9It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. 10For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. 11Prescribe and teach these things.
Paul unmistakably shows himself as a mentor to Timothy in these three verses, instructing him what to do with all this teaching. First, he underlines the truth of what he has just said about self-discipline and godliness. This is a form of the contemporary expression of emphasis, “Read my lips.” Lest Timothy (or we present-day readers of this letter) gloss over what has just been said, Paul adds his editorial comment. Commentators generally agree the most natural conclusion is that this statement in verse 9 refers back to what he has just written, not what he is about to write. The subject lies close to Paul’s heart, and it is one he wrote about frequently, so the emphasis is understandable.
His second editorial comment about what he just wrote is to convey to Timothy why he places such an emphasis on writing about this. He has spent and continues to spend his life striving to make this message clear. The gospel of grace is all about God’s goodness and the freedom His grace provides for us from the legalistic structures of works-based religion. The latter is all about our efforts to merit God’s approval; the former is all about God’s efforts to overcome our failure through the life and death of Christ. Paul has dedicated his life to proclaiming that message for a reason: because it provides a hope that is rooted in a God who is very much alive and active in the world, especially as the Savior of all.
But what does he mean when he writes God is “the Savior of all men, especially believers”? Paul previously wrote that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” that there is “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” and that He “gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:4–6). So calling God the “Savior of all men” carries on in this way of speaking of God’s salvation. This, of course, cannot mean that God saves everyone to eternal glory in heaven forever, for the Bible clearly teaches there will be those who will be lost forever (see Rev. 20:15, for example). But God has provided salvation to all in the general sense that He came into the world to save sinners. In the special or particular sense, He saves those who believe in His saving act of love and grace on the cross. So Paul adds, “especially of believers.”
Paul’s final editorial comment is his direct instruction to Timothy to “Prescribe and teach these things,” as he also does in 1 Timothy 5:7, 6:2.
Lord, I commit to affirming this teaching in my life and my words to others.
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