1 Timothy 4:10

4:6-10 Outward acts of self-denial profit little. What will it avail us to mortify the body, if we do not mortify sin? No diligence in mere outward things could be of much use. The gain of godliness lies much in the promise; and the promises to godly people relate partly to the life that now is, but especially to the life which is to come: though we lose for Christ, we shall not lose by him. If Christ be thus the Saviour of all men, then much more will he be the Rewarder of those who seek and serve him; he will provide well for those whom he has made new creatures.

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, Psalm 33:18,19 .

1 Timothy 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, 1 Timothy 4:8 ; 2 Timothy 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.

Therefore (εἰς τοῦτο) More correctly, to this end; or with a view to this. We labor and strive (κοπιῶμεν καὶ ἀγωνιζόμεθα) Both Pauline words. See on Colossians 1:29, where the two are found together as here. Also on κόπου labor, 1 Thessalonians 1:3, and κοπιῶντας, and laboring 1 Thessalonians 5:12. Comp. 1 Timothy 5:17, and 2 Timothy 2:6. Both words denote strenuous and painful effort. The καὶ; has an ascensive force: "we labor, yea struggle." We trust in (ἠλπίκαμεν ἐπὶ) Better, have set our hope on. The verb with ἐπὶ in Pastorals, in Paul, Romans 15:12, a citation, and in 1 Peter 1:13.

10. 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, 1Ti 4:8) God." Saviour—even in this life (1Ti 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 (Mr 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 (1Ti 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 (1Ti 1:15); of believers alone effectually.

Verse 10. - 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 ( ἀγωνιζόμεθα ); so many good manuscripts, instead of T.R. ὀνειδιζόμεθα ; 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 ( 2 Timothy 3:11 ; 1 Corinthians 4:9-13 ; 2 Corinthians 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 ἠλπίκαμεν ἐπὶ Θεῷ ζῶντι ; but it was hardly worth altering the A.V., "we trust in the living God." In 1 Timothy 5:5 we have ἤλπικεν ἐπὶ Θεόν , 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. 1 Timothy 4:10

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 2 Timothy 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.