Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Timothy 6:11

"But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." — 1 Timothy 6:11 (ASV)

And for this cause—that is, because they did not care whether things were true or not. This verse is not a mere repetition of 2 Thessalonians 2:9–10. In those verses, we were told of external dangers that would accompany Antichrist’s coming for those who perish: because they had not cared for truth, therefore the presence of the Man of Sin, which could not even endanger the truth-lovers, would for them be full of special marvels and frauds by which they might be misled.

Here, the effect upon their own selves of refusing to accept God’s gift of the love of truth is described: God takes from them (by His natural law) their power of discerning the true from the false, and thus (so to speak) actually deceives them. Every willful sin does this double mischief: it strengthens the power of the temptation from outside; it weakens the power to resist from inside. For an illustration, see 2 Chronicles 18:7 and 2 Chronicles 18:22: Ahab cares only for what is pleasant, not what is true, and the Lord repays him by sending out a lying spirit to entice him.

Shall send.—The Greek has sendeth (a present tense form); likewise, “is” in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 is present tense: St. Paul sees it all happening before his eyes. “A strong delusion” should be understood as “an effectual inward working of error”—no longer a mere indifference to truth, but a real influence of error upon their hearts. This inward work of error is sent “with a view to their believing the lie” (the Greek text uses the definite article)—the lie (that is) which Antichrist would have them believe. A terrible combination when God and Satan are agreed to deceive a person. Yet, what an encouragement to see God using Satan for His own purposes.

But thou, O man of God, flee these things.—A commentator always speaks with great caution when approaching anything of the nature of a direct personal reference in these inspired writings. We have so long surrounded the writers and actors in the New Testament history with a halo of reverence that we are often tempted to forget that they were merely men, exposed to temptations like us, and not infrequently succumbing to them. We owe them, indeed, a deep debt of reverence for their faithful, gallant witness—for their splendid service in laying so well the early stories of the great Christian Temple; but we lose somewhat of the reality of the Apostolic story when, in the saint, we forget the man.

St. Paul had given a very solemn, intensely earnest warning against covetousness—that fatal love of gain and gold which seems to have been the primary motivation in the lives of those false teachers who were damaging the noble work he had accomplished for his Master at Ephesus. After these weighty words, he turned to Timothy. Using the grand old covenant title Timothy knew so well, he personally addressed his beloved friend with, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things.”

This direct address leads us irresistibly to conclude that the old Apostle feared for his young and comparatively inexperienced disciple. He dreaded the corrupting danger of the wealth in the city where Timothy held such a significant charge. Therefore, he warns Timothy—and, through Timothy, God’s servants of all levels and abilities in every age—of the soul-destroying dangers of covetousness: “Flee these things.”

A glance at Timothy’s life at that time will show how possible it was, even for a beloved pupil of St. Paul—even for one of whom he once wrote, “I have no man likeminded;” and, again, “Ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel” (Philippians 2:20–22)—to need so grave a reminder. Since those days, when these words were written to the Philippians, some six years had passed. His was no longer the old harassed life of danger and hazard to which, as the companion of the missionary St. Paul, he was constantly exposed. He now filled the position of an honored teacher and leader in a rich and organized church; many and severe were the temptations to which, in such a station, he would be exposed.

Gold and popularity, gain and ease, were to be won with the sacrifice of apparently so little, but with this sacrifice Timothy would cease to be the “man of God.” To maintain that St. Paul was aware of any weakness already shown by his disciple and friend would, of course, be a baseless assertion; but that the older man dreaded these dangerous influences for the younger is clear. The term “man of God” was the common Old Testament name for “divine messengers,” but under the new covenant, the name seems extended to all just men faithful to the Lord Jesus. (See 2 Timothy 3:17.) The solemn warning, then, through Timothy comes to each of His servants: “Flee you from covetousness.”

And follow after righteousness.—“The evil must be overcome with good” (Romans 12:21). The “man of God,” tossing away from him all covetous longings, must press after “righteousness;” here used in a general sense, signifying “the inner life shaped after the Law of God.”

Faith, love.—The two characteristic virtues of Christianity. The one may be termed the hand that lays hold of God’s mercy, and the other the central motivation of the Christian’s life.

Patience.—That brave patience which, for Christ’s precious sake, can with a smile endure all sufferings.

Meekness.—The German “Sanftmut”—the meekness of heart and feeling with which a Christian acts towards his enemies. The conduct of Him who, “when he was reviled, reviled not again,” best exemplifies this virtue.

For we hear.—Explaining how St. Paul came to speak upon the topic at all. Until now he has only been giving directions, without saying why. News had been brought back, no doubt, by the bearers of the First Epistle.

Walk among you disorderly.—A verbal repetition of 2 Thessalonians 3:6. It is not quite the same as “some among you which walk disorderly,” for the words “among you” represent the vague and various directions taken by those aimless feet, going about from house to house, workshop to workshop.

Working not at all, but are busybodies.—This is what the disorderliness consists in, as we should have seen from 2 Thessalonians 3:10. There is a scornful play of words here in the Greek which is lost sight of in the English: the word for “busybodies” being merely a compound form of the word “working.”

Quite literally, the compound means “working enough and to spare,” “being overbusy,” “overdoing.” Then, as a man cannot possibly overdo what it is his own duty to do, it comes to signify:

1. Doing useless things, things which concern no one, and might as well be left alone: as, for instance, magic, which is described by this word in Acts 19:19; or natural science, which is so described in the Athenians’ accusation of Socrates!
2. Meddling with matters which do not concern the doer, but do concern other people: so used in 1 Timothy 5:13.

Professor Lightfoot suggests (On a Fresh Revision, page 59; compare page xviii, 2nd edition) that the play can be kept up through the words “business” and “busy”: we might perhaps say, “not being business men, but busybodies.”

But which of the two notions mentioned above is to be considered most prominent here we cannot tell for certain.

(a) The Thessalonians do not seem to have been much carried away by the first class of danger—idle speculations, such as those of the Colossian or Ephesian Churches. Yet we cannot altogether exclude this meaning here. St. Paul’s readers had been overbusy in theorizing about the position of the departed at Christ’s coming (1 Thessalonians 4:15, Note), and had been so eager over their idle doctrines of the Advent as to falsify, if not actually to forge, communications from St. Paul (2 Thessalonians 2:2). Such false inquisitiveness and gossiping discussions might well be described by the Greek word with which we are dealing.

(b) Everything, however, points to a more practical form of the same disposition to mask idleness under the cloak of work; feverish excitement, which leads men to meddle and interfere with others, perhaps to spend time in “religious” work which ought not to have been spared from everyday duties. (See 1 Thessalonians 4:11–12, and Notes.) There is nothing to show definitely how this busy idleness arose, but it may very probably be the shaken and troubled condition of mind spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2:2.

For this reason.—Literally, to which—that is, to their being found among the blessed. The “also” serves to emphasize the “pray”: we do not content ourselves with merely hoping, but we direct actual prayer to that end. The word “to which” seems grammatically to depend upon the word “calling”— “of the calling to which, we pray also for you always, that our God would count you worthy.”

Count you worthy of this calling.—The word “this” would, perhaps, have been better left out; the “calling” of which St. Paul is thinking is the calling “in that day,” such as is expressed in Matthew 25:34, and the act is the same as that of 2 Thessalonians 1:5. But had they not been called to glory already? Yes (1 Thessalonians 4:7), and had obeyed the call; and God was still calling them hourly (see Notes on 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:24); but that was no security that they would remain worthy of that last decisive call. Many are called, but few chosen. In the original there is some emphasis placed on the pronoun: “count you.”

Fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness.—Rather, fulfil every purpose of goodness; or, “everything which beneficence deems good.” Most modern commentators take the “goodness” to be the goodness of the Thessalonians themselves, thus making the clause logically antecedent to the foregoing: “May count you worthy of His calling, and (for that purpose) fulfil every good moral aspiration you may entertain.” But this seems unnecessary. The “beneficence” is used absolutely, in almost a personified sense; it is, of course, in reality, God’s beneficence, but is spoken of as beneficence in the abstract. Thus the clause preserves its natural place as an explanation of the preceding: “May finally call you and there accomplish upon your persons all that beneficence can devise.”

And the work of faith with power.—This work, too, is God’s work, not the work of the Thessalonians. It is used in the same sense as a like phrase in Cowper’s well-known hymn—

“You shall see My glory soon,
When the work of grace is done.”

It means, not “perfect your faithful activity,” as in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, but “bring to its mighty consummation the work that faith was able to effect in you.” Faith, therefore, is here opposed as much to sight as to unbelief. The “beneficence” and the “power” thus exerted upon (rather than through) the Thessalonians produces upon all spectators of the judgment, both angels and men, the effect described in the next verse.