1 Timothy 6:11 - Exposition

O man of God. The force of this address is very great. It indicates that the money-lovers just spoken of were not and could not be "men of God," whatever they might profess; and it leads with singular strength to the opposite direction in which Timothy's aspirations should point. The treasures which he must covet as "a man of God" were "righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience meekness." For the phrase, "man of God," see 2 Timothy 3:17 and 2 Peter 1:21 . In the Old Testament it always applies to a prophet ( Deuteronomy 33:1 ; 13:6 ; 1 Samuel 2:27 ; 1 Kings 12:22 ; 2 Kings 1:9 ; Jeremiah 35:4 ; and a great many other passages). St. Paul uses the expression with especial reference to Timothy and his holy office, and here, perhaps, in contrast with the τοὺς ἀνθρώπους mentioned in 2 Peter 1:9 . Flee these things. Note the sharp contrast between "the men" of the world, who reach after, and the man of God, who avoids, φιλαργυρία . The expression, "these things," is a little loose, but seems to apply to the love of money, and the desire to be rich, with all their attendant "foolish and hurtful lusts." The man of God avoids the perdition and maul fold sorrows of the covetous, by avoiding the covetousness which is their root. Follow after ( δίωκε ); pursue, in direct contrast with φεύγε , flee from, avoid (see 2 Timothy 2:22 ). Meekness ( πραΰπαθείαν ). This rare word, found in Philo, but nowhere in the New Testament, is the reading of the R.T. (instead of the πρᾳότητα of the T.R.) and accepted by almost all critics on the authority of all the older manuscripts. It has no perceptible difference of meaning from πραότης , meekness or gentleness.