I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one
before another, doing nothing by partiality.
Paul does not stop in verses 19 and 20 but continues on to
charge Timothy before the God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and even the
angels to observe the whole letter and specifically, the open rebuke principle
without preferring any one over the other, but instead to interact without
partiality. This is hard to do, but unless the serious matters contained in
this entire letter are done without partiality, then little groups of those
that are disliked and those that are favored will spring up and divide the Body
of Christ. When practiced without
partiality, the Body of Christ is bound together in love, seeing that God’s
Word is the standard, and not our own contrivances, feelings, or systems.
22 Lay
hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself
pure.
Paul continues, don’t lay hands suddenly on a man (most
likely a direct reference to verses 19 and 20) and neither partake (share in
the same) sins of another man. Instead, Paul exhorts, that Timothy (and
likewise us) keep ourselves pure.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is
this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
James 1:27
(KJV)
1 Tim 5:21-22 (KJV)
