1 Timothy 6:11

ὦ ἄνθρωπε θεοῦ : It argues a very inadequate appreciation of the fervour of the writer to suppose, as Theod. does, that this is an official title. The apostrophe is a personal appeal, arising out of the topic of other-worldliness which begins in 1 Timothy 6:5. Timothy, as a Christian man, had been called to a heavenly citizenship. He was a man of God, i.e., a man belonging to the spiritual order of things with which that which is merely temporal, transitory and perishing can have no permanent relationship. The term occurs again, with an admittedly general reference, in 2 Timothy 3:17. In any case Man of God, as an official title, belonged to prophets, the prophets of the Old Covenant; and we have no proof that Timothy was a prophet of the New Covenant, though he was an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5), and possibly an apostle (1 Thessalonians 2:6).

ταῦτα : i.e., φιλαργυρία and its attendant evils. Love of money in ministers of religion does more to discredit religion in the eyes of ordinary people than would indulgence in many grosser vices.

It is to be noted that φεῦγε · δίωκε δὲ δικαιοσύνην, πίστιν, ἀγάπην recurs in 2 Timothy 2:22. The phraseology is based on Proverbs 15:9, διώκοντας δὲ δικαιοσύνην ἀγαπᾷ, and is thoroughly Pauline, as the reff. prove. The six virtues fall perhaps into three pairs, as Ell. suggests: “ δικαιοσ. and εὐσέβ. have the widest relations, pointing to general conformity to God's law and practical piety [cf. σωφρόνως κ. δικαίως κ. εὐσεβῶς, Titus 2:12]; πίστις and ἀγάπη are the fundamental principles of Christianity; ὑπομ. and πραϋπ. the principles on which a Christian ought to act towards his gainsayers and opponents”. As a group, they are contrasted with the group of vices in 1 Timothy 6:4-5; but we cannot arrange them in pairs of opposites. We may add that πίστις results in ὑπομονή (James 1:3; Romans 5:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Timothy 3:10; Titus 2:2; Hebrews 12:1), as ἀγάπη does in πραϋπάθεια. ὑπομονή is sustinentia ([304] here, and Vulg. in 1 Thessalonians 1:3) rather than patientia ([305] and Vulg. here).

[304] Cod. Frisingensis

[305] The Latin text of Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

πίστις, ἀγάπη, and ὑπομονή are also combined in Titus 2:2; cf. 2 Timothy 3:10, also 2 Peter 1:5-7, where εὐσέβεια, with other virtues, forms part of the group.