Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Timothy 4:10

γὰρ, as in the parallel 2 Timothy 2:11, introduces a statement in support of the judgment, πιστὸς ὁ λόγος.

εἰς τοῦτο : i.e., with a view to the obtaining the promised blessings of life. The best commentary on this is what St. Paul said in an earlier epistle, “As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10).

κοπιῶμεν καὶ ἀγωνιζόμεθα express St. Paul's personal experience of what the profession of Christianity involved. It was then an almost universal experience, see Acts 14:22; but is not of necessity a concomitant of the exercising of oneself to godliness. The two words are similarly combined Colossians 1:29, εἰς ὃ καὶ κοπιῶ ἀγωνιζόμενος. κοπιᾶν is usually used by St. Paul of ministerial labours: his own, 1 Corinthians 15:10; Galatians 4:11, and those of others, Romans 16:12 1 Corinthians 16:16, 1 Thessalonians 5:12; 1 Timothy 5:17; but this restriction is not necessary, nor would it be suitable here. See reff.

For ὀνειδιζόμεθα (var. lect.) cf. Matthew 5:11 = Luke 6:22; 1 Peter 4:14.

ὅτι ἠλπίκαμεν, κ. τ. λ.: This was at once an incentive to exertion, and thus correlative to ἐπαγγελία ζωῆς, and in itself a part of the thing promised, the ἐπαγγελία. A consciousness that we are in an harmonious personal relation with the living God lifts us into a sphere in which labour and striving have no power to distress us.

ἠλπίκαμεν : we have our hope set on (R.V.). The same use of the perfect of this verb, “expressing the continuance and permanence of the ἐλπίς ” (Ell.), is found in the reff. In addition, ἐλπίζω is also followed by ἐπί with the dat. in Romans 15:12 (Isaiah 11:10) and 1 Timothy 6:17; by ἐπί with the acc. in 1 Timothy 5:5; 1 Peter 1:13; by εἰς with an acc. in John 5:45; 2 Corinthians 1:10; 1 Peter 3:5; and by ἐν followed by the dat. in 1 Corinthians 15:19.

θεῷ ζῶντι : As indicated above, this is said in relation to ἐπαγγελίαν ζωῆς. To know the living God is life eternal (John 17:3).

ὅς ἐστιν σωτὴρ πάντων, κ. τ. λ.: Saviour of all (τὸν πάντων σωτῆρα) occurs in Wis 16:7. Cf. Saviour of the world, John 4:42.

The prima facie force of μάλιστα certainly is that all men share in some degree in that salvation which the πιστοί enjoy in the highest degree. Compare the force of μάλιστα in Acts 25:26; Galatians 6:10; Philippians 4:22 1 Timothy 5:8; 1 Timothy 5:17; 2 Timothy 4:13; Titus 1:10.

The statement is more unreservedly universalist in tone than chap. 1 Timothy 2:4 and Titus 2:11; and perhaps must be qualified by saying that while God is potentially Saviour of all, He is actually Saviour of the πιστοί. It is an argument a minori ad majus (as Bengel says); and the unqualified assertion is suitable. If all men can be saved, surely the πιστοί are saved, in whose number we are included. It is better to qualify the statement thus than, with Chrys. and Bengel, to give to σωτήρ a material sense of God's relation to all men, as the God of nature; but a spiritual sense of His relation to them that believe, as the God of grace. See notes on ch. 1 Timothy 1:1; 1 Timothy 2:4.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Timothy 4:10

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