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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 1 Timothy 6:19 - 6:19
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Ver. 19. The description is here wound up by a word which very strikingly exhibits the connection between such a course of action on earth and its issues in eternity: treasuring up ( ἀðïèçóáõñßæïíôåò , off from what would otherwise be lost, and so up) for themselves a good foundation for the future, in order that they may lay hold of what is life indeed. (Such seems to be the correct reading, ôῆò ὄíôùò æùῆò , à , A, D, F, Ital., Vulg., Syr., Cop. versions, and most of the Fathers; while the received text, ôç ͂ ò áé ̓ ùíé ́ ïõ æùç ͂ ò , is the reading of only two uncials, K, L, with little collateral support. This is also the reading which might naturally suggest itself as an explanation.) Two important practical points are here forcibly presented. The first is, the doctrine of a future recompense, the proper employment of one’s means in charitable and pious uses, and consequently the doing of good deeds generally, being said to constitute a treasure for the world to come; a treasure which is not an uncertainty, like riches when contemplated by themselves and sought for their own sake, but a foundation ( èåìÝëéïí ), or well-grounded basis of hope, for the great future. The doctrine could scarcely be more unequivocally put, and is the more remarkable as coming from him who was emphatically the preacher of grace: he saw no incompatibility between a free salvation, the gift of sovereign grace to the sinful, and the placing of those who have become partakers of grace under the law of recompense. And in the teaching of our Lord Himself, the same two doctrines are equally marked characteristics (comp., for example, in Mat_5:3-10, the first four beatitudes with the second four; or the two parables, Luk_16:1-12, Mat_18:23-35). The link of connection between the two is, that the grace which brings salvation as a divine gift, becomes from its very nature to those who receive it their great talent, wherewith they must do service to God, and hereafter be dealt with according as they have themselves done. But is not such a prominent exhibition of the doctrine of reward at variance with the disinterested nature of true excellence? It might be so, if isolated from other parts of the Christian system, but not when taken in its proper connection. “For the truth is, that the Christian’s love of virtue does not arise from a previous desire of the reward; but his desire of the reward arises from a previous love of virtue. The first and immediate effect of his conversion is to inspire him with the genuine love of virtue and religion; and his desire of the reward is a secondary and subordinate effect, a consequence of the love of virtue previously formed in him. For of the nature of the reward it promises, what does the gospel discover to us more than this, that it shall be great and endless, and adapted to the intellectual endowments and moral qualities of the human soul in a state of high improvement? ‘It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’” (Horsley’s 2d Sermon on Php_3:15.) This resemblance is even represented in Scripture as the most essential element both of the Christian state here and of the heavenly state hereafter; and therefore not the actions simply which appear in the life, but the motives also and principles from which those actions proceed, must go together in any just expectation that is formed of future recompense. Beneficent deeds and good deeds generally are valuable most of all on this account, that they are the indications and fruits of a regenerated nature; and such a nature, so proved and exercised, will at last “as by its own elasticity spring to heaven,” while that which is in an opposite condition shall not less certainly “descend by its own dead weight to kindred darkness” (A. Butler). (A well-known passage in Newman’s discourses puts the matter happily, as regards the present relation of goodness to the beneficial consequences that spring from it:—“All virtue and goodness tend to make men powerful in this world; but they who aim at the power have not the virtue. Again: Virtue is its own reward, and brings with it the truest and highest pleasures; but they who cultivate it for the pleasure-sake are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the pleasure, because they can never have the virtue.”) The other point here presented is the emphasis laid on life in the higher sense—life that really may be called such: rich Christians are exhorted to deal with their earthly means in the manner prescribed, in order that they may lay hold of this. Simply as rich men, they were in danger of suffering it to escape from them; certain to fail of it, if they set their hearts on worldly lucre, and the enjoyments to which it ministers. What is meant by such life? It is nothing else than that participation of a divine nature already referred to, which has its beginning here in all spiritual excellence and fruitful working, but will reach its consummation when that which is in part shall be done away, and the perfect shall have come. In this passage, it may be added, St. Paul approaches more nearly to St. John’s mode of representation concerning the Life ( æù ́ ç ) than anywhere else—Life, without anything further; Life in the reality being viewed as the one and all of a blessed condition. To exhibit this life as having its fountainhead in the Father, and coming to men as His gift in Christ, is the common teaching of both, and indeed of all the New Testament writers; to St. John only it is peculiar to represent Him, through whom the gift comes, as the Life (Joh_1:4, Joh_11:25, Joh_14:6, etc.). “In the Father, things are shut up and hidden which manifest themselves in the Son; therefore all things which the Son has belong to the Father: but in the Son the properties of the Father are revealed to men, in order that His name may be celebrated with praise. Life thus lying concealed with the Father in the beginning was manifested to men in the Son; so that when the Father is manifested, the Son is to be seen” (Olshausen, Opuscula, p. 193). In regard to men, life in this higher sense is predicated only of such as have, through the action of the Holy Spirit on their souls, been brought to participate of that which is in Christ. The merely natural man ( øõ ́ ÷éêïò ) is dead, even while as an inhabitant of the world he lives; “it is the Spirit that quickeneth.” And this quickening energy entering into the soul, and linking it through faith in’ Christ to the proper heritage of life, the body also, by reason of its connection with the soul, must share in the glorious possession; and when both soul and body reach thus their destined perfection, there shall be the full enjoyment of what is here called the life indeed—life in its completeness of purity and blessing.