1 Timothy 4:10 For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men… First: Man is a trusting being. Trusting is at once the grand necessity and leading tendency of his existence. Secondly: His trust determines the character and destiny of his being. Trusting wrong objects or right objects for wrong purposes, is at once sinful and ruinous. On the other hand, trusting rightly in the living God is at once a holy and a happy state of being. Two remarks are suggested in relation to this Christly trust. I. IT FORMS A DISTINCT COMMUNITY AMONGST MEN. The apostle speaks here as" those that believe." All men believe. Men are naturally credulous. 1. There are some who believe in a dead God — an idol, a substance, a force, an abstraction. Most men have a dead God — a God whose presence, whose inspection, whose claims they do not recognize or feel. 2. There are others who believe in a "living God." To them He is the life of all lives, the force of all forces, the spirit of all beauty, the fountain of all joy. With these the apostle includes himself, and to these he refers when he says, "Those that believe." II. It secures the special SALVATION OF THE GOOD. The living God is the Saviour, or Preserver of all. He saves all from diseases, trials, death, damnation, up to a certain time in their history. All that they have on earth which go to make their existence tolerable and pleasant He has saved for them. But of those that believe He is specially a Saviour, He saves them — 1. From the dominion of moral evil 2. From the torments of sinful passions — remorse, malice, jealousy, envy, fear. 3. From the curse of a wicked life. What a salvation is this! Christly trust gives to the human race a community of morally saved men. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. |
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