1 Timothy 6

Chap. VI. Ver. 1—21. Exhortation to servants—Directions to Timothy—Cautions against covetousness and worldly-mindedness.—The exhortation to slaves and other servants, is very similar to that given to those among the Colossians, ((1 Timothy 3:22),) with this additional charge, not to take any advantage of their masters, as being fellow Christians, so as to worldly began;

Notes on the verses

Chap. VI. Ver. 1. Under the bond of bondage, or in actual slavery. Ver. 2. Because they are faithful—i.e. fellow Christians.—Partakers of the benefit—i.e. of Christianity. Ver. 3. The words of our Lord Jesus.—All the precepts which the apostle delivered by inspiration being the precepts of Christ, there is no occasion to suppose that he here referred to some precepts which he delivered while on Ver. 4. Doting.—Macknight, “distempered.” Doddridge, “raving.” Ver. 7. We brought nothing into this world, &c.—See (Ecclesiastes 5:15). Ver. 10. They have erred.—Doddridge, “wandered.” Ver. 12. Professed a good profession.—Doddridge, “Confessed a good Ver. 13. A good confession.—The word is the same as in the verse preceding.

See (John 18:37). Ver. 15. Which in his times he shall show.—Doddridge, “manifest.” See (Acts 1:7). Ver. 16. Light which no man can approach unto.—Doddridge and Macknight, “light inaccessible.” Ver. 18. Willing to communicate—i.e. communicative; but the context evidently confines the word to charitable communications. Ver. 19. Laying up in store.—Doddridge, “Treasuring up.”—That they may lay hold.—The expression here, as in ver. 12, is evidently agonistic, and refers to grasping the prize which was the reward of victory. This Epistle bears the impress of its genuineness and authenticity, which are corroborated by the most decisive external evidence; and its divine inspiration respecting the apostacy in the latter days.

This prophecy is similar in [THAT this Epistle was written by St. Paul when a prisoner is sufficiently evident from (1 Timothy 1:8, 12, 16); ii. 9; and that it was while he was imprisoned at Rome, is universally admitted. That it was not written — is first confinement, recorded in (Acts 28), as Hammond, Lightfoot, and Lardner suppose, but during a second imprisonment there, and not long before he suffered martyrdom, as Benson, Macknight, Paley, and Clarke, Bishop Tomline, Michaelis, Rosenmüller, and Horne, contend, is amply proved by the following considerations: in his first imprisonment “he dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came to him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus, with all confidence, no man forbidding him;”

but at the time he wrote this Epistle, he was closely imprisoned as one guilty of a great crime, so that Onesiphorus, on his arrival at Rome, had considerable difficulty in finding him out, and his situation at this time was extremely dangerous. At his first confinement at Rome, Timothy was with St. Paul, and is joined with him in writing to the Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon; but the present Epistle implies that he was absent. At the former period, Demas was with him; but now he had Ver. 20. That which is committed to thy trust.—Namely, the gospel.—Science falsely so called.—The word here rendered science, (gnoseos,) in the following century gave rise to a sect famous (or rather infamous) in Ecclesiastical history, called Gnostics, or knowing ones, because they pretended to know more than any other Christians; and it has been surmised, from this text, that the sect was now rising to public notice.

Ver. 21. Have erred concerning the faith.—It was the desire of being wiser than man was designed to be, that seduced our first mother, Eve, and ruined mankind. ((Genesis 3:6).) And the same principle has led curious minds into dangerous errors, in every successive generation. The sect, or rather sects, of the Gnostics, (for they were much divided,) led them into speculations concerning the Aeons, (or ages,) whom they took for a kind of intelligences save from the Deity, which notion was the parent of a thousand foolish the general subject to that in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians, though it differs in the particular circumstances; and exactly corresponds with that forsaken him, having loved this present world, and gone to Thessalonica.

St. Mark was also then with him; but in the — Epistle Timothy is ordered to bring him with him. In the former Epistles, the Apostle confidently looked forward to his liberation, and speedy departure from Rome, ((Philippians 2:24). Philem. 22;) but in the Epistle before us he holds extremely different language, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.” From these observations, to which others might, and have been added, we may conclude, that this Epistle was written while St.

Paul was in imprisonment the second time at Rome, and but a short time before his martyrdom; and, as it is generally agreed that this took place on the 29th of June, A. D. 66, and as the Apostle requests Timothy to come to him before winter, it is probable that it was written in the summer of A. D. 65. It is generally supposed, that Timothy resided at Ephesus when St. Paul wrote this Epistle to him; which appears very probable, though not certain.]—Bagster. 1331 Cup. I. Ver. 3. From my forefathers.—Paul was always an upright, conscientious man, even when a persecutor. Ver. 6. Stir up.—The expression is metaphorical, and may allude to the priests stirring up the embers on the sacred altar: Lord Barrington explains it of blowing the embers.—By the putting on of my hands.—See (1 Timothy 4:14). Ver. 7. The spirit of fear, &c.—Doddridge, “Not a spirit of cowardice, but of power.” Ver. 9. Who hath saved us, &c.—See (Romans 8:28-30). Ver. 10. Who hath abolished death.—Death was virtually abolished by bringing life and immortality to light. So the rising sun dispels the darkness: not all at once, but as it increases in strength and glory; for, as to its final abolition, “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26).—And brought life and immortality to light.—“Life and immortality,” as Tillotson remarks, “is a Hebraism for ‘immortal life.’ It cannot be denied, that not only the Jews, but many of the heathen also, had anticipations of a future state; but they were comparatively defective and obscure; and the latter, at best, may be compared to moonshine—faint and cold: but the gospel throws the full beams of the Sun of righteousness on this doctrine, and renders it resplendent and illustrious.

Some, however, translate the Greek word, (aphtharsian,) not immortality, but incorruption—(so Parkhurst)—and refer it to the doctrine of a Resurrection, of which, indeed, the heathen were wholly ignorant, and which was rejected by many of the Jews; but it was clearly revealed in the gospel, and an example of it exhibited in the person of Jesus Christ. Ver. 13. The form of sound words.—The word properly signifies (as Macknight observes) the first sketch of an artist: and Archbishop Tillotson explains it of the profession of faith then usually made at baptism; but we should rather consider it as referring to the great and essential principles of the gospel. Ver. 15. All they which are in Asia—That is, in the district round Ephesus,

where Timothy now resided. The Asiatics, (who were proverbially cowardly,) some of them had probably attended upon Paul at Rome, but had left him at finding themselves in danger with him.—Phygellus and Hermogenes.—Of these men we know nothing more than what is here recorded; but they were, perhaps, well known to Timothy.