1 Timothy 4:10

1Ti_4:10

We both labour and suffer reproach.

Trust in God the support of Christians in their labours and sufferings

I. The course pursued by the apostle and his brethren was one of labors and sufferings. If we must be reproached, let us not be reproached for evil-doing, but for well-doing: let us not have conscience against us, exasperating our sufferings; but secure in our conscious integrity and adamantine guard.

II. What it was that sustained the apostle and his brethren in the course which they pursued: it was the principle of confidence in God. We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe.

1. God is here regarded as the living God; that is, the true God, as distinguished from dumb and lifeless idols, described by the Psalmist as having eyes that see not, ears that hear not, mouths that speak not, feet that walk not. God appeals to this distinction, when He says, As I live. This suggests the idea of the infinite perfection of the Deity, and consequently His ability to protect His servants.

2. As the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.

(1) The Saviour of all men. His mercies are over all His creatures.

(2) But in a far higher sense He is the Saviour of those that believe.

He saves them from consequences far more awful than any temporal calamities. Now, from the first of these views we infer that the power of God is pledged to assist His servants to do His will, and execute His commission: and, in whatever we do in obedience to Gods will, we have reason to depend on the support of Him who has ordered it to be done. And, in the next place, this may be especially applied to that part of Gods will, in which His glory is most concerned. In the gospel the honour of God is most of all concerned: men are to be saved by believing the gospel: therefore we may be confident that God will help them in all that relates to the success of the gospel: He is the Saviour especially of them that believe.

III. As improvements of this subject, observe--

1. How highly we should value that gospel, which the apostles preached amidst so much labour and suffering!

2. Imitate the apostles in their course of labours and sufferings. Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

3. And, lastly, as the apostles were supported by trusting in the living God; so shall we also be, if we follow their example. If we trust in God, His favour will be our joy; if not, His comforts will fail us. (R. Hall, M. A.)

We trust in the living God.--

Trust in the living God

Trust--confidence--is an essential element of human nature. We begin life in a spirit of trust, and cling with confidence to our parents and the guardians of our infancy. As we advance in years, though deceived and betrayed, we still must anchor our trust somewhere. We cannot live without some being to lean on as a friend. Universal distrust would turn social existence into torture. We were born for confidence in other beings; and woe to him that cannot trust! Still confidence brings with it suffering; for all are imperfect and too many are false. Observe what a harmony there is between our nature and God. The principle of trust, as we have seen, enters into the very essence of the human soul. Trust seeks perfect goodness, Its natural tendency is toward an infinite and immutable being. In Him alone can it find rest. Our nature was made for God, as truly as the eye was made for the light of Gods glorious image, the sun.

I. What is the principle of religious trust? I would observe, that religious confidence rests on Gods parental interest in in individual persons. To apprehend and believe this truth is to plant the germ of trust in God. This truth is not easily brought home to the heart as a reality. The first impression given to a superficial observer of the world is, that the individual is of no great worth in the sight of the Creator. The race of man is upheld, and seems to be destined to perpetual existence. But the individuals, of whom it is composed, appear to have nothing enduring in their nature. They pass over the earth like shadows cast by a flying cloud, leaving for the most part as slight a trace behind. They break like meteors from the abyss, and are then swallowed up in darkness. According to this view, God is the Author of fugitive, mutable existences, from love of variety, multiplicity and development, however transitory these several existences may be. If we rest in such views of God, our confidence must be faint. Can we believe that human nature was framed by such a Being for no higher spiritual development than we now witness on this planet? Is there not, in the very incompleteness and mysteriousness of mans present existence, a proof that we do not as yet behold the end for which he is destined; that the infinite Father has revealed but a minute portion of His scheme of boundless mercy; that we may trust for infinitely richer manifestations than we have experienced of His exhaustless grace? But there is another reply to the sceptic, and to this I invite your particular attention. Our trust, you say, must be measured by what we see. Be it so. But take heed to see truly, and to understand what you do see. How rare is such exact and comprehensive perception. And yet without it, what presumption it is for us to undertake to judge the purpose of an infinite and ever-living God. Whatever creature we regard has actually infinite connections with the universe. It represents the everlasting past of which it is the effect. He then, who does not discern in the present the past and the future, who does not detect behind the seen the unseen, does not rightly understand it, and cannot pass judgment upon it. The surface of things, upon which your eye may fall, covers an infinite abyss. Are you sure, then, that you comprehend the human being, when you speak of him as subjected to the same law of change and dissolution, which all other earthly existences obey? Is there nothing profounder in his nature than that which you catch sight of by a casual glance? Are there within him no elements which betoken a permanent and enduring existence? Consider one fact only. Among all outward changes, is not every man conscious of his own identity, of his continuing to be the same, single, individual person? Is there not a unity in the soul, that distinguishes it from the dissoluble compounds of material nature? And further, is this person made up of mutable and transitory elements? On the contrary, who does not know that he has faculties to seize upon everlasting truth, and affections which aspire to reach an everlasting good? Have we not all of us the idea of right, of a Divine law older than time, and which can never be repealed? Has such a being as man then no signs in his nature of permanent existence? Is he to be commingled with the fugitive forms of the material world? Seeing, you see not. What is most worth seeing in man is hidden from your view. You know nothing of man truly, till you discern in him traces of an immutable and immortal nature, till you recognize somewhat allied to God in his reason, conscience, love and will. Talk not of your knowledge of men, picked up from the transient aspects of social life! It is not then to be inferred, from what we see, that God does not take an interest in the individual, and that He may not be trusted as designing great good for each particular person. In every human mind He sees powers kindred to His own--the elements of angelic glory and happiness. These bind the heavenly Fathers love indissolubly to every single soul. And these Divine elements authorize a trust utterly unlike that which springs from superficial views of mans transitory existence.

II. What is the good for which, as individual persons, we may trust in God? One reply immediately offers itself. We may not, must not trust in Him for whatever good we may arbitrarily choose. Experience gives us no warrant to plan such a future for ourselves, as mere natural affections and passions may crave, and to confide in Gods parental love as pledged to indulge such desires. Human life is made up of blighted hopes and disappointed efforts, caused by such delusive confidence. We cannot look to God even for escape from severest suffering. The laws of the universe, though in general so beneficent in their operation, still bring fearful evil to the individual. For what then may we trust in God? I reply, that we may trust unhesitatingly, and without a moments wavering, that God desires the perfection of our nature, and that He will always afford such ways and means to this great end, as to His omniscience seem most in harmony with mans moral freedom. There is but one true good for a spiritual being, and this is found in its perfection. Men are slow to see this truth; and yet it is the key to Gods providence, and to the mysteries of life. Now how can man be happy but according to the same law of growth in all his characteristic powers? Thus the enjoyment of the body is found to be dependent on and involved with the free, healthy and harmonious development--that is the perfection--of its organization. Impair, or derange any organ, and existence becomes agony. Much more does the happiness of the soul depend upon the free, healthy and harmonious unfolding of all its faculties. Now for this good we may trust in God with utter confidence. We may be assured that He is ready, willing, and anxious to confer it upon us; that He is always inviting and leading us towards it by His Providence, and by His Spirit, through all trials and vicissitudes, through all triumphs and blessings; and that unless our own will is utterly perverse, no power in the universe can deprive us of it. Such I say is the good for which we may confide in God, the only good for which we are authorized to trust in Him. The perfection of our nature--God promises nothing else or less. We cannot confide in Him for prosperity, do what we will for success; for often He disappoints the most strenuous labours, and suddenly prostrates the proudest power. We cannot confide in Him for health, friends, honour, outward repose. Not a single worldly blessing is pledged to us. And this is well. Gods outward gifts--mere shadows as they are of happiness--soon pass away; and their transitoriness reveals, by contrast the only true good. Reason and conscience, if we will but hear their voice, assure us that all outward elevation, separate from inward nobleness, is a vain show; that the most prosperous career, without growing health of soul, is but a prolonged disease, a fitful fever of desire and passion, and rather death than life; that there is no stability of power, no steadfast peace, but in immovable principles of right; that there is no true royalty but in the rule of our own spirits; no real freedom but in unbounded disinterested love; and no fulness of joy but in being alive to that infinite presence, majesty, goodness, in which we live and move and have our being. This good of perfection, if we will seek it, is as sure as Gods own being, Here I fix my confidence. When I look round me, I see nothing to trust in. On all sides are the surges of a restless ocean, and everywhere the traces of decay. But amidst this world of fugitive existences, abides one immortal nature. Let not the sceptic point me to the present low development of human nature, and ask me what promise I see there of that higher condition of the soul, for which I trust. Even were there no sufficient answer to this question, I should still trust. I must still believe that surely as there is a perfect God, perfection must be His end; and that, sooner or later, it must be impressed upon His highest work, the spirit of man. Then I must believe, that where He has given truly Divine powers, He must have given them for development. Human nature is indeed at present in a very imperfect stage of its development. But I do not, therefore, distrust that perfection is its end. We cannot begin with the end. We cannot argue that a being is not destined for a good, because he does not instantly reach it. The philosopher, whose discoveries now dazzle us, could not once discern between his right hand and his left. To him who has entered an interminable path, with impulses which are carrying him onward to perfection, of what importance is it where he first plants his step? The future is all his own. But you will point me to those who seem to be wanting in this spirit of progress, this impulse towards perfection, and who are sunk in sloth or guilt. And you will ask whether Gods purposes towards these are yet loving. I answer: Yes! They fail through no want of the kind designs of God. From the very nature of goodness, it cannot be forced upon any creature by the Creator; nor can it be passively received. What a sublime doctrine it is, that goodness cherished now is eternal life already entered on! Thus have I spoken of religious trust, in its principle and its end. I have time to suggest but one motive for holding fast this confidence as a fountain of spiritual strength. We talk of our weakness. We lack energy, we say, to be in life what in hope we desire. But this very weakness comes from want of trust. What invigorates you to seek other forms of good? You believe them to be really within your reach. What is the soul of all great enterprises? It is the confidence that they may be achieved. To confide in a high power is to partake of that power. It has often been observed, that the strength of an army is more than doubled by confidence in its chief. Confide, only confide, and you will be strong. (W. E. Channing.)

Christly trust

First: Man is a trusting being. Trusting is at once the grand necessity and leading tendency of his existence. Secondly: His trust determines the character and destiny of his being. Trusting wrong objects or right objects for wrong purposes, is at once sinful and ruinous. On the other hand, trusting rightly in the living God is at once a holy and a happy state of being. Two remarks are suggested in relation to this Christly trust.

I. It forms a distinct community amongst men. The apostle speaks here as those that believe. All men believe. Men are naturally credulous.

1. There are some who believe in a dead God--an idol, a substance, a force, an abstraction. Most men have a dead God--a God whose presence, whose inspection, whose claims they do not recognize or feel.

2. There are others who believe in a living God. To them He is the life of all lives, the force of all forces, the spirit of all beauty, the fountain of all joy. With these the apostle includes himself, and to these he refers when he says, Those that believe.

II. It secures the special salvation of the good. The living God is the Saviour, or Preserver of all. He saves all from diseases, trials, death, damnation, up to a certain time in their history. All that they have on earth which go to make their existence tolerable and pleasant He has saved for them. But of those that believe He is specially a Saviour, He saves them--

1. From the dominion of moral evil

2. From the torments of sinful passions--remorse, malice, jealousy, envy, fear.

3. From the curse of a wicked life. What a salvation is this! Christly trust gives to the human race a community of morally saved men. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Who Is the Saviour of all men.--

The first Sunday after Epiphany

Whether, then, we take the words the living God in our text to apply to Christ Himself, or to the Father acting by Christ, it is equally asserted that Christ is the Saviour of all men: that the salvation which He wrought is, in and of itself, co-extensive with the race of man. What He did, He did for, and in the stead of, all men. If we wish to corroborate this by further Scripture proof, we have it in abundance. I will take but three of the plainest passages. St. John in his first Epistle, 1Jn_2:1-2. St. Paul, 2Co_5:14. In Rom_5:10 he goes further into the same truth. See also 1Co_15:22. Adam, when he came fresh from the hands of God, was the head and root of man kind. He was mankind. She who was to be a helpmeet for him was not created a separate being, but was taken out of him. The words spoken of him apply to the whole human race. The responsibility of the whole race rested upon him. When he became disobedient, all fell. Figure to yourselves--and it is very easy to do so, from the many analogies which nature furnishes--this constitution of all mankind in Adam: for it is the very best of all exponents of the nature of Christs standing in our flesh, and Christs work in our flesh: with this great difference indeed, inherent in the very nature of the case, that the one work in its process and result is purely physical, the other spiritual as well. The race, in its natural constitution in Adam, i.e., as each member of it is born into the world and lives in the world naturally, is alien from and guilty before God: has lost the power of pleasing God: cannot work out its own salvation in or by any one of its members; all being involved in the same universal ruin. In Adam all die. Now that rescue must not, cannot in Gods arrangements, come from without. It must come upon mankind from within. Gods law respecting us is, that all amendment, all purifying, all renewal, should spring from among, and take into itself and penetrate by its influence, the inner faculties and powers wherewith He has endowed our nature. We know that our redemption was effected by the eternal Son of God becoming incarnate in our flesh. Now suppose for a moment that He, the Son of God, had become an individual personal man, bounded by His own responsibilities, His own capacities, His own past, and present, and future. If He had thus become a personal man, not one of His acts would have had any more reference to you or me than the acts of Abraham, or David, or St. Paul, or St. Peter have. He might have set us an example ever so bright; might have undergone sufferings ever so bitter; might have won a triumph ever so glorious; and we should merely have stood and looked on from without. No redemption, no renovation of our nature could by any possibility have been made. And He, thus being the Divine Son of God, and having become the Son of man, was no longer an individual man, bounded by the narrow lines and limits of His own personality, but was and is God manifest in the flesh; a sound and righteous Head of our whole nature, just as Adam was its first and sinful head. Hence it is, that whatever He does, has so large a significance. Hence, that when He fulfils the law, His righteousness is accepted as ours. He did nothing, if He did not the whole. He redeemed none, if He redeemed not all. If there existed on earth one son or daughter of Adam not redeemed by Christ, then He, who had taken it upon Him to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, had not accomplished His work, and had died in vain. And let us see what this universality of redemption implies, as regards the sons of men themselves. It enables the preacher of good tidings to come to every son and daughter of Adam, every out cast and degraded one of our race, and at once to lay before them Christ as theirs, if they will believe on Him. It is the key, and the only key, to the fact of justification by faith. Believe, and thou shalt be saved. Why? Believe in a Man who died and rose again, and thou shalt be saved? Now this at once brings us to the second part of our text. In the broad sense on which we have hitherto been insisting, Christ is the Saviour of all men: of the whole of mankind. All have an equal part and right in Christ. And on this foundation fact, the whole mission work of the gospel is founded. We are to go into all the world, and we are to pro claim the glad tidings to every creature. That redemption by Christ, which is as wide as the earth, as free as the air, as universal as humanity, is no mere physical amendment which has passed on our whole race unconsciously: but it is a glorious provision for spiritual amendment, able to take up and to bless and to change and to renovate mans spiritual part, his highest thoughts, his noblest aspirings, his best affections. And these are not taken up, are not blest, are not renovated, except by the power of persuasion, and the bending of the human will, and the soft promptings of love, and the living drawings of desire. (Dean Alford.)

The Christ-likeness of God

In several texts God is called our Saviour. God, then, is to us what Christ is. God Himself, then, is essentially Christlike. He must have in Himself some Christ-likeness, for He is, as Christ, our Saviour. Let the energy of these two truths once enter into a mans heart--the truth that in everything we have to do with the living God, and the truth that our God is the Christlike One, and they are enough to revolutionize a mans life.

I. Our hope is set on the living God. This is a familiar Biblical phrase. This word, the living God, had not become an echo of a vanishing faith to the Psalmist, longing for the communion of the temple, who uttered Israels national consciousness in this prayer: My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. It was a word intense with faith. A professor of chemistry, with whom sometime since I was talking about nature, and what it really is, said to me, thoughtfully: The order of nature is Gods personal conduct of His universe. It is not with a dead nature, or an impersonal order of laws, but with the living God in His personal and most Christian conduct of the universe, that we living souls have to do here and hereafter.

I. Our hope is set on the living God, our Saviour. It is a principle of far-reaching sweep and reconstructive power in theology, to think of our God above all as most Christlike in His inmost being and nature. I once saw in the city of Nurnberg, I think it was, a religious picture, in which God the Father was represented in heaven as shooting down arrows upon the ungodly, and midway between heaven and earth Christ, the Mediator, was depicted as reaching forth and catching those arrows, and breaking them as they fell. The painting was true to methods of conceiving Christs work of atonement into which faith had fallen from the simplicity of the Bible; but it should not be called a Christian picture. God, our Saviour, said apostles who had seen God revealed in Christ; and Jesus Himself once said: He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father. It is one thing to obtain from the Scriptures some adequate doctrine of the divinity of Christ. But it is another thing to have God through Christ brought as a living and inspiring presence into direct contact with all our plans and work and happiness in life. In sincere acceptance of Jesus word that He knew the Father, and came from God, let us read the gospels for the purpose of learning what God Himself is towards us in our daily lives; how our world appears in the pure eye of God; how He thinks of us, and is interested in what we may be doing, suffering, or achieving. And He who opens His mouth, and teaches the multitude, utters Gods heart to us upon that mountain-side. This is Gods own blessedness showing itself to the world. Such is God, blessing with His own blessedness the virtue which is like His own goodness. Yes, but as Jesus, in His own speech and person, realizes God before us, how can we help becoming conscious of our distance of soul from perfection so Divine? He speaks for God. So God is towards man; this word is from the bosom of the Father; there is on earth Divine forgiveness of sin. But the fear of death is here in this world of sepulchres. We might love to love were it not for death. The worst thing about our life here is, that the more we fit our hearts for the highest happiness of friendships, the more we fit ourselves, also, for sorrow: love is itself the short prelude so often to a long mourning. What does God think of this? What can God in heaven think of us in our bitter mortality? Follow again this Jesus who says He knows--what will He show Gods heart to be towards human suffering and death? Lord, show us in this respect the Father, and it sufficeth us. There, coming slowly out of the gate of the city, is a procession of much people. We do not need to be told their errand; often we have followed with those who go to the grave. The Christ who says He knows what God our Father is and thinks, meets them who are carrying to his burial the only son of a widow. It is all there, the whole story of man and womans grief. The Christ sees it all; and more than all which disciples see;--He looks on through the years, and beholds deaths broad harvests, and the generations of men passing each from earth in pain and tears; the whole history of death through the ages He bears upon the knowledge of His heart. What will God do with death? And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And He came nigh and touched the bier: and the bearers stood still. And He said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. It was not a miracle, but only an illustration beforehand of the larger law of life. While the widow wept, while the sisters of His friend Lazarus could not be comforted, Jesus knew that life is the rule in Gods great universe, and death the exception. Yes, this is a glad gospel from the bosom of the Eternal. This earth is full of human cruelty and oppressions. Let us go, then, once more with this Jesus into the city, and see what He will do with the Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. In the world from which He says He came, and into which He declares He is going soon--for a little while to be unseen by His own friends--in that world will He suffer these men to be? Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites;--How shall ye escape the judgment of Gehenna? It is the same Christ who is speaking--He whom we heard saying, Blessed, and in words which seemed to be a song from the heart of His own life--He who went weeping with the sisters at Bethany--who once sent that procession of mourners back in triumph and joy to the city. It is He who now stands before those extortioners and hypocrites, and says in Gods name: Woe unto you! It is enough. The face of God is set against them that do evil. No lie shall enter the gates of that city of the many homes. Yes--but again our human thoughts turn this bright hope into anxiety. These men may not have known. We would go into the city and save all. We would let none go until we had done all that love could do; we would not suffer any man to be lost if love could ever find him? How, then, does Jesus show us what God is towards these lost ones? Listen; He sees a shepherd going forth in the storm over the bleak mountain-side, seeking for the one lost sheep; and this Wonder of divinity with man--He who came from God and knows--says, Such is God; Even so it is not the will of your Father in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. This is the picture of the heart of God drawn by Christs own hand--the shepherd seeking the one lost sheep. Two consequences of these truths remain to be urged. God Himself is to be seen through Christ, and Christ is to be studied through all that is best and worthiest in the disciples lives. Therefore through human hearts also which reflect in any wise Christs spirit, we may seek to realize what God is. God is what they would be, only infinitely better; His perfection is like mans, only infinitely transcending it. Let us be very bold in this living way of access to God. (Newman Smyth, D. D.)

Jesus the Saviour of all men

St. Paul calls Him the Saviour of all men! Are all men, then, His people? Are not multitudes His enemies? Which witness shall I believe--the apostle, or the angel? Both of them! They do not gainsay each other. When you tell me that Dr. D. is the physician of this Poor-law District, you do not mean that he heals all the poor residing within his district, but only that he is appointed to heal them. His commission includes them all. Some may neglect to come to him, and others may prefer another doctor; but, if they will, they all may come to him, and have the benefit of his skill. In the same sense Jesus is the Saviour of all men. He is appointed to save all men--Neither is there salvation in any other! (J. J. Wray.)

Trusting in God

During the burning of a mill in our town there was a strong threatening of a large conflagration. People even two blocks off began to pack their household treasures. From many blocks around the coals from the flaming building were scattered over the white snow. From my window the scene was truly magnificent. The wild, hot flames soaring aloft, the burning elevator looking as if suspended in the heavens, the countless millions of sparks ascending, the sway and surge of this terrible power of fire. It seemed to me that a row of cottages within my sight must soon be swallowed up too, and as I thought of an elderly friend-helpless in her bed--I wrapped myself up warmly, and went out in the night to her. She was white and trembling with excitement, for the fire was only two buildings distant, and her room was light as day, illumined by the flames. I was just wondering whether it was best to get her up upon her chair, said the girl to me. No, dont, I said, I do not believe there is any danger, and if there is, she shall not suffer. Dont you believe there is any danger? asked the invalid as I reached her bedside. No, I do not, unless the wind should change. Just lie still and dont worry. If the next house should catch fire we will come for you the first thing. She accepted our word and kept her bed, thus escaping a cold; and morning found her all right. I wonder, then, why we could not accept our loving, helpful Fathers word as unquestioningly as she did the word of a mortal. Why will we persist in borrowing trouble, when He has promised As thy day so shall thy strength be? Why do we always assert proudly, yet humbly, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in Him will I trust? (E. Gilmore.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti 4:10. Εἰς τοῦτο, it is with a view to this, that) on this account, for this end, with this hope.—καὶ κοπιῶμεν καὶ ὁνειδιζόμεθα, we both labour and suffer reproach) despising the advantages and aids (safeguards against suffering) of this life: ὀνειδιζόμεθα, in the Middle voice [we suffer ourselves to be reproached].—ἠλπίκαμεν, we have hoped) we have placed (rested) our hope, viz. for the future, despising present things.—ζῶντι, living) who will also give life to us, 1Ti 4:8; 2Ti 2:18.—πάντων ἀνθρώπων, μάλιστα πιστῶν, of all men, especially of those that believe) Paul shows that he, and men like him, hope for a double salvation from God: salvation [or safety] in this life, for God saves [or else preserves] all men (nay, even He wishes all men to have salvation for ever): as also, what is of greater consequence, in the life that is to come, for He especially saves [or preserves] them that believe, who even in this life also experience greater protection, on account of their greater temptation.—μάλιστα, most of all) There lies hid beneath this word the strength of the argument from the less to the greater.[35]

[35] If God saves, in a sense, even the ungodly; a fortiori, the godly.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti_4:10. Εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ κοπιῶμεν καὶ ὀνειδιζόμεθα κ.τ.λ.] The particle γάρ shows that this verse is to serve as a reason or confirmation of the preceding thought that godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of this and the future life. Εἰς τοῦτο is by expositors either referred directly to this thought (de Wette, van Oosterzee), or is joined with the ὅτι following (Wiesinger); in the latter case the ἠλπίκαμεν points only to the thought in 1Ti_4:8. The former construction deserves the preference, not only because it is more natural to refer the τοῦτο to the thought of 1Ti_4:8 so purposely confirmed by 1Ti_4:9; and also because εἰς τοῦτο cannot be taken as equivalent to διὰ τοῦτο (by which Theodoret paraphrases it), id circo (Beza). Εἰς always points to a goal (and not to the reason of something). Ἠλπικέναι, however, as an already existing condition, cannot be regarded as the goal to which the κοπιᾶν is directed; hence Luthers translation: to this end we labour also … that we … have hoped, cannot be justified. The meaning therefore is: In regard to this, that godliness has promise, viz. in order that this promise may be fulfilled in us, we labour.

With the Rec. καὶ κοπιῶμεν καὶ ὀνειδιζόμεθα, καὶ … καί is either equivalent to both … and, or the first καί is equivalent to yea also, and the second καί is simply and. In the former case the two ideas κοπιᾶν and ὀνειδίζεσθαι are more widely separated; in the latter, they are more closely connected. The second view seems to be more natural. There is very weighty authority for the reading: κοπιῶμεν καὶ ἀγωνιζόμεθα, which also gives a thoroughly appropriate meaning; but still the Rec., for which, too, almost all expositors (de Wette, Wiesinger, Reiche, van Oosterzee, Hofmann, and others) have decided, might be preferred. The change of ὀνειδιζόμεθα into ἀγωνιζόμεθα may be easily explained from the following facts, that in Col_1:29 κοπιᾶν is joined with ἀγωνίζεσθαι, that ὀνειδίζειν does not occur elsewhere in Paul (except at Rom_15:3 in an O. T. quotation), that the passive ὀνειδιζόμεθα does not seem suitable, whereas ἀγωνιζόμεθα agrees well with the figure in 1Ti_4:8. On the other hand, the change of ἀγωνιζόμεθα into ὀνειδιζόμεθα is scarcely explicable. The plural κοπιῶμεν is not to be limited to the apostle, or to him and Timothy; it expresses the general Christian consciousness. The verb, often joined with another verb which has in it the idea of active exertion (1Co_4:12; Eph_4:28; Col_1:29), does not denote simple labour, but labour with trouble and suffering: to toil and moil (Heydenreich); καὶ ὀνειδιζόμεθα again points to the reproach which the Christian bears from the world. Ὀνειδιζόμεθα is a concise expression for we endure to be slandered (Wiesinger).

ὅτι ἠλπίκαμεν ἐπὶ Θεῷ ζῶντι] If εἰς τοῦτο refers to what precedes, ὅτι is equivalent to because; the meaning in that case is: in regard to the promise given to εὐσέβεια, we take trouble and reproach upon ourselves, because we have set our hope on the living God, and are certain, therefore, that that promise does not remain unfulfilled. Ὅτι refers to both the preceding verbs, and does not merely stand in close connection with the latter, as van Oosterzee without reason thinks. The perfect ἠλπίκαμεν as here: 1Co_15:19; 2Co_1:10.

God is here called the living God, inasmuch as He fulfils what He has promised.

Ἐλπίζειν is construed with ἐπί and the dative, because the living God is regarded as the ground on which the hope rests. The construction is only found here at 1Ti_6:17, and at Rom_15:12 in an O. T. quotation. Elsewhere ἐλπίζειν is construed with ἐν, or εἰς, or ἐπί and the accusative.

The relative clause ὅς ἐστι σωτὴρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων, μάλιστα πιστῶν serves as a seal of the hope grounded in God. Since God is the σωτήρ, this hope, too, cannot be vain; de Wette is wrong, therefore, in asserting that this clause is out of all keeping.

The first words are explained by 1Ti_2:4 : ὃς πάντας ἀνθρώπους θέλει σωθῆναι. By μάλιστα πιστῶν it is indicated that the will of God unto salvation is realized only in the case of believers. Μάλιστα does not stand here unsuitably (de Wette); it rather gives suitable expression to the thought that God is and continues to be the σωτήρ for all, whether they desire σωτηρία or not; but in the proper and special sense the σωτηρία is only for believers who really desire it.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti 4:10 . γὰρ , as in the parallel 2Ti 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” (2Co 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 Act 14:22 ; but is not of necessity a concomitant of the exercising of oneself to godliness. The two words are similarly combined Col 1:29 , εἰς ὃ καὶ κοπιῶ ἀγωνιζόμενος . κοπιᾶν is usually used by St. Paul of ministerial labours: his own, 1Co 15:10 , Gal 4:11 , and those of others, Rom 16:12 , 1Co 16:16 , 1Th 5:12 , 1Ti 5:17 ; but this restriction is not necessary, nor would it be suitable here. See reff.

For ὀνειδιζόμεθα (var. lect.) cf. Mat 5:11 = Luk 6:22 ; 1Pe 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 Rom 15:12 (Isa 11:10 ) and 1Ti 6:17 ; by ἐπί with the acc. in 1Ti 5:5 , 1Pe 1:13 ; by εἰς with an acc. in Joh 5:45 , 2Co 1:10 , 1Pe 3:5 ; and by ἐν followed by the dat. in 1Co 15:19 .

θεῷ ζῶντι : As indicated above, this is said in relation to ἐπαγγελίαν ζωῆς . To know the living God is life eternal (Joh 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 , Joh 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 Act 25:26 , Gal 6:10 , Phi 4:22 , 1Ti 5:8 ; 1Ti 5:17 , 2Ti 4:13 ; Tit 1:10 .

The statement is more unreservedly universalist in tone than chap. 1Ti 2:4 and Tit 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. 1Ti 1:1 ; 1Ti 2:4 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. εἰς τοῦτο.] Cf. 1Co 9:25-27. θεῷ ζῶντι: living, and therefore able to give life now and hereafter; cf. 3:15 note.

σωτὴρ. (“salvator,” Vulg.; “salutaris,” Ambros.) πάντων ἀνθρ., perhaps, as giving them their life (“quia ex ipso et per ipsum vivunt,” Ambros.; cf. 6:13 ζωογονοῦντος τὰ πάντα: Act 17:28) and protection from danger (Chrys. Bengel, “servat omnes”), but, much more deeply, as giving them the instincts that feel after Him (Act 17:27), and as longing for their full spiritual salvation (2:4).

μάλιστα πιστῶν] as completing their salvation, giving grace in response to their faith and in proportion to every need, and life to meet a daily dying; cf. 1Co 15:31, 2Co 4:10-15. The difference of treatment lies not with God, but with men themselves. He is always Father and Saviour; but they who trust Him as such and accept the revelation through His Son, know that He is such and gain a fuller life. Cf. Plut. Alex. p. 683 A, ὡς πάντων μὲν ὄντα κοινὸν ἀνθρώπων πατέρα τὸν θεόν, ἰδίους δὲ ποιούμενον ἑαυτῷ τοὺς ἀρίστους (Wetstein). Christians have to imitate the Divine method and proportion in their well-doing, Gal 6:10, Php 4:5.

ἀγωνιζόμεθα] cf. 6:12, 1Co 9:25, 2Ti 4:7. For the reading cf. Introd. p. xxxvii.

ὀνειδιζόμεθα] Cf. Rom 15:3, Rom 15:1 P 4:14, Heb 10:33, Heb 10:13:13; but the thought of persecution and reproach is not found in this Epistle, nor is it very appropriate to this context.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

therefore--Greek, "with a view to this." The reason why "we both ('both' is omitted in the oldest manuscripts) labor (endure hardship) and suffer reproach (some oldest manuscripts read 'strive') is because we have rested, and do rest our hope, on the living (and therefore, life-giving, Ti1 4:8) God."

Saviour--even in this life (Ti1 4:8).

specially of those that believe--Their "labor and reproach" are not inconsistent with their having from the living God, their Saviour, even the present life (Mar 10:30, "a hundred fold now in this time . . . with persecutions"), much more the life to come. If God is in a sense "Saviour" of unbelievers (Ti1 2:4, that is, is willing to be so everlastingly, and is temporally here their Preserver and Benefactor), much more of believers. He is the Saviour of all men potentially (Ti1 1:15); of believers alone effectually.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 10. For therefore we both labour] This verse was necessary to explain what he had before said; and here he shows that his meaning was not that the followers of God should enjoy worldly prosperity and exemption from natural evils; for, said he, it is because we exercise ourselves to godliness that we have both labour and reproach, and we have these because we trust In the living God: but still we have mental happiness, and all that is necessary for our passage through life; for in the midst of persecutions and afflictions we have the peace of God that passeth knowledge, and have all our crosses and sufferings so sanctified to us that we consider them in the number of our blessings.

Who is the Saviour of all men] Who has provided salvation for the whole human race, and has freely offered it to them in his word and by his Spirit.

Specially of those that believe.] What God intends for ALL, he actually gives to them that believe in Christ, who died for the sins of the world, and tasted death for every man. As all have been purchased by his blood so all may believe; and consequently all may be saved. Those that perish, perish through their own fault.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10 For in this we both labor and suffer reproaches This is an anticipation by which he solves that question, “Are not believers the most miserable of all men, because they are oppressed by tribulations of every kind?” In order to show, therefore, that their condition must not be judged from outward appearance, he distinguishes them from others, first in the cause, and next in the result. Hence it follows, that they lose nothing of the promises which he has mentioned, when they are tried by adversity. The sum is, that believers are not miserable in afflictions, because a good conscience supports them, and a blessed and joyful end awaits them.

Now, since the happiness of the present life consists chiefly of two parts, honor and conveniences, he contrasts them within two evils, toils and reproach, meaning by the former words, inconveniences and annoyances of every kind, such as poverty, cold, nakedness, hunger, banishments, spoliations, imprisonments, scourgings, and other persecutions.

We have hope fixed on the living God This consolation refers to the cause; for so far are we from being miserable, when we suffer on account of righteousness, that it is rather a just ground of thanksgiving. Besides, our afflictions are accompanied by hope in the living God, and, what is more, hope may be regarded as the foundation; but it never maketh ashamed, (Romans 5:5,) and therefore everything that happens to the godly ought to be reckoned a gain.

Who is the Savior This is the second consolation, though it depends on the former; for the deliverance of which he speaks may be viewed as the fruit of hope. To make this more clear, it ought to be understood that this is an argument drawn from the less to the greater; for the word σωτὴρ is here a general term, and denotes one who defends and preserves. He means that the kindness of God extends to all men. And if there is no man who does not feel the goodness of God towards him, and who is not a partaker of it, how much more shall it be experienced by the godly, who hope in him? Will he not take peculiar care in them? Will he not more freely pour out his bounty on them? In a word, will he not, in every respect, keep them safe to the end?

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(10) For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach.—And for this end—to obtain this glorious promise, this highest blessedness here, that endless life with God hereafter, to win this glorious promise—we Christian missionaries and teachers care for no toil, however painful—shrink from no shame, however agonising.

Because we trust in the living God.—More accurately translated, because we have our hope in the living God. And this is why we toil and endure shame. We know that the promise made will be fulfilled, because the God on whom—as on a sure foundation—our hopes rest, is a living God. “Living,” in strong contrast to those dumb and lifeless idols shrined in the well-known Ephesian temples.

Who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.—These words, like the assertion of 1Ti_2:4, have been often pressed into the service of that school of kindly, but mistaken, interpreters, who ignore, or explain away, the plain doctrine of Holy Scripture which tells us there are those whose destruction from the presence of the Lord shall be everlasting, whose portion shall be the “second death” (2Th_1:9; Rev_21:8). These interpreters prefer to substitute in place of this terrible, but repeated declaration, their own perilous theories of universalism. Here the gracious words seem to affix a seal to the statement immediately preceding, which speaks of “the hope in the living God” as the source of all the labour and brave patience of the Lord’s true servants. The living God is also a loving God, the Saviour of all, if they would receive Him, and, undoubtedly, the Redeemer of those who accept His love and are faithful to His holy cause.

It must be borne in mind that there were many Hebrews still in every Christian congregation, many in every church, who still clung with passionate zeal to the old loved Hebrew thought, that Messiah’s work of salvation was limited to the chosen race. This and similar sayings were specially meant to set aside for ever these narrow and selfish conceptions of the Redeemer’s will; were intended to show these exclusive children of Israel that Christ’s work would stretch over a greater and a grander platform than ever Israel could fill; were designed to tell out to all the churches how indeed “it was a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel.” Still, with all these guarded considerations, which serve to warn us from entertaining any hopes of a universal redemption, such a saying as this seems to point to the blessed Atonement mystery as performing a work whose consequences reach far beyond the limits of human thought, or even of sober speculation.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. therefore we both labour] In view of this, namely, our hope fixed on the fulness of the blessing of life from the living God, a present and a future salvation, ‘goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men, creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life,’ enjoyed to the full only by the faithful, and above all ‘the redemption of the world, the means of grace, and the hope of glory’ realised with ‘a due sense of the inestimable love’ only by the faithful; in view of such a glorifying of our being, of all being, any amount of ‘toil and moil,’ any strain of keenest contest is worth while. We may render the whole ‘faithful saying’ thus:

‘Right well for such a wage and prize

We toil, we wrestle on

Till hope’s far goal be won,

Love’s full salvation, Life that lies

In God the Living One

For each created son—

Full Life, where Faith to Love replies.’

we both labour and suffer reproach] The balance of ms. authority is for the omission of ‘both’ and the substitution of ‘strive,’ ‘wrestle,’ for ‘suffer reproach.’ The internal appropriateness which has been thought to require the latter seems altogether from the foregoing paraphrase to suit the change: a superficial adaptation of this passage to the somewhat similar ‘faithful saying’ of 2Ti_2:11-12 may have caused the reading ‘suffer reproach.’ But the tone here and in Ep. to Titus is ‘work,’—the buoyant tone of one who has been set free to ‘labour in the Lord:’ in 2 Tim. the deeper shade of ‘suffering’ has settled on the prison cell. Accordingly in his peroration in ch. 1Ti_6:12 St Paul takes up the word and metaphor, ‘Fight the good fight of the faith;’ while in 2Ti_4:7 he looks back from the prison cell on his own strife as finished, ‘I have fought the good fight.’ The metaphor had long been a favourite with him, e.g. 1Co_9:25, where the word is translated in full by R.V., ‘Every man that striveth in the games is temperate in all things.’ See Appendix, E, and K.

we trust] More correctly ‘we have hoped and still hope’ the ‘larger hope,’ that God is

‘love indeed

And love Creation’s final law.’

The perfect expresses a ‘Hope that never lost her youth.’ The aorist has less ms. authority.

the Saviour of all men] In a lower sense; (1) for the body, in the supply of a present earthly care, and in the blessing of all earth’s good gifts, through His living love, the curse being removed through Christ’s coming; (2) for the soul, in the supply of the light of Christ to the conscience, such that where revelation has not come, the soul can still live, if it will, the life of God here through Christ unrecognised and hereafter through Christ revealed. ‘I am the light of the world,’ Joh_8:12; ‘That was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world,’ Joh_1:9.

specially of those that believe] In a higher sense; (1) through the Christian’s quickened enjoyment of all earth’s beauties and happinesses, and the transmuting of earthly losses into gains; (2) through the Christian’s response of Faith to Love. ‘That life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me,’ Gal_2:20; ‘He that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness but shall have the light of life,’ Joh_8:12. In both cases it is a present salvation that is chiefly in view, both of body and of soul; but in both cases the life that now is, of body and of soul, is only part of the whole life of which the living God is Saviour.

See Lange’s and Bp Westcott’s notes above. This one last word ‘the faithful,’ ‘baptized believers,’ ‘holders of the Christian faith,’ gathers up the great mystery of Creation, Incarnation, Redemption, From 1Ti_3:15 to 1Ti_4:11, and sets the great revelation of God in Christ the living Saviour against the ‘lies’ and ‘fables’ of men and devils.

‘Strong Son of God, immortal Love,

Whom we that have not seen Thy Face

By faith and faith alone embrace,

Believing where we cannot prove,—

Thine are these orbs of light and shade,

Thou madest Life in man and brute.’

The more usual interpretation of the verse may be given in Bp Woodford’s words: ‘God is the Saviour of all, because He willeth the salvation of all and delivered up His Son for us all (Rom_8:32). He is in a more complete sense the Saviour of His faithful, because in them His gracious will takes effect through the cooperation of their own freewill with His divine will.’ For extracts from Bp Barrow’s famous sermons on the text, and for Prof. Birks’s view of the passage giving a special aspect of the ‘larger hope,’ see Appendix, F.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For therefore we both labour,.... Not in the word and doctrine, though they did; nor in the exercise of internal godliness, though there is a work in faith, and a labour in love; nor with their own hands, at their trades and business, to support themselves, and others; but by enduring hardships and afflictions, as stripes, imprisonment, weariness, pain, watchings, fastings, hunger, thirst, cold, and nakedness; see Co2 11:23.

And suffer reproach; with patience and cheerfulness. The Alexandrian copy, and another manuscript, read, "we strive"; or contend even to an agony, combating with sin, Satan, and the world, with profane men, and with false teachers; and to all this they were animated by the promises made to godliness; and therefore they showed it by their practices, or rather by their sufferings, that they believed it to be a true and faithful saying; and which is further conferred by what follows:

because we trust in the living God; for the accomplishment of the said promises, who has power, and therefore can, and is faithful, and therefore will, make good what he has promised; and since it is life he has promised, faith is the more encouraged to trust in him, since he is the living God, in opposition to, and distinction from, lifeless idols; he has life in himself, essentially, originally, and independently, and is the author and giver of life, natural, spiritual, and eternal, unto others. Wherefore there is good reason to trust in him for the fulfilling of the promises of the present and future life, made unto godliness.

Who is the Saviour of all men; in a providential way, giving them being and breath, upholding them in their beings, preserving their lives, and indulging them with the blessings and mercies of life; for that he is the Saviour of all men, with a spiritual and everlasting salvation, is not true in fact.

Specially of those that believe; whom though he saves with an eternal salvation; yet not of this, but of a temporal salvation, are the words to be understood: or as there is a general providence, which attends all mankind, there is a special one which relates to the elect of God; these are regarded in Providence, and are particularly saved and preserved before conversion, in order to be called; and after conversion, after they are brought to believe in Christ, they are preserved from many enemies, and are delivered out of many afflictions and temptations; and are the peculiar care and darlings of providence, being to God as the apple of his eye: and there is a great deal of reason to believe this, for if he is the Saviour of all men, then much more of them who are of more worth, value, and esteem with him, than all the world beside; and if they are saved by him with the greater salvation, then much more with the less; and if he the common Saviour of all men, and especially of saints, whom he saves both ways, then there is great reason to trust in him for the fulfilment of the promises of life, temporal and eternal, made to godliness, and godly persons. This epithet of God seems to be taken out of Psa 17:7 where he is called , "the Saviour of them that trust", or believe.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

Ver. 10. For therefore] Because godliness hath so much happiness laid up in the promises, 1Ti 4:8, and there is so much certainty of the performance of those promises, therefore we both do and suffer, 1Co 15:58. Finis edulcat media. The end sweetens the journey.

Who is the Saviour of all men] Not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation. For every man should die the same day he is born, the wages of death should be paid him presently; but Christ begs wicked men’s lives for a season, saith one. Sin hath hurled confusion over the world, brought a vanity on the creature. And had not Christ undertaken the shattered condition of the world to uphold it, it had fallen about Adam’s ears, saith another divine:

Specially of those that believe] Who therefore are in a special manner bound to observe and obey him. Among the Romans they that were saved were wont to crown him that saved them, and to honour him as a father all their days. Σεβεται δε τουτον ως πατερα, Polyb. vi. We must also set the crown upon Christ’s head, Son 3:11, and obey this everlasting Father, Isa 9:6.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach - In making this truth known, that all might be saved, or that salvation was offered to all. The “labor” was chiefly experienced in carrying this intelligence abroad among the Gentiles; the “reproach” arose chiefly from the Jews for doing it.

Because we trust in the living God - This does not mean, as our translation would seem to imply, that he labored and suffered “because” he confided in God, or that this was the “reason” of his sufferings, but rather that this trust in the living God was his “support” in these labors and trials. “We labor and suffer reproach, for we have hope in God. Through him we look for salvation. We believe that he has made this known to people, and believing this, we labor earnestly to make it known, even though it be attended with reproaches.” The sentiment is, that the belief that God has revealed a plan of salvation for all people, and invites all people to be saved, will make his friends willing to “labor” to make this known, though it be attended with reproaches.

Who is the Saviour of all men - This must be understood as denoting that he is the Saviour of all people in some sense which differs from what is immediately affirmed - “especially of those that believe.” There is something pertaining to “them” in regard to salvation which does not pertain to “all men.” It cannot mean that he brings all people to heaven, “especially” those who believe - for this would be nonsense. And if he brings all people actually to heaven, how can it be “especially” true that he does this in regard to those who believe? Does it mean that he saves others “without” believing? But this would be contrary to the uniform doctrine of the Scriptures; see Mar 16:16. When, therefore, it is said that he “is the Saviour of ‘all’ people, ‘especially’ of those who believe,” it must mean that there is a sense in which it is true that he may be called the Saviour of all people, while, at the same time, it is “actually” true that those only are saved who believe. This may be true in two respects:

As he is the “Preserver” of people Job 7:20, for in this sense he may be said to “save” them from famine, and war, and peril - keeping them from day to day; compare Psa 107:28;

(2)As he has “provided” salvation for all people. He is thus their Saviour - and may be called the common Saviour of all; that is, he has confined the offer of salvation to no one class of people; he has not limited the atonement to one division of the human race; and he actually saves all who are willing to be saved by him.

(See supplementary note on 2Co 5:21. This passage however is not regarded a proof text now on the extent of the atonement, as the fair rendering of σωτήρ sōtēr is “Preserver.” Dr. Wardlaw has accordingly excluded it in his recent work.)

Specially of those that believe - This is evidently designed to limit the previous remark. If it had been left there, it might have been inferred that he would “actually save” all people. But the apostle held no such doctrine, and he here teaches that salvation is “actually” limited to those who believe. This is the speciality or the uniqueness in the salvation of those who actually reach heaven, that they are “believers;” see the notes on Mar 16:16. All people, therefore, do not enter heaven, unless all people have faith. But is this so? What evidence is there that the great mass of mankind die believing on the Son of God?

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Of all men, and especially of the faithful, who have received the grace of faith. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

If we did not believe this as a faithful saying, that godliness is profitable for all things, and trust in God, who liveth for ever, to see to the fulfilling of it, to what purpose should

we labour and suffer reproach as we do; labouring in the work of God, suffering reproach in the cause of God, and for living godly lives, worshipping God according to his will, and denying ourselves in sensual satisfactions and sensible enjoyments, that we might fulfil the law of Christ?

Objection. But, will some say: how then is godliness profitable for all things, how doth the faithfulness of the promises for this life annexed to godliness appear, if those that profess it must labour and suffer reproach?

Solution. Labour for God is a reward to itself, our honour, not our burden, his service is perfect freedom: the promises of this life, annexed to godliness, are not promises of sensual rest and ease, but of inward peace, satisfaction, and support of other things, only with a reserve to the Divine wisdom and judgment, so far forth as our heavenly Father shall see it fit for his glory and our good; yet they are not vain, for God,

who is the Saviour, that is, the Preserver,

of all men, the Preserver of man and beast, as the psalmist speaketh, is in a more especial manner the Saviour

of those that believe, Psa 33:18,19. This seemeth rather to be the sense of the text, than to understand it of eternal salvation, for so God is not the actual Saviour of all; besides that the text seemeth to speak of a work proper to the Father, rather than to the Son.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. And our acceptance of this value is clear for, therefore; that is, for the reason now to be given.

Labour and suffer reproach—Things far more serious than exercise. Namely, because.

The Saviour—Alford says: “So far as salvation stands in him, he is the Saviour of all men. And it is by virtue of this universality of salvation offered by God that we have rested our hopes on him.”

Specially of those that believe—Alford adds: “In these (that believe) alone does that salvation which God has provided become actual. He is the same Saviour, towards and of all: but these alone appropriate his salvation.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To this end for therefore, A.V; labor and strive for both labor and suffer reproach, A.V and T.R.; have our hope set on for trust in, A.V; them for those, A.V For to this end; or, with this in view. He thus justifies his assertion that the saying he had quoted is a faithful one, by showing that the promise and all that it contained was the ground of all his labors and those of his fellow-laborers in the gospel. Strive (ajgwnizomeqa); so many good manuscripts, instead of T.R. ojneidizomeqa; but the reading is doubtful. The sense of the T.R., "suffer reproach," seems preferable, and the expression more forcible, as conveying something more than mere labor the bitter reproaches and persecutions which he endured (2Ti_3:11; 1Co_4:9-13; 2Co_11:23-27) and all because of his firm trust in the promises of the living God. Our hope set on. Rather a clumsy phrase, though it expresses accurately the hjlpikamen ejpi Qew zwnti; but it was hardly worth altering the A.V, "we trust in the living God." Inlpiken 1Ti_5:5 we have h ejpin, with no appreciable difference of sense. Specially of them that believe; and therefore we who believe have special cause to hope in him, and to trust his promises.

The practical effects of this truth in apostolic experience.

Looking to the realization of this promise, the apostle reminds Timothy how he was borne up by it in all his labor and suffering.

I ITS SUSTAINING EFFICACY. "For to this end do we labor and suffer reproach.

1. The apostle did not regard the life promised to godliness as one of mere corporeal enjoyment.

2. His life was actually one of severe and toilsome labor as well as of trying but unmerited reproach.

3. Yet he was stimulated to increased toil and supported under the infliction of unjust reproach by the thought of the promise involved in the life of true godliness.

II THE SOLID BASIS OF CHRISTIAN EXPECTATION UNDER TOIL AND SHAME. "Because we have set our hope upon the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe.

1. The blessed nature and continuity of this hope.

(1) It is the good hope through grace which we enjoy.

(2) Life would be a blank without it. "If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable.

(3) It is linked with patience. "But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it". (Rom_7:25)

(4) It is a permanent and continuous hope, as the tense of the verb here signifies.

2. The ground or basis of this hope. "Upon the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe.

(1) This hope is from the "God of hope", (Rom_15:13) who is the living God; that is, no mere God of imagination, but a real personal Agent, the very Fountain of life in infinite sufficiency .

(2) It is a hope linked to salvation in its widest sense both "the life that now is, and that which is to come." For God is "the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe.

(a) The Saviorship here has relation to the two lives of men, as expressed in the context. In the one sense, God is a Savior of all men, since by his watchful and sustaining providence he preserves them from destruction; in the other, he offers and bestows eternal life.

(b) The words do not warrant the Universalist conclusion that all men will be ultimately saved. The passage makes an express distinction between all "men" and "believers" inconsistent with this view. T.C.

Adequate reasons.

therefore we both labor." To understand a man"s history, we must understand his philosophy of life that is, his motives and his reasons. For no life has unity without this. It may have spasmodic activities and instinctive virtues, but no completeness or consistency. Here is

I THE ARGUMENT OF A TRUE FAITH A man"s thought does not always rule his life, even though conscience enforces truth as a duty. A man"s conscience does not always rule his life. It is said that man is a will; and this is true, for it is ever the supreme power. Man is made up of three things can," "I ought," "I will." Christ had become the Master of Paul"s life; therefore he labored, because the gospel was a fact, not a fable (ver. 7) spun out of Jewish brains. Men like Strauss have tried to prove it a myth something that grew up in the minds of men. Imagine the Jewish mind that had grown more ritual and legal, developing into the simplicity of Christianity! Imagine philosophy that had grown more and more proud and exclusive, developing a religion for the common people! The gospel was a faithful saying, and St. Paul did not alter and improve his doctrine and teachings; he preaches the same gospel in his earlier and later Epistles. He was a man of sober judgment and of intellectual power, and no mere rhapsodist. He says, "It is worthy of all acceptation by the scholar and the peasant, the Jew and the Gentile, the bond and the free. The Jew would find it fulfilled his Law, his symbols, his prophecy. The Gentile would find it answered to his instinct, his hidden desire, his deepest intuition. "Therefore" is the argument of a true faith. We are not the disciples of a new sentiment or a mere romantic embassy; for the new temple is built, like the temple of Jerusalem, upon a rock.

II THE TOIL OF A TRUE FAITH. "Therefore we labor," not simply "we teach" nor "formulate opinions." That might be done with ease, like philosophic teachers, in the garden and the porch. "We labor!" A word involving pain and tears, as well as toil. The tendencies of the times are against us. The corrupt taste of a degenerate age is against us. The cross is to the Jew a stumbling-block, and to the Greek foolishness. We do not please men, like the rhetoricians. We do not amuse men, like the sophists, We labor in journeyings, in perils, in hunger, in stripes. Think of St. Paul"s outcast condition, so far as his own countrymen were concerned. Think of his relation to the Roman power suspected of sedition; and accusations of his fellow-countrymen, the Jews. At a time when Rome swarmed with spies, he was laboring in the face of certain danger and death. W.M.S.

Apostolic endurance.

suffer reproach." This is hard to bear, even when it is not deserved. All who have broken old ties of Church or home know its power. Men ever brand with heresy that which conflicts with their own opinions. Against St. Paul men brought false charges. We must not surround the gospel then with the glory associated with it now. We put the nimbus on the heads of the saints and martyrs; their enemies crowned them with shame.

I THERE WAS THE CONSCIOUS LOSS OF ALL THAT THE WORLD HOLDS DEAR. A good name and a fair fame, how precious these are to us all! But if we move daily in an atmosphere of suspicion and false accusation, how full of misery the outward lot becomes! It is a proof of how precious Christ was to Paul, that he counts all things but offal that he may win Christ. Reproach itself became a source of joy when he felt that it was endured for the Master"s cause. "If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye.

II IT WAS A SURE PROOF OF THE REALITY OF THEIR RELIGION. "Because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil," said Christ, "therefore they have hated me." The Master was reproached as a blasphemer, a wine-bibber, a seditionist, a friend of publicans and sinners. It was a testimony to his earnest character that Paul suffered reproach. Wolves do not worry a painted sheep, and the world does not persecute a mere professor. In every age of religious earnestness reproach has had to be endured. The Covenanters of Scotland in their wilderness-worship, when they spread the white communion cloth on the yet whiter snow; the Puritans in their hidden assemblies; and missionaries like Carey, satirized by the reviews! Even now it is not an easy thing to be a Christian; but we find in the gospel that which no secular inspiration can give the power to live in the face of an antagonistic world. W.M.S.

Sustaining motive.

we trust in the living God." One remarkable fact in the history of St. Paul was that nothing damped his ardor. It was not so with such men as Luther, who seemed to feel at last that all is vain. There were no outward forces to sustain the life of the new Church. Well may the ancient words be used in contrasting the cause of Mohammed with that of the gospel: "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the Name of the Lord our God.

I "IN THE LIVING GOD." The tendency of Judaism was to leave God in the past! The age of inspiration had passed, the prophetic roll had closed, and the Jews became scribes and traditionists. They had a codex of finished Law, and gathered up the opinions of the rabbis upon the minutest matters of ceremonial and duty. Paul preached a God who was then baptizing men with fire a Holy Spirit that was working in the hearts of the faithful.

II "THE LIVING GOD" BECAUSE THE GOSPEL SHOWED ALL THE MARKS OF LIFE. It embodied Divine power, it manifested a living purpose. It had an echo in the conscience and heart of men. God, who in times past had spoken to the fathers by the prophets, had in these last days spoken unto them by his Son. God was manifest in the flesh. The Spirit had descended after Christ"s ascension, and Pentecost had already taken its place in history.

III "THE LIVING GOD" HAD SHOWN THAT HE COULD TAKE CARE OF HIS SERVANTS. He had opened ways for them; he had touched the hearts of men. As they preached, the message had been accompanied with power from on high; and Paul in his imprisonment had received grace according to his day.

IV "THE LIVING GOD" WHO WOULD CONTINUE HIS WORK IF HIS SERVANTS DIED. Empires might fall; dynasties might change; the ancient Jewish Church might fulfill its day; but the living God had designed a new heaven and a new earth, wherein righteousness should dwell; and thus his apostles trusted, not in an arm of flesh, but in a living God. W.M.S.

The universal Redeemer.

is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe." Paul had no limited atonement to preach, but that Christ died for all, and was the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. There was no court of the Gentiles; for all alike Jew and Greek were included under sin that the grace of God might appear to all men. In Christ Jesus there is neither Greek nor Jew, bond nor free; all are one in the provision; all need it; all must have it. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." But

I HE IS THE SAVIOR SPECIALLY OF THEM THAT BELIEVE; for unless faith looks up mid lays hold on Christ, the virtue will not come out of him, either of forgiveness or life. It matters not that the lifeboat is provided for all in the sinking ship, unless men will leap into the lifeboat. It matters not that the electric cord conveys the current, unless men adjust it to their wants.

II AND THIS SALVATION IS MADE MANIFEST IN EVERY AGE. In that age it stayed suicide, it raised hospitals, it emancipated Ephesians and Corinthians from lust, it uplifted women, it purified law, and it created brotherhood between Samaritan, Gentile, and Jew. In the early centuries we see it at work in the varied peoples that united in its worship, whilst the bishops of the Church were African, Greek, Roman, and Armenian. It saved men in the catacombs from despair, and constrained them to write on their epitaphs words that breathed of hope; and it continues to save. It enlarges the kingdom of Christ; it breaks up the heptarchy of evil in the heart, as province after province becomes loyal to God; and it redeems body, soul, and spirit. "Beside me there is no Savior" is as true today as ever. The love of beauty often ends in mere sensuous aestheticism. The seeking after righteousness often leaves the upas tree of the heart with its deadly leaves within. New ideals of social economy find man"s selfishness supreme in every new adjustment of law. Selfishness never has been slain, save at the cross. But this gospel saves them that believe today. Men too often prefer costly ritual and formal ceremonial; but a new heart means a new life, and the gospel saves them that believe. W.M.S.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore - Animated by this promise. We both labour and suffer reproach - We regard neither pleasure, ease, nor honour. Because we trust - For this very thing the world will hate us. In the living God - Who will give us the life he has promised. Who is the saviour of all men - Preserving them in this life, and willing to save them eternally. But especially - In a more eminent manner. Of them that believe - And so are saved everlastingly.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Ver. 10. For to this (εἰς τοῦτο, with a view to it, in order that we may in our own case realize the good contained in the promise) we toil (κοπιῶμεν, which is somewhat stronger than ἑργάζομεν, labour) and strive (ἀγωνιζόμεθα), (This is undoubtedly the best supported reading, being that of א, A, C, F, G, K, while the ὀνειδιζόμεθα of the received text is found in only three uncials at first hand, D, L, P, though it has the support of the Vulg., Greek, Syr., Cop., Arm., and Ethiop. versions. The unanimity of the versions is certainly entitled to weight, yet is scarcely sufficient to counterbalance the evidence of so many of the most important MSS. The omission of the first καὶ has the support of all the versions, and that also of N, A, C, D, P.) because we have hoped upon the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe. This statement being presented as a reason or ground of procedure in respect to the promise of life mentioned immediately before, clearly enough shows in what sense the apostle understood the life; for, so far from aiming at mere animal existence or corporeal satisfaction and repose, as if this were the summum bonum of life, he and his fellow-labourers readily parted with the things pertaining to that lower sphere, cheerfully encountered hardships, and persevered in a great life-conflict, that they might become partakers of life in that higher and nobler sense which the grace of God in Christ had rendered it possible for them to attain. They felt, in short, that their grand interest, alike for time and eternity, lay in the service and blessing of God; and without disparaging anything naturally pleasant or advantageous which the course of divine providence might place within their reach, or shunning as unclean what God had given to be used, they still showed that they were prepared to undergo any sacrifice of fleshly ease or worldly honour that might be required by their devotion to the cause of Christ, assured that thereby they gained more than they lost—that they advanced their interest in what alone is of supreme and imperishable moment. The ground of this assurance is made to rest in God: it was because they had hoped upon the living God (the ἐπὶ, with the dative, indicative of the solid basis they had obtained for their expectations), that they could so confidently reckon on an endless heritage of peaceful and blessed life, and so willingly submit to all privations and toils that might meet them in the pursuit of it; for He who is Himself the living One, having the very fountain of life in perpetual freshness and inexhaustible sufficiency, is in this case the surety and the promiser. Such a hope, therefore, must be one that shall not make ashamed.

In this direction also points the further description given of God: who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe. The term Saviour (σωτὴρ) represents Him as the deliverer and preserver of life; but in what sense, or to what effects, must be inferred from the connection. As the living God, He may be said to be the Saviour of all men, since by His watchful and beneficent providence they are constantly delivered from destruction and preserved in being. Actually He is not more to all men, although more in manifestations of goodwill and acts tending toward salvation, since He sets before men generally, and often even presses on their acceptance, the benefits of a work of reconciliation, which, from its essential nature, is perfectly sufficient to meet the necessities of all, and recover them to life and blessing. As it is in the character of a Saviour-God that He does this, there seems no valid reason why it should not be comprised in the sense we put upon the apostle’s language. Yet, as the language indicates rather what God actually is to men, what they actually receive from Him, than what He reveals Himself as ready and willing to give them, we are led by the natural and unconstrained import of the words to think mainly of the relation in which God stands to men indiscriminately as the Author and Preserver of their present life. And from this as the less, the apostle rises to the greater. From what God is and does in behalf of such as are dependent on Him for the common bounties of providence, he proceeds to indicate what God is and does besides, in respect to those who are related to Him as His redeemed in Christ—the Saviour, especially of those who believe: in them the character of God as Saviour reaches its proper culmination. Put in the form of an argument, the idea might be thus expressed: If in that character God does so much for sinful and unbelieving men, how much may He not be justly expected to do for His own chosen people, who are partakers of His grace, and have trusted in His word! In their case there is nothing to hinder the outgoings of His loving-kindness, or to restrain the riches of His beneficence, but everything rather to encourage them to expect all from His hand. Expressing the Father’s mind towards them in this respect, our Lord said, “I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (Joh 10:10).

Patrick Fairbairn — An Exposition of Ezekiel (1851), Jonah (1849), and The Pastoral Epistles (1874) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10, 11. For therefore. On account of the eternal life which godliness insures. We labor and suffer reproach. Compare 2 Cor. 11:21–27.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

10. Rec. text inserts καὶ before κοπιῶμεν with GKL; om. אACD2P and Vss.

ἀγωνιζόμεθα. So א*ACGK; ὀνειδιζόμεθα is read by אcD2LP and Vss. It is possible that ἀγωνιζόμεθα may be a correction suggested by Col 1:29; and Westcott and Hort give ὀνειδιζόμεθα a place in their margin.

ἠλπίκαμεν. So nearly all MSS.; but Westcott and Hort give a place in their margin to the aorist ἠλπίσαμεν, which is found in D2* 17. See note in loc.

10. εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ κ.τ.λ. The whole verse is explanatory of the motive and the aim of the γυμνασία or discipline of the body, as of all earthly struggle.

κοπιῶμεν. κόπος means ‘wearying fatigue,’ and κοπιάω ordinarily means ‘to be weary of.’ The word carries special allusion here to the training for athletic contests, a sense which it frequently bears, as e.g. at Php 2:16. It is used in Rom 16:6; Rom 16:12; 1Co 15:10; Gal 4:11 of the daily work of an Apostle. The reading ἀγενιζόμεθα (see crit. note) is better supported than ὀνειδιζόμεθα of the received text; cp. Col 1:29 εἰς ὃ καὶ κοπιῶ ἀγωνιζόμενος, and also [2 Clem.] § 7 οὐ πάντες στεφανοῦνται, εἰ μὴ οἱ πολλὰ κοπιάσαντες καὶ καλῶς ἀγωνισάμενοι.

ἠλπίκαμεν. The perfect marks the continued ἐλπίς of the believer; we have set our hope. Cp. 1Ti 6:17 where ἐλπίζειν is again followed by ἐπί, with the dative, the preposition marking the ground of the hope (cp. Rom 15:12). See Hort on 1Pe 1:13. For θεῷ ζῶντι see on 1Ti 3:15.

σωτὴρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων. See note on 1Ti 1:1; the phrase is found in Wis 16:7, διὰ σέ, τὸν πάντων σωτῆρα.

μάλιστα πιστῶν. μάλιστα is used just as at Gal 6:10; Php 4:22, i.e. especially. There is, then, a special sense in which God is the Saviour of those who believe, as distinct from all men; it is only in those who believe that the Divine intention that all men should be saved (1Ti 2:4) can be completely fulfilled. For the same thoughts stated in the reverse order, see 1Jn 2:2.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore [εις τουτο] . More correctly, to this end; or with a view to this.

We labor and strive [κοπιωμεν και αγωνιζομεθα] . Both Pauline words. See on Col 1:29, where the two are found together as here. Also on kopou labor, 1Th 1:3, and kopiwntav, and laboring 1Th 5:12. Comp. ch. 1ti 5:17, and 2Ti 2:6. Both words denote strenuous and painful effort. 111 The kai; has an ascensive force :

"we labor, yea struggle."

We trust in [ηλπικαμεν επι] . Better, have set our hope on. The verb with ejpi in Pastorals, in Paul, Rom 14:12, a citation, and in 1Pe 1:13.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.