Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 Timothy 1:16

1 Timothy 1:16. For this cause. Besides the ignorance that made mercy possible, there was a Divine wisdom working out a purpose of love. In him ‘first,' or ‘chief (as a greater, more typical instance than any other), Christ Jesus would snow forth all the long-suffering which marked God's dealings with the world. That word, also, St. Paul had been thus taught to place high in the catalogue of Divine attributes (Romans 2:4; Romans 9:22), in that of the human excellences which were after the pattern of the Divine (2 Corinthians 6:6; Galatians 5:22; Colossians 3:12; 2 Timothy 3:10; 2 Timothy 4:2), the characteristic of love in man (1 Corinthians 13:4) as in God.

Pattern. The outline sketch which served as a pattern for others to fill up with the colouring or shadows which made it, as it were, in harmony with their own experience.

Hereafter. Strictly speaking, ‘thereafter,' starting from the moment of his conversion... We cannot doubt that' it was then that St. Paul began to encourage others by pointing to himself.

Life everlasting. Better perhaps ‘eternal' Here also, as with ‘ coming into the world,' we note St. Paul's use of a word which, though not peculiar to St. John, is yet eminently characteristic of him, occurring seventeen times in his Gospel, and six times in his First Epistle.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

1 Timothy 1:16

Old Testament

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