1 Timothy 4:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Timothy 4:10

Comments

Paul says in effect, ‘We have so proved the reliability of this statement. That is why we are ready to do anything for the Lord, no matter how much difficulty it brings to us.’ ‘For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God.’ It is a statement, a saying which is reliable, trustworthy and worthy to be embraced by Christians – that godliness, reverence is profitable unto all things. Who are the ‘we’? Paul and Timothy in this case; they are ministers at this time. ‘For therefore we both labour [toil painfully] and suffer reproach [scorn and rejection], because we [put all our] trust in the living God.’ Almighty God, the one true and living God, Father, Son and Holy Spiri:, he is the only living God who is personal and conscious, infinitely conscious, infinitely divine, infinitely knowing, infinitely holy and powerful. ‘The living God’ – he interacts with his people. He is the living God who sees and feels and plans and acts. There is only one true and living God. But ‘living God’ here clearly refers to the risen Saviour, because he is mentioned particularly in the verse and in the passage, and right through the chapter, the resurrection is clear. ‘Because we trust in the living God.’ He is the God who sees and considers all that we go through. He is the God who hears our prayers and responds to us with gracious answers given in his perfect wisdom. He is the God who thinks on his children, and designs wonderful providences for them, and a unique training program in life specific to each one. He is alive as we are alive, and he is eternal. He has given us life, and we can lean on him.‘Who is the Saviour of all men, specially [most of all] of those that believe.’ The expression ‘specially of those that believe’ troubles some. It seems to be a contradiction. It cannot mean that all are saved eternally; we know that they aren’t. It must mean that he is Saviour in different senses in each case – in the case of those who do not believe, and in the case of those who do believe. In the first case, this is about common grace. Even though we live in a fallen world, a world which is under the curse, Paul can say this of the living God. To interpret these words we are compelled to apply a sense to the word ‘Saviour’ which is different to the one we normally use. It is, if we may express it this way, natural for God to save. How do we manage to live to the age of 70? Because God is the preserver of life. He is constantly doing this in the lives of men, women, and children, and saving them from all sorts of dangers and disasters. It is true that he also judges men, but that is because their sins necessitate judgment. We have instances of his saving, as Hendriksen reminds us in the deliverance of the nation of Israel out of Egypt, and in the work of the judges. God is constantly at work saving, but that saving falls short of eternal salvation. It is in the case of those that believe that the full extent of God’s saving work is seen. They are saved body and soul for all eternity. The rest experience God’s saving work in their lives, but it is temporary and falls short of his full saving power. God is the Saviour, the deliverer and preserver of all. When you commit sin, you deserve instant judgement, but he keeps open your life, and the opportunity for repentance. We see the benevolence of God, the mercy and kindness of God. The godliness which is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, is evidenced by God saving work in the lives of those who believe. There we see the wonder of his salvation, which gathers up all our defects and deficiencies and applies his perfect solution to them all. The result is something that could never have been expected, given the terrible state of human lives before God intervenes in them.

Application

‘Specially of those that believe.’ There we see his unfettered love. When you bear that in mind, you can trust him. How much more is his unfettered love towards us! If we say, ‘I will live for him’ and Satan comes and says, ‘This means you will be left disadvantaged’, we say, ‘No. He will prove his rewarding special care to me.’ So you trust yourself to obey his commands.

Questions

There's quite an amount of misinterpretation of this verse. Some people say, ‘Christ died for every single person. Salvation is potentially in place for every single person. Christ is in that sense the Saviour of every single person and has died for them and provided for them. Now it's just up to you: take it or leave it.’ But that's contrary to the teaching of Scripture, which clearly sets out that Christ died for his people, to atone for those who would be saved. So it doesn't mean that. And yet he is clearly described as the Saviour of everyone in some sense. The word ‘Saviour’ is used in two senses throughout the Scripture. Of course it's especially used of Christ the Saviour who saves the redeemed, but it's also used in a very general sense. So for example, when God saved the children of Israel from Egypt, he is described as their Saviour, and yet most of them were lost in the wilderness; they were not in fact spiritually saved, and they sinned against God and he was not pleased with them. But still he was their Saviour in the general sense that he saved them from Egypt. There are a number of ways in which Christ is the Saviour of all men. In the very first chapter of the Gospel of John, it said that Christ ‘lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’ It may very well be that every single person, even the most hardened atheists, at some time in their lives called upon God, and he was their Saviour in that instant in order to leave them without excuse and in order to encourage every human heart toward himself. You read of wartime and other experiences in which people will admit to you, ‘I prayed, I called upon God’, and they survived; he was their Saviour. But such is the hardness of the human heart, that that is as far as it went. Then how is it that every human being is not condemned and put through death and judgment the moment they first sin? How is it that we all survived childhood, youth, early life, even before we were saved, sinning away our moments without instant judgment? Because Christ exercised his patience toward us and gave us life, even if we subsequently rejected him. So many people tragically will be lost. But in the last day, when there is the general judgment, there will be a new human race in heaven forever. Project human race will be saved. He is the Saviour of the entire human race collectively, though many will be lost. But in the highest sense he is the Saviour specially of his people through the new birth and everlasting life.

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Purpose

Introduction

1 Timothy 4:10 Commentary and Bible Study

Explain meaning of 1 Timothy 4:10