That you keep this commandment without spot, irreproachable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Read Chapter 6
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
That thou keep the commandment. Some understand that of fighting manfully; others of loving God; others rather comprehend all that St. Paul had commanded him, and all the instructions given.
Unto the coming of our Lord; which coming, he in due time will shew. This is the construction by the Greek. (Witham)
This coming will be desirable for Christians who have preserved or recovered their baptismal innocence, and for pastors who have faithfully fulfilled their ministry; but terrible, in the extreme, for all who have lived in the constant neglect and omission of their duties.
There is need not only of profession but of patience also to persevere in that profession, and of vehement contention, and of numberless toils, that you be not overthrown…. It is necessary therefore to be selfcollected and well belted in on every side. All around appear pleasures attracting the eyes of the soul. Those of beauty, of wealth, of luxury, of indolence, of glory, of revenge, of power, of dominion, and these are all fair and lovely in appearance, and able to captivate those who are unsteady and who do not love the truth.
That is, till your end, your departure hence, though he does not so express it, but that he may the more arouse him, says, till His appearing. But what is to keep the commandment without spot? To contract no defilement, either of doctrine or of life.
Unto which day and time he charges Timothy himself "to keep what had been committed to his care, without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ: which in His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords"
