom. Moreover, the Lord clearly calls Pilate’s actions sin, yet does not retaliate. Any vengeance should come from above, not from us.
The phrase “good profession” in 1 Timothy 6:12 is the same phrase as “good confession” in 1 Timothy 6:13. Timothy was to continue to make that good confession before the world just as Jesus did before Pilate. We do the same. We proclaim that we are part of God’s kingdom and the truth of God’s word.
1 Timothy 6:14-16
In this section, the apostle told his protégé to keep a commandment to flee the things of the world, have certain characteristics, and fight the good fight of faith. With the charge given, the commandment is of utmost importance. Timothy is to keep the commandment “without spot” (1 Timothy 6:14). It must be kept perfectly. Going after the things of the world once could derail his entire life as well as the church in Ephesus.
Moreover, Timothy had to keep the commandment in that he would be “unrebukeable.” Not only should he carry out the commandment perfectly, but it should not even look like he is breaking the commandment. If he is unrebukable, that means there is no cause for anyone, within or without the church, to find fault with him. This protects the testimony of Timothy, the church, and the cause of Christ.
How long must he continue in this commandment? “...until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We do not really know when that will be. We must continue in the fight of faith until we see Jesus, either by death or by rapture. There is no vacation, there is no day off.
In 1 Timothy 6:15, we see that the Lord Jesus will appear “in his times.” There are signs that precede His coming, as outlined in the Olivet discourse (Matthew 24:32-36). We may know the season (parable of the fig tree), but we do not know the hour. We keep pressing on. We continue to watch, but whatever happens, we stand firm on the Word of God.
Jesus is “the blessed and only Potentate.” “Potentate” is translated elsewhere in the Magnificat as “the mighty” (Luke 1:52). “He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.” God establishes and takes away authority. Because Jesus the Son of God can give and take authority, His authority is above all other authorities. The word is also used of the Ethiopian eunuch: “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” (Acts 8:27). This treasurer of Ethiopia has a lot of power.
Jesus is the only true authority. He has given authority to all our leaders in our nation and state. That makes Jesus the only true authority. Also, since He is God and He is righteous, He also is the blessed Potentate. He is the King of kings, and Lord of lords: “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16). His clothing will have this inscription on the Day He returns.
Jesus is also the only one who has immortality (1 Timothy 6:16). He may have died for our sins, but it was never possible for Jesus to stay dead (Acts 2:23-28). “And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses” (Acts 3:15). He lighted every man that came into the world; no one would ever be able to snuff Him out forever. He voluntarily laid down His life, and He took it up again, so that we would be saved.
The Lord dwells “in the light which no man can approach unto.” In 1 John 1:5-7, God is light, and no one walking the in darkness can have fellowship with Him. In John 1:1-9, we see that Jesus is that Light. This indicates the deity of Jesus Christ.
A puzzling part about this is that Jesus is the light that “no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see” (1 Timothy 6:16). We often think of the Father as being the One we cannot see, but He is revealed in His Son. The Scriptures tell us, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). This tells us that any Theophany in the Old Testament is a Christophany. I thought that perhaps the whole time in this section we were talking about the Father, but the antecedent of “his” and “he” in 1 Timothy 6:15 must be Christ, not the Father. Names such as King of kings and Lord of lords are titles specifically given to Christ, so I believe this must still be talking about Christ here.
So how can this be? John saw Christ’s glorified state and fell down like a dead man (Revelation 1:17), but Jesus gave John strength in His presence. Here we see that John did see Jesus in a glorified state. So how can it be that “no man hath seen, nor can see” Him? (1 Timothy 6:16). I cannot say for sure. I believe it must be related to this: The light of His glory is so much higher and more glorious than we are, that we would never be able to enter into that. We will never be able to attain to the glory of the Son of God in His entirety.
This magnificent God we serve, the Lord Jesus Christ, has eternal honor and power: “to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” He possesses that honor and power, but we also ascribe it to Him. The word “Amen” is for emphasis; we declare that all the words of the benediction are true, and we express complete agreement with them. Amen and amen.