#497: 1 Timothy 6:1-21
The End of 1 Timothy
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“As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. 20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge," 21 for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you.” — 1 Timothy 6:17-21
The structure of Paul’s concluding verses is somewhat odd: he has just reached one of the high rhetorical points of his whole corpus in verse 16, which underscored the sovereignty and transcendence of God. “To him be honor and eternal dominion, Amen,” he had concluded. The expostulation of praise is not an erratic boulder within the letter, though: the invocation of the honor we owe to God returns us to the theme of piety, which is profitable “in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (4:8). In honoring God, we do not enter into a relationship of debt and obligation of the kind that we can easily escape. Piety is not a transaction, in which we ‘repay’ God for the gifts He has bestowed upon us and so are free to go our own way, as though there was no further point to the relationship. The honor we give to God is an endlessly renewable resource, as in piously conforming ourselves to Him we relate to one who lives outside the limits of this world.
It is in this context that Paul returns to two of the central themes of this letter—wealth and words—and offers his final exhortations on them. In the first place, he exhorts those who are rich to not be haughty or set their hopes on the uncertainty of their riches. Paul places a qualifier on their riches: whatever wealth they have is bound “to this age,” and (like physical training) has no promise in itself for the age to come (4:8). While those who have wealth are likely to think it offers security, Paul undermines such pretensions by exposing it as “uncertain.” Nowhere does Paul admonish such individuals to not be wealthy, despite having echoed Job’s claim that we come naked from the womb and will return there in the same way (Job 1:21) only a few verses prior (6:7-8). Paul’s contention that he is content with food and clothing might tempt us to imagine that he would enjoin a similarly spartan standard on those with means—yet he does no such thing.
Instead, his contention is that the rich should seek wealth—in good works, that is, to be generous and ready to share, so that they might lift their eyes beyond the horizon of the immediate present and lay a foundation for our life in the future, a life that is “truly life.” Wealth supplies a pretense of life, a sense of abundance and pleasure and opportunity that allows us to feel as though our most vital elements are being fulfilled—but which is really death, emptiness, and decay. Remember Paul’s caution that young widows with an appetite for luxury will be drawn away from Christ (1 Timothy 5:11). We can see again from this vantage point how essential it is that the triumphal proclamation of God’s immortality and inaccessibility in 6:15-16 is the necessary precursor to Paul’s moral exhortations in these final verses.
This paradox emerges in Paul’s final exhortation to Timothy as well. There is a real knowledge of the faith, a “deposit” that has been entrusted to him. There are economic overtones here, as well: Paul is exhorted to “guard” that which he has received, a word that bears true life because it enjoins us to piety to the immortal, sovereign God. In his great praise to God, Paul underscores that God “dwells in unapproachable light” and is the one “whom no one has ever seen or can see.” This inaccessibility might undermine knowledge, but God has published his own ineffability in Christ, who is the Word, making accurate and truthful speech about Him not only possible, but a participation in the life He gives to us. Paul’s praise is such speech: it has nothing to do with the “irreverent babble and contradictions” which are falsely called “knowledge,” and which would lead Timothy astray. It is a (happy) irony that Paul gives us a language to speak truly of God in naming His ineffability.
Of course, the humility and generosity of the wealthy and the truthful speech of the wise is only possible through—grace, which is Paul’s final word. Only through living within the self-renewing, endless life of God’s love for us will we be able to piously live for the world to come and speak the truth about the world we live in.
Around the Web
I was out of cell range this weekend, which meant I missed the news about Israel and Hamas, and so spent some time this Sunday afternoon catching up on things.
The Tablet’s background explainer on how shifts in US foreign policy might have exacerbated tensions is interesting. And this older, much more progressive essay (from 2021) on the Palestinian’s right to exist was provocative.
Fred Sanders’ brief essay on Lewis, Spenser, and how we can already be acquainted with the Spirit is a fantastic and imaginative bit of theology.
The Penultimate Word
“Yes, let the Christian spirit be troubled, not by misery but by mercy; let it fear lest people be lost to Christ; let it be saddened when someone is lost to Christ; let it be desirous to gain people for Christ; let it be joyful when people are gained for Christ; let it fear for itself as well, lest it be lost to Christ; let it be saddened to wander away from Christ; let it be desirous of reigning with Christ; let it rejoice in the hope that it will reign with Christ.” — Augustine