2 Timothy 4:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Here he means either sinners and the righteous, or the dead and those still living, since many will remain alive until the last judgment.

In the First Epistle he inspired Timothy with fear by saying: "I charge you before God, Who gives life to all things" (1 Tim 6:13). Here he says something more fearful: "Who will judge the living and the dead," that is, Who will demand an account.

"At His appearing and His kingdom." When? At the time of His coming with glory and royal majesty. Thus he says either that the Lord will not come as He appears now, or this: I charge you by His appearing and His kingdom.

He calls Him as witness, showing that this also was delivered to him. Then he teaches how doctrine must be preached.

“Therefore I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will judge the living and the dead.” The Apostle instills fear in Timothy also elsewhere, saying: “I charge you before God, Who gives life to all things” (1 Tim 6:13).

Here he makes his speech still more fearful by reminding him of that judgment. I call as witness, he says, the One Who will require an account, that I have not hidden this from you either.

By the living and the dead he means either sinners and the righteous, or those who have died, as well as those who will then remain alive. Some, however, understand souls and bodies.

“At His appearing and His Kingdom.” When will He judge? At the time of His coming, which will be with glory and royal majesty.

For the second coming will not be lowly like the first.

The divine Apostle, fearing the future accounting, often addresses his disciple with a fearful witness. Yet he does this out of love, intending to make the disciple renowned, and he urges him to preach with boldness. He called the Lord the Judge of the living and the dead, because He raises the dead and brings them to judgment. Those found alive at the end of the world He clothes with incorruption, and He requires an account from them. For it is said, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (1 Cor 15:51).

"I therefore charge you before God," the Father, "and our Lord Jesus Christ," the Son, and likewise the Holy Spirit, Who is understood together with Them because He is inseparable from Them. In speech, however, one of the three Persons is sometimes omitted.

"Who is to judge the living and the dead." That is, Who is going to judge the righteous and sinners, for sinners are dead with respect to the works of virtue.

Or else he calls living those who, at the very end of the world, will die, yet in the very moment of death will be brought to life before going down into the earth. He calls dead those who died before the end of the world.

How will the Lord judge the living and the dead? That the living and the dead will be judged means that both soul and body will stand before the Judgment. They will not appear separately from one another. As here they were joined in a common union, so there they will undergo judgment together.

If you seek another explanation, here it is. The Lord will separate the living, who have passed into eternal and God-loving life, and will render them endless rewards. But He will condemn those dead in sins, who buried the talent given them, as in a tomb, in their own sloth. He will subject them to punishment.

If you require yet another explanation, understand it thus. The Lord will judge both those who remain alive until that time and those who have already fallen asleep before them.

Concerning the judgment of men, both the living and the dead, blessed Paul affirms this: I charge you before God and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.

At His coming, all human bodies will be raised by Him through Whose works they were created. This extends from the body of the first man, Adam, which God formed from the earth, to the bodies of all men who began to live when they became ensouled.

Yet each body, at the resurrection, will be restored to its own single soul, from which it received its beginning in the mother's womb in order to begin life. This will occur so that, at that weighing by the just Judge, souls may receive recompense in those same bodies.

In the very bodies in which they lived well or badly, they will receive either the kingdom or punishments.

With force and adjuration, the holy Apostle Paul reminds his disciple Timothy of the future judgment of Christ over the living and the dead. He does this to instill saving caution, lest Timothy then incur grave responsibility for negligence in the work of pastoral care. The Apostle’s thought is this: if you, Timothy, truly love God and desire to find in Jesus Christ a merciful Judge, when His glorious kingdom is revealed and when He comes to judge the living and the dead, then preach the word as a good shepherd, and so forth.

Timothy is stirred to zealous and urgent preaching with an adjuration before God. This is plainly because there is great need for persistent archpastoral action, when losing time is dangerous.

Therefore one must preach and exhort not only when there is leisure for it, but also when it is very difficult and even apparently beyond one's strength. When a dangerous upheaval has taken place in the souls of the flock, every sermon may be fruitless. It may happen that the flock will no longer listen, having abandoned their former pastor.

"Fearing the future reckoning, the holy Apostle often presses his disciple with such a charge (1 Tim 6:13), or adjuration. Yet he does this also from love, wishing to make him glorious and circumspect, and to dispose him toward zealous and bold preaching.

"I charge you" is, as it were, an adjuration by the living God. It awakens a most vivid consciousness of the duty to act as proposed, and inspires zeal for it.

Even in ordinary speech we often say: God will be your judge if you do not do such and such. Here there is also intimidation, to awaken the conscience more strongly. It is meant to make the conscience take the proposed matter more actively into its care. At the same time, it shows how necessary and saving this matter is.