What Does 1 Timothy 6:14 Mean?
That you keep this commandment without stain, which no hand can take hold of, until the shining forth of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:THE KEY
The charge is to guard the commandment intact until the Lord’s appearing makes what is awaited visible.
THE MEANING
This charge is alive now: what is entrusted to you is to be kept unstained and beyond reproach. Its horizon is the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, when what is awaited becomes visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The commandment can be bent to fit the moment without losing its integrity.
THE ROOT
τηρῆσαι
tērēsai
GROWS FROM
τηρ
tēr-
to keep watch over, guard, or preserve
“keep” in this verse is tērēsai. The Greek verb carries the sense of guarding something entrusted, as well as keeping or observing it. The commandment is held intact across time, rather than treated as a momentary instruction.
ALSO GROWS
tērēsis: keeping, custody, or observance
τήρησις
This related noun makes the keeping sound like sustained custody of what has been entrusted.
syntēreō: preserve or keep safe
συντηρέω
This related verb brings preservation into view: the charge is carried forward in an intact state.
ἄσπιλον
aspilon
GROWS FROM
σπιλ
spil-
spot or stain; with the prefix ἀ- (a-), “without”
“without stain” in this verse is aspilon. The Greek word pictures something unstained or unmarked. Here that quality describes the commandment being kept, so the image is of its integrity carried forward without contamination.
ALSO GROWS
spilos: a spot or stain
σπίλος
This is the concrete mark that the verse says the commandment is kept without.
spiloō: to stain or defile
σπιλόω
This verb shows the other side of the image: what is kept unstained is not marked or defiled.
ἐπιφανείας
epiphaneias
GROWS FROM
φαν
phan-
to appear or become visible
“shining forth” in this verse is epiphaneias. The word carries the sense of manifestation: something becomes plainly visible. The keeping of the charge reaches toward the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, when what is awaited is made manifest.
ALSO GROWS
phainō: appear or become visible
φαίνω
This verb gives the basic image of something coming into view.
phaneroō: make visible or manifest
φανερόω
This related verb emphasizes what the verse’s “appearing” brings: visibility.
THE PATTERN
What is entrusted is carried forward through attentive keeping, with its integrity remaining visible.
You shall guard closely the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.By this we perceive that we have perceived him, if we guard his commands.Therefore, beloved, since you look toward these things, hasten to be found by him in wholeness, without stain, and without blemish.THE THREAD
but with the costly blood of the Anointed One, as of a lamb without blemish and without stain.The Greek word ἄσπιλος (aspilos), meaning “unstained” or “without spot,” appears in both verses. Here it describes the commandment kept intact; in Peter, it gives the image of a lamb without spot.
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