Paul’s Perspective: Present Life and Life to Come

Our survey of 1 Timothy brings us to another passage that contrasts two ages: Paul says, “Bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim 4:8).¹ Commentators have long assumed that “the life that now is” means life in the present (for us) messianic age and the life “which is to come” means the eternal state.

I suspect this is not all that Paul had in mind. From ancient times, the Jews thought within a two-age framework that defined all history.² Recognition of this perspective is fundamental to the correct interpretation of the New Testament. Geerhardus Vos says: 

In New Testament eschatological teaching a general development in a well-defined direction is traceable. The starting-point is the historico-dramatic conception of the two successive ages. These two ages are distinguished as … “this age,” “the present age” … and … “that age,” “the future age”.… To each age belongs its own characteristic order of things.³

According to Kim Riddlebarger, “These two eschatological ages can … be seen as the basic eschatological framework taught by both Jesus and Paul.”⁴

 Inmillennialism⁵ sees “this age” as the Mosaic age, the age of “the flesh,” the time when physical objects and places defined the worship of God. The subsequent messianic age in which we now live emphasizes spiritual worship; physical rites, objects, and places play a less significant role.

Evidence of this age change abounds in the New Testament. Regarding the place and manner of worship, Jesus said, 

Believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.… The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:21–24)

In the Mosaic age, the Jews worshiped in the Jerusalem temple, the Samaritans in their holy mountain. The coming of the messianic age removed that age’s orientation toward a physical site for the worship of God.

Paul reiterated this change. During the Mosaic age, Israel was “kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed” (Gal 3:23). She was “in bondage under the elements of the world” (Gal 4:3). She worshipped at “Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children” (Gal 4:25). But, during the messianic age, the people of God worship in “the Jerusalem above [which] is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal 4:26). In the Mosaic age, worship was physical, fleshly, place-specific, etc. In the messianic age, it is spiritual, heavenly, universal, etc.

Inmillennialism says God made the great division of history during the “last days” of the Mosaic age. The Mosaic age ended, and the messianic age began. The new age includes the glories that flow out of God’s work during the transition period. These glories include the subjugation of the nations to King Jesus (cp. Ps 110:1), the bodily resurrection at the end of the messianic age (cp. 1 Cor 15:23), the final judgment (cp. Matt 25:31–46), and eternal life that will continue into the eternal state (cp. Mark 10:30). These things are the natural and necessary results of what God did in the “last days.”

Several hints in the context of 1 Timothy 4:8 suggest Paul has this two-age framework in mind. First, he says, “Reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness” (1 Tim 4:7). These “old wives’ fables” were

The profane and old-womanish myths … the “endless myths and genealogies” mentioned in 1 Tim. 1:4.… These inane Jewish anecdotes, by means of which errorists were trying to embellish the law, pertained to the present.⁶

There is undoubtedly a reason that prompts Paul to say this. While in 1 Timothy 4:7 “myths” refers back to the fables and genealogies mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:4, the reference to “the bodily exercise” harks back to 1 Timothy 1:7, to the ignorant use of the law by the pretended “law teachers.”… Their spurious godliness consisted in bodily exercises, in a false use of the law for producing such exercises. This is the background of Paul’s present statement.… These ignorant “law teachers” do not even know what this godliness is.⁷ 

As I said in my Introduction to 1 Timothy post, Paul contrasts life in the Mosaic age, with its law teachers and emphasis on carnal things—genealogies, ceremonies, etc.—to life in the messianic age.

Second, Paul gives time indicators. He says the Mosaic-age “bodily exercises” would serve for “a little while.”⁸ And, the new messianic-age life was at hand; he says godliness “is profitable with respect to all things, holding a promise of this present [Mosaic-age] life and of that [messianic-age life] about to come (Gk. mellō) ” (1 Tim 4:8 Wuest). The “bodily exercises” of the law would endure “a little while” longer, for the new age was “about to come.” These timestamps match those Jesus gave in the Olivet Discourse and elsewhere (cp. Matt 16:27–28; 24:1–3, 34). In Paul’s near future, the temple’s fall would end the Mosaic age and complete the transition to the messianic age.

Third, Paul makes an implied contrast in covenant membership. Only Israel after the flesh (1 Cor 10:18) enjoyed covenant status in the Mosaic age.⁹ But, in the messianic age, we “trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe” (1 Tim 4:10). Paul does not mean all men without exception, but all men without distinction of race, color, gender, etc.

Conclusion

Paul is not contrasting life in the messianic age to life in the eternal state; instead, he describes his situation. He and Timothy lived in the “latter times” of the Mosaic age (1 Tim 4:1), not in the last days of history. The Apostle knew the temple would fall in his near future, ending the Mosaic age and that the messianic age, already begun, would continue.

Godliness was profitable in the Mosaic age. For example, God had said, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr 7:14).

Godliness is also profitable in the messianic age. Jesus said, 

Other sheep I have, which are not of this [Jewish, Mosaic-age] fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one [messianic-age] fold, and one shepherd.… My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.… If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love. (John 10:16, 27–28; 15:10)

Let us rejoice that the least of us in the messianic (kingdom) age is greater than the greatest prophet in the Mosaic age (cp. Matt 11:11). May we follow hard after a godly life to the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

1. I’ve written about similar passages in previous posts. See, for example, Age Transition, Age Transition (Again), Two Ages, and Marriage in the New Age.
2. The diagram in this post appears in my book, Michael A. Rogers, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days (Tullahoma, TN: McGahan Publishing House, 2020), 180.
3. Geerhardus Vos, “Eschatology of the New Testament,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1956), 2:980.
4. Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 89. Most of the above paragraph comes from my book; see Rogers, Inmillennialism, 66–67.
5. For a full-length account of this prophetic model, see Rogers, Inmillennialism. It is available here. For a summary, see the free PDF here.
6. William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles, New Testament Commentary, vol. 4, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1957), 150 (emphasis added).
7. R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus and to Philemon (Columbus, OH: Lutheran Book Concern, 1937), 633–34 (emphasis added).
8. Per the KJV’s marginal note.
9. Including proselytes who submitted to the law’s requirements.