Who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.
All Commentaries on 1 Timothy 6:16 Go To 1 Timothy 6
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
There is a certain emphatic saying by John, “No man has seen God at any time”; meaning, of course, at any previous time. But he has indeed taken away all question of time, by saying that God has never been seen. The apostle confirms this statement. For, speaking of God, he says, “Whom no man has seen, nor can see,” because the man indeed would die who should see him. But the very same apostles testify that they had both seen and “handled” Christ. Now, if Christ is himself both the Father and the Son, how can he be both the Visible and the Invisible? … It is evident that he was always seen from the beginning, who became visible in the end; and that he, on the contrary, was not seen in the end who had never been visible from the beginning; and that accordingly there are two—the Visible and the Invisible. It was the Son, therefore, who was always seen…. For the Father acts by mind and thought, while the Son, who is in the Father’s mind and thought, gives effect and form to what he sees.
