Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Timothy 5:25

"In like manner also there are good works that are evident; and such as are otherwise cannot be hid." — 1 Timothy 5:25 (ASV)

Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand. The character of some people is clear and accurately understood. There can be no doubt, from their works, that they are good people. We do not need to wait for the day of judgment to determine that, but may treat them here as good people and introduce them to offices that only good people can fill. The idea here is that their character may be so certain and undoubted that there need be no hesitation in setting them apart to the office of the ministry.

And they that are otherwise cannot be hid. That is, they cannot be ultimately concealed or misunderstood. There are arrangements in the Divine government for bringing out the character of every person so that it may be clearly understood. The expression here refers to good people. The idea is that there are some good people whose character is known to all.

Their deeds spread a glory around them, so that no one can mistake what they are. They correspond, in respect to the publicity of their character, with those mentioned in 1 Timothy 5:24, whose sins are open beforehand, for the good deeds of the one are as manifest as the sins of the other.

But there are those who are otherwise. They are modest, retiring, unobtrusive, unknown. They may live in obscurity, may have slender means for doing good, or may be constitutionally so diffident that they never appear on the stage of public action. What they do is concealed from the world. These correspond in respect to publicity with those mentioned in 1 Timothy 5:24, whose deeds follow after them. Yet, says the apostle, these cannot always be hidden.

There are arrangements for developing every person's character, and it will ultimately be known what they are.

The connection here seems to be this: As Timothy (1 Timothy 5:24) was to be on his guard when introducing people into the ministry, against those whose character for evil was not yet developed, who might be concealing their plans and practicing secret sins, so he was to endeavor to search out the modest, the unobtrusive, and those who, though now unknown, were among the excellent of the earth, and bring them forward to a station of usefulness where their virtues might shine on the world.

Apart from the reference of this beautiful passage (1 Timothy 5:24–25) to the ministry, it contains truth important to all.

1. The character of many wicked people is now clearly known. No one has any doubt of it. Their deeds have gone before them and are recorded in the Books that will be open at the judgment. They might even now be judged without the formality of appearing there, and the universe would acquiesce in the sentence of condemnation.

2. The character of many wicked people is concealed. They hide their plans. They are practicing secret iniquity. They do not intend for the world to know what they are. More than half the real depravity of the world is thus concealed from human view; and in regard to more than half the human race who are going up to the judgment, there is an entire mistake as to their real character. If all the secret wickedness of the earth were disclosed, no one would have any doubt about the doctrine of human depravity.

3. There is a process steadily going forward for bringing out the real character of people and showing what they are.

   This process consists, first, in the arrangements of Providence for developing their character here. Many a person who was supposed to be virtuous is shown, by some sudden trial, to have been all along a villain at heart. Many a minister of the gospel, a lawyer, a physician, an officer in a bank, a merchant, whose character was supposed to stand fair, has been allowed to fall into open sin, that they might develop the long-cherished secret depravity of their soul.

   Secondly, the process will be completed on the final trial. Then nothing will be concealed. Every person will be seen as they are. All those whose characters were understood to be wicked here will also be seen then to be wicked, and many who were supposed on earth to have a good character will be seen there to have been hollow-hearted and base hypocrites.

4. Every person in the last day will be judged according to their real character. No one, however successful they may have been here, can hope to practice a deception on their final Judge.

5. There is a fitness and propriety in the fact that there will be a final judgment. Indeed, there must be such a judgment, in order that God may be just.

   The characters of people are not fully developed here; the process is not completed. Many are taken away before their schemes of iniquity are accomplished and before their real characters are understood.

   If they were to live long enough on the earth, their characters would ultimately be developed here; but the Divine arrangement is that people are not to live long here, and the development, therefore, must be in the future world.

6. The modest, the retiring, the humble, and those here unknown will not be overlooked in the last great day. There is much good, as there is much evil in the world, that is now concealed.

   Many plans of benevolence are formed that those who formed them are not permitted to complete. Many desires of benefiting others are cherished, which they lack the means to gratify. Many a deed of kindness is performed that is not proclaimed to the world. And many a wish is entertained for the progress of virtue, the freedom of the enslaved, the relief of the oppressed, and the salvation of the world, which can find expression only in prayer.

   We are not to suppose, then, that all that is concealed and unknown in the world is evil.

7. There will be amazing developments in the last great day. As it will then be seen in the revelations of the secret deeds of evil that human nature is corrupt, so it will also be seen that there was much more good in the world than was commonly supposed.

   Just as a large portion of the wickedness of the earth is concealed, so, from the necessity of the case, it is true that no small portion of the goodness on earth is hidden.

   Wickedness conceals itself from shame, from a desire to better achieve its purposes, and from the dread of punishment. Goodness conceals itself due to its modesty, its retiring nature, and from the lack of an opportunity to act out its desires. However, whatever may have been the cause of the concealment, in all cases, everything will be made known on the final trial—to the shame and confusion of the one class, and to the joy and triumph of the other.

1 Timothy - Chapter 6