1 Timothy 1:17

{14} Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the {k} only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. (14) He breaks out into an exclamation, even because of the very zeal of his mind, because he cannot satisfy himself in amplifying the grace of God. (k) See Geneva Joh 17:3

1 Timothy 1:17 . Now unto the King, &c. — A consideration of the great mercy which God had shown him, in not only pardoning him when he was involved in such great guilt, but in making him an example for the comfort of future penitents, causes him to break forth in a rapture of praise and thanksgiving; eternal — Whose existence had no beginning, and shall have no end; immortal — Or incorruptible, as αφθαρτω also signifies; it is however rightly translated immortal, because what is incorruptible is likewise immortal; invisible — To mortal eyes. By this epithet the true God is distinguished from all those heathen deities who were the workmanship of men’s hands, or the creatures of God, such as the luminaries of heaven, and from all those deified heroes and other human beings who had once been visible on earth, and were made the objects of worship after their decease. To the only wise God — Or, to God only wise; that is, originally, independently, essentially, and infinitely; or, to the wise God alone, (for the reason of which rendering see note on Romans 16:27 ,) be honour and glory — That is, let these excellences be more sensibly manifested, more seriously and frequently acknowledged, and sincerely venerated.

1 Timothy THE GLORY OF THE KING 1 Timothy 1:17 . With this burst of irrepressible praise the Apostle ends his reference to his own conversion as a transcendent, standing instance of the infinite love and transforming power of God. Similar doxologies accompany almost all his references to the same fact. This one comes from the lips of ‘Paul the aged,’ looking back from almost the close of a life which owed many sorrows and troubles to that day on the road to Damascus. His heart fills with thankfulness that overflows into the great words of my text. He had little to be thankful for, judged according to the rules of sense; but, though weighed down with care, having made but a poor thing of the world because of that vision which he saw that day, and now near martyrdom, he turns with a full heart to God, and breaks into this song of thanksgiving. There are lives which bear to be looked back upon. Are ours of that kind? But my object is mainly to draw your attention to what seems to me a remarkable feature in this burst of thanksgiving. And perhaps I shall best impress the thought which it has given to me if I ask you to look, first, at the character of the God who is glorified by Paul’s salvation; second, at the facts which glorify such a God; and, last, at the praise which should fill the lives of those who know the facts. I. First, then, notice the God who is glorified by Paul’s salvation.

Now what strikes me as singular about this great doxology is the characteristics, or, to use a technical word, the attributes, of the divine nature which the Apostle selects. They are all those which separate God from man; all those which present Him as arrayed in majesty, apart from human weaknesses, unapproachable by human sense, and filling a solitary throne. These are the characteristics which the Apostle thinks receive added lustre, and are lifted to a loftier height of ‘honour and glory,’ by the small fact that he, Paul, was saved from sins as he journeyed to Damascus. It would be easy to roll out oratorical platitudes about these specific characteristics of the divine nature, but that would be as unprofitable as it would be easy. All that I want to do now is just to note the force of the epithets; and, if I can, to deepen the impression of the remarkableness of their selection. With regard, then, to the first of them, we at once feel that the designation of ‘the King’ is unfamiliar to the New Testament. It brings with it lofty ideas, no doubt; but it is not a name which the writers of the New Testament, who had been taught in the school of love, and led by a Son to the knowledge of God, are most fond of using. ‘The King’ has melted into ‘the Father.’ But here Paul selects that more remote and less tender name for a specific purpose.