1 Timothy 6.16-Paul Completes His Doxology
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday October 19, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 6:16-Paul Completes His Doxology
Lesson # 138
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 6:13.
In verse 16, Paul completes the doxology which he began in verse 15.
1 Timothy 6:13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ 15 which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. (NASB95)
“Who alone possesses immortality” is composed of the articular nominative masculine singular form of the adjective monos (μόνος) (moe-noce), “who alone” and then we have nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb echo (ἒχω) (eh-ho), “possesses” and this is followed by the accusative feminine singular form of the noun athanasia (ἀθανασία) (ahthahnah-seehah), “immortality.”
The adjective monos is used with reference to the Father and denotes He is in a class by Himself or unique meaning that He is “the only one” who possesses immortality inherently.
This word refutes and rejects the idea that human beings like military heroes, kings and Roman emperors possessed this quality, which they would claim for themselves or others would for them.
The verb echo means “to possess a particular inherent characteristic,” which is identified by the noun athanasia, “immortality.”
This indicates the Father is the only one “who possesses” immortality inherently.
The noun athanasia means “immortality” and is ascribed to the Father and denotes that He is not subject to physical death in contrast to human beings who are.
The reason that the Father, Son and Spirit are not subject to death is that they inherently are eternal life (cf. John 5:26).
The term speaks of the fact that God endlessly exists and is not subject to time and space.
“And dwells in unapproachable light” is composed of the accusative neuter singular form of the noun phos (φῶς) (foece), “light” and this is followed by the nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb oikeo (οἰκέω) (ee-keh-owe), “dwells in” and then we have the accusative neuter singular form of the adjective aprositos (ἀπρόσιτος) (ahprosee-toce), “unapproachable.”
The verb oikeo means “to dwell” and is used with the Father as its subject and phos, “light” as its object, which is modified by the adjective aprositos, “unapproachable.”
It refers to the sphere in which the Father functions, which Paul describes as being “unapproachable light.”
These three words speak of God’s holiness, which no human being or angel can measure up to.
They speak of the absolute perfection of the Father’s character.
They describe the fact that sinful humanity cannot approach the Father who is holy.
These three words speak of God dwelling literally in unapproachable light, which is an expression of His holiness.
The noun phos means “light” and is used of literal light as a manifestation of the Father’s presence, which Paul describes as unapproachable indicating that this physical or literal light is an expression of His holiness.
The idea is that the Father dwells in light that is unapproachable because sinful humanity can not measure up to His holiness, i.e. absolute perfection of His character.
The adjective aprositos describes describes the manifestation of the Father’s presence as being “inaccessible” or “unapproachable.”
This of course alludes to God’s holiness.
His presence is unapproachable to sinful humanity because of His holiness, i.e. the absolute perfection of His character.
1 Timothy 6:16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. (NASB95)
“Whom no man has seen or can see” is composed of the accusative masculine singular form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) (oce), “whom” and this is followed by the third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb eidon (εἶδον) (ee-thone), “has seen” and then we have the nominative masculine singular form of the adjective oudeis (οὐδείς) (oo-theese), “no” which is modifying the genitive masculine plural form of the noun anthropos (ἄνθρωπος) (ahn-throe-poce), “man” and then we have the negative particle oude (οὐδέ) (oo-theh), “or” and this is followed by the aorist active infinitive form of the verb eidon (εἶδον) (ee-thone), “see” and then we have the third person singular present middle indicative form of the verb dunamai (δύναμαι) (thee-neh-meh), “see.”
The adjective oudeis functions as a substantive as a negative reference to an entity, which in context are human beings and means “absolutely no one.”
It emphatically negates the idea that any human being has seen God the Father.
The noun anthropos denotes a “person, human being” and is used in a generic sense for the human race and in the plural means “human race.”
The word is a partitive genitive meaning that absolutely no one “among” humans or human beings, has seen God the Father.
The verb eidon means “to see” and is used in a literal sense for perception by sight.
It denotes that absolutely no one among human beings “has seen” the Father.
The invisibility of God the Father is praised by Paul in 1 Timothy 1:17.
1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (ESV)
John 1:18, “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God (the Lord Jesus Christ), who is in the bosom of the Father, He (the Lord Jesus Christ) has explained Him (the Father).” (NASU)
The negative particle oude is used with the oudeis, “absolutely no one” and together, they form a correlative clause that combines the two usages of the verb eidon.
They serve to connect two concepts: (1) There is absolutely no one among human beings who has seen the Father. (2) There is absolutely no one among human beings who has the ability to.
The verb dunamai means “to have the capacity, to be able to do something, to have the ability to something.”
Its meaning is emphatically negated by the negative particle oude, “nor.”
Therefore, together, they denote that absolutely no one among human beings does have “the capacity or ability to” see the Father.
They denote that we are powerless to see the Father.
“To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen” is composed of the dative masculine singular form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) (oce), “to Him” and this is followed by the nominative feminine singular form of the noun time (τιμή) (tee-mee), “honor” and then we have the conjunction kai (καί) (keh), “and” which is followed by the nominative neuter singular form of the noun kratos (κράτος) (krah-toce), “dominion” which is modified by the nominative neuter singular form of the adjective aionios (αἰώνιος) (ay-owe-knee-os), “eternal” and lastly we have the interjection amen (ἀμήν) (ah-meen), “Amen.”
The noun time refers to the recognition that the Father will receive from those sinners declared justified through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
It refers to their public acknowledgement of the Father for saving them based upon the merits of the object of their faith Jesus Christ.
The noun kratos refers to the inherent omnipotence of God the Father that has been “manifested” through His sovereign rulership over creation.
The adjective aionios describes the Father’s manifested power as “eternal” in nature.
The interjection amen emphasizes the certainty that for the benefit of the Father there will be honor in the sense of public recognition and acknowledgement of Him by regenerate Jew and Gentiles as well as eternal dominion.