1 Timothy 4:10

1 Timothy 4:10 “For it is for this we labor and strive”: “The life of godliness, which is so profitable for time and eternity, is the apostle's goal” (Kent p. 158). “We”: This would include Timothy and Paul and other workers as well. “Labor”: “Work that points to the weariness and exhaustion which results from strenuous toil. It takes work to become more godly in attitude, character, and life” (Reese p. 177). Life of faithful service to God takes work (Romans 16:6; Romans 16:12; 1 Corinthians 16:16; Galatians 4:11; 1 Timothy 5:17; Revelation 2:3).

1 Timothy 4:10 “And strive”: Denoting strenuous effort, to contend, struggle, from which we get our English word “agonize”. Godliness does not happen by accident and neither does God do all the work for us. Both of the above verbs are present tense. “The extent to which an athlete throws his whole being into striving for the prize in no way excels the extent to which Paul throws himself into the service of the Lord” (Reese pp. 177-178). Paul understands that salvation cannot be earned and yet he and Timothy continues to exert every effort in serving God. “Carries the picture of the athlete putting in the last ounce of his energy into the race in order victoriously to reach the goal. Paul and his companions had such. deep sense of the grandeur of the reward held out in the Gospel, that they counted no labor too heavy, no agony too severe, that led them gradually but surely to the expected goal” (Hiebert p. 83).

1 Timothy 4:10 “Because we have fixed our hope on the living God”: This is why they work so hard. This verse “pictures the hope as resting on God as the only true foundation of hope. The perfect tense indicates that this hope has permanently been set on ‘the living God'” (p. 83). Paul's confidence rests upon the right foundation! Since God is the source and giver of all life, God is also able to fulfill any promise He makes about “life”, either here or in the age to come.

1 Timothy 4:10 “Who is the Savior of all men”: God is the Savior of all men in the sense that He desires all to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), He patiently waits for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), and He gave His Son as. sacrifice for the sins that all men have committed (John 3:16). Other passages note that man must cooperate in this area to receive this salvation (Matthew 7:13; Matthew 7:21).

1 Timothy 4:10 “Especially of believers”: The term “especially” means, chiefly, most of all, or particularly. God has made it possible for all men to be saved (John 3:16; 1 Timothy 1:15); yet this salvation is conditioned upon “faith” (Hebrews 11:6; Mark 16:15). All men receive God's offer of salvation (Matthew 28:19), but only believers will enjoy that salvation. Some seek to argue that the “saving” of the passage has to do with God preserving the physical life of an individual. While it is true that God sends the rain on the just and unjust, the context of this passage is eternal life (1 Timothy 4:8 “for the life to come”). Others have argued that this passage is teaching that God will eventually save everyone. Such. claim not only violates so many other passages (Matthew 7:13; 2 Thessalonians 1:8), fails to note that God is not going to save all who claim to profess to Christ (Matthew 7:21), but also fails to explain the question, “If God is going to give all eternal life, then how is God going to especially save believers?” With such an interpretation in the end, unbelievers are saved just like believers.