“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Paul ends this section with a short doxology. When I hear the word doxology, my mind automatically goes here:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!
I sang this every Sunday in church growing up, as I am sure many of you did, or maybe you still do. I looked it up and here is a brief history. It was written by an Anglican Bishop, Thomas Ken in 1674. It was part of a longer poem called the Morning Hymn. The Doxology was the last verse. It was first published in 1709. The music is attributed to French composer Louis Bougeois and was originally found in the Geneva Psalter as the music for Psalm 134. Churches have been singing this doxology as part of their services for over three hundred years!
What exactly is a doxology? The word comes from the Greek word doxologia. Doxa means glory and logos means word or speak. So a doxology is simply a short verse of praise to God. We have many examples of doxologies in the New Testament. I’m going to list examples from Paul, Peter, and Jude.
“Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:3a
“Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.” Jude 1:24-25
One thing I noticed is that these doxologies can come anywhere in the letters. They are not to be confused with benedictions. A doxology is a short hymn of praise while a benediction is a blessing spoken or written over people. Sometimes, as in the Ephesians and Jude passages, you will find a benediction and a doxology combined. Both are found in the New Testament epistles.
In Paul’s doxology he writes, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Paul was writing this letter to Timothy in Ephesus. If you remember from Acts 19, Ephesus was home to the temple of Artemis. The Greeks and Romans worshiped many gods. Paul is emphasizing here that the Christian God is the only God worthy of honor and glory forever.
He also uses the adjectives eternal, immortal, and invisible. Again, this is in stark contrast to the Greco-Roman gods, of whom there would be man-made statues and idols. But I also want to take a minute to address the attributes of God. God’s attributes are classified into two groups: incommunicable and communicable. His incommunicable attributes are those attributes that He does not share with us. J. I. Packer puts it this way in his classic work Knowing God. “The theologians called these qualities incommunicable because they are characteristic of God alone; Man, just because he is man and not God does not and cannot share any of them.” Communicable attributes are those attributes He does share with us. Examples of incommunicable attributes would be God’s eternity, unchangeableness, and omnipresence. Examples of His communicable attributes would be love, wisdom, knowledge, and justice. A good systematic theology book can help you learn more about this. I am currently working my way through Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.
The reason I brought this up is because Paul mentions one of God’s incommunicable attributes in this doxology. Let’s look at God’s eternal nature. Grudem writes, “God’s eternity may be defined as follows: God has no beginning, end or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and he acts in time.” God is not limited by time. God knows all things and time has no effect on His knowledge. He knows the past, present, and future. Psalm 90:2 says, “Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God.” And in Revelation 1:8, we read, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
I don’t know about you, but I take great comfort in knowing that God was, and is, and is to come. He knows everything and is in control of everything. He knows my past, and He knows my future. We have a written record, the Bible, of how God worked to bring redemption to His people, and we know He is coming back for us. Grudem puts it this way. “In short, he is the Lord who created time and who rules over it and uses it for his own purposes. God can act in time because he is the Lord of time. He uses it to display his glory.” Amen to that!
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 