1 Timothy 6:17

ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι : It is the present contrast, not that between riches in this world and riches in the world to come (as Chrys.), that the apostle has in mind. Those who have money may, as well as those “that are poor as to the world,” be “rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, etc.” (James 2:5). The passage indicates that the Church had affected Society more widely in Ephesus than it had at Corinth when St. Paul wrote, “Not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (1 Corinthians 1:26). It is to be observed that the expression ὁ νῦν αἰών is only found in N.T. in the Pastoral Epistles (see reff.). ὁ αἰὼν οὗτος is the expression elsewhere in N.T. (Matthew 12:32; Luke 16:8; Luke 20:34; Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 2:6 (bis), 1Co 2:8, 1 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 1:21). Both represent the Rabbinic עולם הזה, the present age, as contrasted with עולם הבא, the age to come. St. Paul also has ὁ κόσμος οὗτος in 1 Corinthians 3:19; 1Co 5:10; 1 Corinthians 7:31, and ὁ νῦν καιρός in Romans 3:26; Romans 8:18; Romans 11:5; 2 Corinthians 8:14. See Dean Armitage Robinson's note on Ephesians 1:21. It does not follow that because these are renderings of the same Hebrew expression, they meant the same to a Greek ear. In the three places in which ὁ νῦν αἰών occurs it has a definite material physical sense; whereas ὁ αἰὼν οὗτος has a more notional ethical force.

ἠλπικέναι ἐπί : have their hope set on. See note on 1 Timothy 4:10. For the thought compare Job 31:24; Psalms 49:6; Psalms 52:7; Proverbs 11:28; Mark 10:24.

ἠλπικ. ἐπὶ πλούτου ἀδηλότητι : This vigorous oxymoron is not quite parallel in form to ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς, Romans 6:4, as Ell. suggests. There ζωῆς is a further definition of the καινότης, the prominent notion. This is a rhetorical intensifying of riches which are uncertain; πλούτου is the prominent word. “When the genitive stands before the governing noun, it is emphatic” (Winer-Moulton, Gram. p. 240). For the thought cf. Proverbs 23:5; Proverbs 27:24.

ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ θεῷ : God who cannot change, who abides faithful, is contrasted with the uncertainty of riches which are unreal.

τῷ παρέχ. πάντα πλουσίως : cf. Acts 14:17.

εἰς ἀπόλαυσιν : This is a greater concession to the sensuous view of life than the εἰς μετάλημψιν of 1 Timothy 4:3. It approaches the declaration of the Preacher that for a man to “eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour … is from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24), “the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 3:13; Ecclesiastes 5:19). No good purpose is served by pretending that God did not intend us to enjoy the pleasurable sensations of physical life. After all, things that have been enjoyed have served their purpose; they have “perished,” yet “with the using” (Colossians 2:22). Obviously, they cannot take God's place as an object of hope.