This is the sixth in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.

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In previous columns, we briefly surveyed Paul’s letters to the Philippians and Thessalonians, with an emphasis on passages previewing the return of Christ. Here, we see what the apostle writes to Timothy and Titus about the second coming.

1 Timothy 6:13-16 – In the presence of God, who gives life to all, and of Christ Jesus, who gave a good confession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you to keep this command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. God will bring this about in his own time. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal power. Amen.

Paul draws a contrast between Timothy and the false teachers who “imagine that godliness is a way to material gain” (1 Tim. 6:5). The young pastor is to flee from false doctrine and pursue “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness” (v. 11). Further, Timothy is to persevere in faithfulness until “the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,” which God will bring about “in his own time” (vv. 14-15). 

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