1 Timothy 1:17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Now unto the King, &c. A consideration of the great mercy which God had shown him, in not only pardoning him when he was involved in such great guilt, but in making him an example for the comfort of future penitents, causes him to break forth in a rapture of praise and thanksgiving; eternal Whose existence had no beginning, and shall have no end; immortal Or incorruptible, as αφθαρτω also signifies; it is however rightly translated immortal, because what is incorruptible is likewise immortal; invisible To mortal eyes. By this epithet the true God is distinguished from all those heathen deities who were the workmanship of men's hands, or the creatures of God, such as the luminaries of heaven, and from all those deified heroes and other human beings who had once been visible on earth, and were made the objects of worship after their decease. To the only wise God Or, to God only wise; that is, originally, independently, essentially, and infinitely; or, to the wise God alone, (for the reason of which rendering see note on Romans 16:27,) be honour and glory That is, let these excellences be more sensibly manifested, more seriously and frequently acknowledged, and sincerely venerated.