1 Timothy 6:13-16 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I give thee charge, &c. See note on 1 Timothy 5:21; in the sight In the presence; of God Whose eye is upon us both; and who quickeneth all things Who is the source of life, natural, spiritual, and eternal, and therefore is able to raise those from the dead that suffer for him: a suitable, though oblique intimation, that should Timothy, after the example of his great Lord, sacrifice his life to the honour of his profession, God, who raised Christ from the dead, would raise him. See 2 Timothy 2:3; 2 Timothy 2:10-12. The earnestness and solemnity with which the apostle addresses Timothy on this occasion, did not proceed from any suspicion of his fidelity as a minister, but from his own deep sense of the importance of the truths which Timothy was to confess and maintain. Hence the ministers of the gospel may learn that these truths ought to be often and earnestly insisted on by them in their public discourses. And before In the presence of; Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession This was made by our Lord most explicitly before Caiaphas and the Jewish council, when, being asked whether he was Christ, the Son of the Blessed, he acknowledged that he was; and added, Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, &c, Mark 14:61-62. This confession was adhered to by our Lord in the presence of Pilate, when he acknowledged himself the King of the Jews, John 18:33; John 18:37; that is, acknowledged that he was Messiah the prince, and suffered death rather than conceal or retract it. And the apostle calls it a good confession, because all our hopes of salvation are built upon the truth of it. That thou keep this commandment That thou observe whatsoever I have enjoined thee, or, that thou keep the doctrine which I have committed to thee; without spot Without adding to it, detracting from it, concealing or misrepresenting any part of it; and unrebukable So that no one may have cause to find any fault with thee, or reprove thee for thy neglect; till the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ Till he shall call thee hence by death; or the meaning of the exhortation is, that Timothy, by keeping the doctrines and precepts which the apostle had committed to him without spot, was to hand them down pure to his successors in the ministry, and thereby to contribute his part toward preserving them in the world till Christ's second coming. Which appearing, in his appointed time (The power, the knowledge, the revelation of which remain in his own eternal mind;) he shall show In the most awful and conspicuous manner; who is the blessed and only Potentate Before whom no other name or power is worthy of being mentioned; the King of kings, and Lord of lords These titles the apostle gave to God, because all who have dominion, whether in heaven or on earth, have it from God, and are absolutely subject to him. The eastern princes affected these titles very improperly, being weak, mortal men: the true King of kings, and Lord of lords, who hath the fates and lives of all the monarchs on earth entirely in his hands, is alone worthy of them. Who only hath Underived and independent; immortality Life without beginning and without ending; and as this implies immutability, he only is immutable, as well as immortal; whence he is called, (Romans 1:23,) αφθαρτος Θεος, the incorruptible, or immutable God, as also 1 Timothy 1:17. Every other being, angel or man, that hath life without end, hath it by his gift. Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto Which is absolutely inaccessible to mortals, and probably also to angels. Whom no man hath seen, nor can see With bodily eyes; yet there is a sense in which the pure in heart shall see God, in the future and eternal state: yea, shall see him as he is, Mat 5:8; 1 John 3:2. To whom be honour, &c. Ascribed by every intelligent being in the universe, through eternal ages.