1 Timothy 5:21 - Exposition

In the sight of for before , A.V.; Christ Jesus for the Lord Jesus Christ , A.V. and T.R.; prejudice for preferring one before another , A.V. I charge thee , etc. It has been well remarked that the solemnity of this charge indicates the temptation which there might be to Timothy to shrink front reproving men of weight and influence" rulers" in the congregation, and "elders" both in age and by office, young as he himself was ( 1 Timothy 4:12 ). Perhaps he had in view some particular case in the Ephesian Church. Charge ( διαμαρτύρομαι ; not παραγγέλλω , as 1 Timothy 6:13 ); rather, I adjure thee . The strict sense of διαμαρτύρομαι is "I call heaven and earth to witness the truth of what I am saying;" and then, by a very slight metonymy, "I declare a thing," or "I ask a thing," "as in the presence of those witnesses who are either named or understood." Here the witnesses are named: God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels. In 2 Timothy 2:14 it is "the Lord;" in 2 Timothy 4:1 God and Jesus Christ, as also in 1 Timothy 6:13 . In the passages where the word has the force of "testifying" ( Luke 16:18 ; Acts 2:40 ; Acts 10:42 ; Acts 18:5 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:6 , etc.), no witnesses are named, but great solemnity and earnestness are implied. The elect angels. This is the only passage where it is predicated of the angels that they are elect . But as there is repeated mention in Holy Scripture of the fallen angels ( Matthew 25:41 ; 1 Corinthians 6:3 ; 2 Peter 2:4 ; Jud 2 Peter 1:6 ; Revelation 12:7 , Revelation 12:9 ), the obvious interpretation is that St. Paul, in this solemn adjuration, added the epithet to indicate more distinctly the " holy angels ," as they are frequently described ( Matthew 25:31 ; Luke 9:26 , etc.), or "the angels of God" or " of heaven" ( Matthew 22:30 ; Matthew 24:36 ; Luke 12:8 , Luke 12:9 ; John 1:51 ). Possibly the mention of Satan in 1 Timothy 6:15 , or some of the rising Gnostic opinions about angels ( Colossians 2:18 ), may have suggested the epithet. The reason for the unusual addition of "the angels" is more difficult to adduce with certainty. But perhaps 2 Timothy 4:1 gives us the clue, where the apostle shows that in appealing to Jesus Christ he has a special eye to the great and final judgment. Now, in the descriptions of the lust judgment, the angels are constantly spoken of as accompanying our Lord. If St. Paul, therefore, had in his mind the great judgment-day when he thus invoked the names of God and of Christ, he would very naturally also make mention of the elect angels. And so Bishop Bull, quoted in the 'Speaker's Commentary.' Without prejudice ( χωρὶς προκρίματος ); here only in the New Testament, and not found in the LXX . or classical Greek, though the verb προκρίνω occurs in both. Although the English word "prejudice" seems at first sight an apt rendering of πρόκριμα , it does not really give the sense so accurately as "preference." We commonly mean by "prejudice" a judgment formed prior to examination, which prevents our judging rightly or fairly when we come to the examination, which, however, is not the meaning of the Latin praejudicium . But προκρίνω means rather "to prefer" a person, or thing, to others. And therefore πρόκριμα means "preference," or "partiality," or, as the A.V. has it, "preferring one before another." The two meanings may be thus expressed. "Prejudice," in the English use of the word, is when a person who has to judge a cause upon evidence prejudges it without evidence, and so does not give its proper weight to the evidence. "Prefer-once" is when he gives different measure to different persons, according as He is swayed by partiality, or interest, or favor. St. Paul charges Timothy to measure out exactly equal justice to all persons alike. By partiality ( κατὰ πρόσκλισιν ). This also is an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον as far as the New Testament is concerned, and is not found in the LXX ., but is found, as well as the verb προσκλίνω , in classical Greek. It means literally the "inclination" of the scales to one side or the other, and hence a "bias" of the mind to one party or the other. The balance of justice in the hands of Timothy was to be equal.