That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable. — Here St. Paul specifies what was the charge he was commending in such earnest, solemn language to his disciple and representative at Ephesus. It was that he should keep the commandment without spot, unrebukeable. The commandment was the teaching of Jesus Christ, the gospel message, that was to be proclaimed in all its fulness; and that this might be done effectually it was needful that the life of its preacher should be without flaw — blameless; in other words, it was absolutely requisite that the chief pastor in Ephesus should live the life he preached. There were those (the false teachers of whom he had been speaking, well known to Timothy) whose lives had dishonoured the glorious commandment they professed to love and teach.
Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. — The speedy return of the Lord in glory was, no doubt, looked for in the Church of the first days. The expressions of 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 evidently were written at a time when the second advent of Messiah was looked on as probably near at hand. By slow degrees — as one great teacher of the first days after the other fell asleep in Jesus, and the first generation of believers was rapidly passing away, and no fresh sign of the coming in glory was manifested — the strong expressions used in the first fervour which succeeded the Pentecost morning began to be qualified, as in this Epistle, written far on in St. Paul’s life, by words which seemed to say to Timothy: “Keep the Master’s commandment pure and blameless till the hour of that glorious Epiphany which your eyes will possibly behold.”