1 Timothy 6.13-Paul Invokes The Father And Jesus Christ To Bear Witness To His Command That Timothy Faithfully Fulfill His Commission In Ephesus
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday October 12, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 6:13-Paul Invokes The Father And Jesus Christ To Bear Witness To His Command That Timothy Faithfully Fulfill His Commission In Ephesus
Lesson # 135
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 6:13.
1 Timothy 6:13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NASB95)
“I charge you in the presence of God” is composed of the first person singular present active indicative form of the verb parangello (παραγγέλλω) (pah-dahn-yellow), “I charge” and this is followed by the dative second person singular form of the personal pronoun su (σύ) (see), “you” and then we have the preposition enopion (ἐνώπιον) (ennopee-own), “in the presence of” and its object is the articular genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός) (thay-oce), “of God.”
Paul is once again employing the figure of “asyndeton” in order to emphasize this command in 1 Timothy 6:13-14 for Timothy to carry out his commission in Ephesus unstained and irreproachable until the rapture of the church in the sense that he wants Timothy to dwell upon it and obey it.
This figure emphasizes the importance of this command for Timothy in the sense that it will benefit him personally by advancing him to further growth spiritually and will benefit him in that it will aid him in administrating the household of God in Ephesus.
It will also benefit spiritually the body of Christ in Ephesus.
The verb parangello means “to command, order” and its subject is Paul and its object is Timothy.
Therefore, the word denotes that Paul is commanding Timothy to carry out his commission in Ephesus, which he has explained in detail in this epistle.
It expresses Paul’s apostolic authority.
The personal pronoun su is of course a direct reference to Timothy.
The noun theos means “God” and refers to the Father.
This is indicated by the fact that the articular construction of this noun in the New Testament commonly signifies the first member of the Trinity.
Also, it is not the Spirit because He is the one who is giving this charge to Timothy through Paul.
It of course cannot refer to the Son since He is mentioned as well in this prepositional phrase.
Here in 1 Timothy 6:13, enopion means “in the presence of” and is used with reference to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The word indicates that both will be witnesses as to whether or not Timothy will faithfully carry out his commission in Ephesus.
It emphasizes with Timothy that he is living and acting in the presence of these two and that he will be held accountable in the matter by them.
It also emphasizes that he will be held accountable to conscientiously fulfill his commission in Ephesus, which is explained throughout this epistle.
“Who gives life to all things” is composed of the articular genitive masculine singular present active participle form of the verb zoogoneo (ζῳογονέω) (zoe-owe-voe-nehowe), “who gives life to” and this is followed by the articular accusative neuter plural form of the adjective pas (πᾶς), “all things.”
The verb zoogoneo means “to give life” or “to cause to be alive” and its subject is God the Father and its object is the articular form of the adjective pas, which refers to the totality of animate objects in creation which would refer to all marine life, bird life, terrestrial life, mankind and angels.
Therefore, the verb denotes that God the Father causes all living creatures to live.
1 Timothy 6:13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NASB95)
“And of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate” is composed of the conjunction kai (καί) (keh), “and” which is followed by the genitive masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (Χριστός) (cree-stoce), “Christ” and the genitive masculine singular form of the proper noun Iesous (Ἰησοῦς) (yee-soose), “Jesus” and then we have the articular genitive masculine singular aorist active participle form of the verb martureo (μαρτυρέω) (mahtear-eh-owe), “who testified” and this is followed by the preposition epi (ἐπί) (eh-pee), “before” and its object is the genitive masculine singular form of the noun Pontios (Πόντιος) (pone-dee-oce), “Pontius,” which is modified by the genitive masculine singular form of the noun Pilatos (Πιλᾶτος) (pee-lah-toce), “Pilate” and then we have the articular accusative feminine singular form of the adjective kalos (καλός) (kah-loce), “the good” and it is modifying the accusative feminine singular form of the noun homologia (ὁμολογία) (owe-moe-lowe-yee-ah), “confession.”
The verb martureo is used of the Lord Jesus Christ and means “to testify, bear witness to” referring to Him “testifying” the good confession before Pontius Pilate that He was the king of the Jews.
It refers to Jesus Christ testifying before Pontius Pilate that He was the king of the Jews.
It refers to Jesus Christ responding to Pilate’s question “Are you the king of the Jews?” (Matthew 27:11; Mark 15;2; Luke 23;3; John 18:33-37).
This confession served as the basis for crucifying Him (John 19:12-16; cf. Matthew 27:37; Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38; John 19:19).
This confession of Christ was posted over His cross as the charge against Him.
So the verb martureo in 1 Timothy 6:13 refers to the act of Christ testifying to Pilate that He was the king of the Jews.
The noun homologia means “confession” referring to Jesus of Nazareth confessing to Pontius Pilate that He was the king of the Jews.
The adjective kalos is modifying the noun homologia, “the confession” and means “noble” in the sense of possessing outstanding qualities and great importance.
It describes something whose importance is superior to all others.
Here it describes Jesus of Nazareth’s confession to Pontius Pilate that He was the king of the Jews as superior to other confessions since Jesus Christ is superior to any military or political figure or heathen god because He is the Son of God.
It describes this confession as of the utmost importance in human and angelic history in that it led to His crucifixion and spiritual and physical deaths which dealt with the problems of sin and Satan.
The proper noun Pilatos is the name of the Roman procurator who sentenced Jesus of Nazareth to death.
He conducted the civil trial of Jesus of Nazareth and ordered His crucifixion.
The proper noun Pontius is Pilate’s Roman first name or clan-name.
1 Timothy 6:13 and Luke 3:1 are the only two places in the New Testament where Pilate is designated Pontius.
The preposition epi marks Pontius Pilate’s involvement in the civil trial of Jesus of Nazareth.
The expression τὴν καλὴν ὁμολογίαν, “the good confession” appears in both 1 Timothy 6:12 and 13 with the former used of Timothy’s public confession at his baptism that Jesus of Nazareth was his Savior.
It is used in an objective sense of Timothy’s statement before the church at Lystra of his allegiance to Jesus Christ expressing his binding assent and public commitment to Him.
Now here in 1 Timothy 6:13, this expression is used of Jesus of Nazareth’s confession to Pontius Pilate that He was the king of the Jews.
This parallelism is significant.
It means that in the same way that Jesus of Nazareth faithfully carried out the Father’s plan by suffering crucifixion and a substitutionary spiritual and physical death on the cross to defeat sin and Satan so Timothy was to faithfully carry out his commission, which Paul explains throughout this epistle.
Also the significance of this parallelism is that Timothy’s confession at baptism that he had become a believer in Jesus Christ was made possible by Jesus of Nazareth’s confession to Pilate that He was the king of the Jews since this confession was the basis for His execution.
Therefore, Timothy is to faithfully carry out his commission in Ephesus because he is obligated to the Lord Jesus Christ who died for him and gave him the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.