Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen (1 Tim 1:17).One verse. One sentence. (Okay, "Amen" might be its own sentence, but you get the idea.) One notion. To the King, honor and glory forever. And, yet, such a big idea.
It is big because of the King. He is eternal, something that typically eludes us. His "eternalness" is from forever to forever. It never started; it never ends. We can have everlasting life, but we will never have this kind of eternal life because we have a beginning. He had none.
It is big because He is immortal. This word is not the echo of the "eternal". It refers instead to "incorruptible". There is no decay, decline, no variation.
And while He is no longer visible to our eyes, He is still eternal and incorruptible ... and present.
It is big because this God is the only God. Earlier translations include the claim that He is the only wise God, which is certainly true, but the simple fact that He is the only God comes crashing in around a race of beings -- humans -- who almost predicate their existence on the notion that they and anything else they choose is also deity. He is; we are not.
It is big because this King, this one God, deserves honor and glory. No, not now; always. No, not forever; forever and ever. No, not this Sunday, but every day of the week and every hour of the day and this without end.
Big. Really big.
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