In his
commentary on the Pastoral Epistles, Robert Sungenis, himself an avowed
Trinitarian and Traditionalist Catholic, wrote the following about 1 Tim 6:16:
“inhabits
light inaccessible”: φως οικων απροσιτον, that is, “light so bright no one
is able to approach it” (BAGD), otherwise known as the Visio Dei. This light is not that which was created on the First
day, since the light that surrounds God is uncreated and immortal. Only
the new resurrected body will be able to see God as he really is (cf. Mt 5:8; 1Co 15:54), otherwise
God is invisible (cf. 1Tm 1:17; Jn
1:18; 6:46). Sometimes God localizes himself and thus Moses was only shown
God’s “back parts,” but he was not able to see God’s face (Ex 33:20-23). It can
also be said that Moses was given extremely modified expressions of God’s light,
as in the lighting of the Shekinah glory cloud (Ex 33:10-11). (Robert A.
Sungenis, The Epistles to Timothy and
Titus: Exegetical Commentary [Catholic Apologetics Study Bible X; State
Line, Pa.: Catholic Apologetics International Publishing, Inc., 2020], 49 n.
114, emphasis added)
In other
words, the Father can be seen,
albeit, one will only see God (as he really is) in their spirit-filled resurrected
bodies. The verse is not stating God can never be seen in an absolute sense,
which is what Latter-day Saints have been arguing for years now with critics of
the First Vision.
For more, see, for e.g.:
Andrew Malone on God being "Invisible" and 1 Timothy 1:17 and 6:16
James Stutz, Can a Man See God? 1 Timothy 6:16 in Light of Ancient and Modern Revelation
