he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil suspicions, constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we certainly can’t carry anything out. But having food and clothing, we will be content with that. But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv4–11 4 He is puffed up, knowing nothing Such persons…
4 He is puffed up, knowing nothing Such persons Paul first charges with pride, foolish and empty pride. Next, because no punishment can be imagined that is better adapted to chastise ambitious persons than to declare that all that they delight in proves their ignorance, Paul pronounces that they know nothing, though they are swelled with many subtleties; for they have nothing that is solid, but mere wind. At the same time, he instructs all believers not to be carried away by that windy ostentation, but to remain steadfast in the simplicity of the gospel.
But languishing after questions and debates of words There is an indirect contrast between “the soundness of the doctrine of Christ,” and that “languishing;” for, when they have wearied themselves much and long with ingenious questions, what advantage do they reap from their labor, but that the disease continually grows? Thus not only do they consume their strength to no purpose, but their foolish curiosity begets this languishing; and hence it follows, that they are very far from profiting aright, as the disciples of Christ ought to do.
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Not without reason does the Apostle connect “questions and disputes of words;” for by the former term he does not mean every kind of questions, which either arise from a sober and moderate desire to learn, or contribute to clear explanation of useful things, but to such questions as are agitated, in the present day, in the schools of the Sorbonne, for displaying acuteness of intellect. There one question gives rise to another; for there is no limit to them, when every person, desiring to know more than is proper, indulges his vanity; and hence, there afterwards arise innumerable quarrels. As the thick clouds, during hot weather, are not dispelled without thunder, so those thorny questions must burst into disputes.
He gives the name λογομαχίας (logomachies, or disputes about words) to contentious disputes about words rather than things, or, as it is commonly expressed, without substance or foundation; for if any person carefully inquire what sort of contentions are burning among the sophists, he will perceive that they do not arise from realities, but are framed out of nothing. In a word, Paul intended to condemn all questions which sharpen us for disputes that are of no value.
From which arises envy He demonstrates from the effects how much an ambitious desire of knowledge ought to be avoided; for ambition is the mother of envy. Where envy reigns, there also rage brawlings, contentions, and other evils, which are here enumerated by Paul.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 Striving about words, and not about matter: and by…
Striving about words, and not about matter: and by words he meaneth all those things which have no pith in them, and whereby we can reap no profit.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv4–11 4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about…
4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
Ver. 4. He is proud] Gr. τετυφωται, he is blown up, big swollen. Swelling is a dangerous symptom in the body; but much more in the soul. Pride and self-conceit is a bastard (saith one) begotten between a learned head and an unsanctified heart; which being once conceived in the soul, causeth it to swell till it burst asunder with unthankfnlness to God for the bestowing, with envy, scorn, and disdain of men in the imparting of such gifts as may be to them beneficial. Some think that the apostle alludeth here to the wind Typhon, which the ancients held hurtful to men’s wits and senses; so that those that were blasted with it ran mad.
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Knowing nothing] sc. Aright, and as they ought to know, 1Co 8:2. {See Trapp on "1Co 8:2"} The Gnostics boasted that they knew all things knowable. Irenaeus saith, that they were so besotted with an opinion of themselves, that they accounted their own writings to be gospel. Such self-admirers also were the Illuminates (as they called themselves), the Manichees, the Novatians. And such are now the Jesuits, the sectarians, &c.; and other male feriati fanatici, who lest they should not be reputed to know something unknown to others, profess skill beyond the circumference of possible knowledge.
Doting about questions] Gr. Question sick. As the schoolmen, and our new questionists. But God loveth curristas non quaeristas, saith Luther.
And strifes of words] λογομαχιας, frivolous questions and quarrels. The wit of heretics and schismatics will better serve them to devise a thousand shifts to elude the truth than their pride will suffer them once to yield and acknowledge it.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv4–11 He is proud; tetufwtai, he is swelled or blown…
He is proud; tetufwtai, he is swelled or blown up, i.e. with pride swelling in opinion and conceit of himself, he is a fanatic.
Knowing nothing solidly and truly,
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but doting about questions and strifes of words; is brain sick about questions of no use, but to make a contention about words.
Whereof cometh envy; when he once comes to perceive that others are wiser than he.
Strife; for an ignorant person, if proud, can never yield that another knows more than he doth.
Railings are commonly the revenges of ignorant sciolists, that would be thought something and are nothing; when they perceive they are outdone by others, then they rail.
Evil surmisings, uponoiai when they can in truth say no evil of others, they will uncharitably surmise and suspect evil of them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv6, 9, 10, 11 As if the apostle had said, "Although these seducers…
As if the apostle had said, "Although these seducers are for making a gain of godliness, yet we know that godliness is great gain, especially godliness with contentment; with contentment, I say, which it becomes us to have, for we brought nothing into the world with us, and shall carry nothing away with us; having therefore food and raiment, let us be therewith content and satisfied."
Learn hence, 1. That godliness is the sincere practice of the Christian religion, so called, because it directeth and prescribeth to us the true and only way of worshipping and serving God.
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Learn, 2. That some men suit their godliness with their worldly ends, they make a trade and saving bargain of it.
Learn, 3. That godliness, or the sincere practice of the Christian religion, is true gain, great gain, yea, the best gain, both for this world, and that which is to come.
Learn, 4. That one great point of godliness, is to be content with what we have, yea, though it be only food and raiment.
Contentment is a sedate and quiet temper of mind about outward things: it is the wisdom and will of God not to give to all alike, but to some more, to others less, of these outward comforts; but nothing besides food and raiment is absolutely necessary, a little will suffice a contented mind; he is not rich that has much, but he that has enough: that man is poor who covets more, having food and raiment, &c.
Observe lastly, The apostle’s argument to excite and move the Christian to this duty of contentment, without enlarging his desires inordinately after the world, and the perishing satisfactions of it. For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out;
where remark, that the note of assurance is fixed rather to our carrying out than to our bringing in; the apostle doth not say, it is certain that we brought nothing into the world, and we shall carry nothing out: but he says, we brought nothing in, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
The note of assurance is applied to the latter; for this reason I conceive, because though all persons come naked, and bring nothing with them into the world, yet abundance is put upon them, and they are born heirs to vast possessions; but it is obvious to every eye, and most indubitably certain, that they carry nothing away with them.
Death is called an unclothing; it unclothes the body, disrobing it of all its gaudy and glorious attire: yea, it unclothes the bones; our flesh wears off quickly in the grave. We proverbially say of a rich man, he has left a vast estate, left it behind him, carrying neither a foot of land, nor a farthing of money with him; therefore doth St. Paul add, it is certain we can carry nothing out.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v6 From the mention of the abuse which some put…
From the mention of the abuse which some put upon religion, making it to serve their secular advantages, the apostle,
I. Takes occasion to show the excellency of contentment and the evil of covetousness.
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1. The excellency of contentment, Ti1 6:6-8. Some account Christianity an advantageous profession for this world. In the sense they mean this is false; yet it is undoubtedly true that, though Christianity is the worst trade, it is the best calling in the world. Those that make a trade of it, merely to serve their turn for this world, will be disappointed, and find it a sorry trade; but those that mind it as their calling, and make a business of it, will find it a gainful calling, for it has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come.
(1.) The truth he lays down is that godliness with contentment is great gain. Some read it, godliness with a competency; that is, if a man have but a little in this world, yet, if he have but enough to carry him through it, he needs desire no more, his godliness with that will be his great gain. For a little which a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked, Psa 37:16. We read it, godliness with contentment; godliness is itself great gain, it is profitable to all things; and, wherever there is true godliness, there will be contentment; but those have arrived at the highest pitch of contentment with their godliness are certainly the easiest happiest people in this world. Godliness with contentment, that is, Christian contentment (content must come from principles of godliness) is great gain; it is all the wealth in the world. He that is godly is sure to be happy in another world; and if withal he do by contentment accommodate himself to his condition in this world he has enough. Here we have, [1.] A Christian's gain; it is godliness with contentment, this is the true way to gain, yea, it is gain itself. [2.] A Christian's gain is great: it is not like the little gain of worldlings, who are so fond of a little worldly advantage. [3.] Godliness is ever accompanied with contentment in a great or less degree; all truly godly people have learned with Paul, in whatever state they are, to be therewith content, Phi 4:11. They are content with what God allots for them, well knowing that this is best for them. Let us all then endeavour after godliness with contentment.
(2.) The reason he gives for it is, For we brought nothing with us into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out, Ti1 6:7. This is a reason why we should be content with a little. [1.] Because we can challenge nothing as a debt that is due to us, for we came naked into the world. Whatever we have had since, we are obliged to the providence of God for it; but he that gave may take what and when he pleases. We had our beings, our bodies, our lives (which are more than meat, and which are more than raiment), when we came into the world, though we came naked, and brought nothing with us; may we not then be content while our beings and lives are continued to us, though we have not every thing we would have? We brought nothing with us into this world, and yet God provided for us, care was taken of us, we have been fed all our lives long unto this day; and therefore, when we are reduced to the greatest straits, we cannot be poorer than when we came into this world, and yet then we were provided for; therefore let us trust in God for the remaining part of our pilgrimage. [2.] We shall carry nothing with us out of this world. A shroud, a coffin, and a grave, are all that the richest man in the world can have from his thousands. Therefore why should we covet much? Why should we not be content with a little, because, how much soever we have, we must leave it behind us? Ecc 5:15, Ecc 5:16.
(3.) Hence he infers, having food and raiment, let us be therewith content, Ti1 6:8. Food and a covering, including habitation as well as raiment. Observe, If God give us the necessary supports of life, we ought to be content therewith, though we have not the ornaments and delights of it. If nature should be content with a little, grace should be content with less; though we have not dainty food, though we have not costly raiment, if we have but food and raiment convenient for us we ought to be content. This was Agur's prayer: Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me, Pro 30:8. Here we see, [1.] The folly of placing our happiness in these things, when we did not bring any thing into this world with us, and we can carry nothing out. What will worldlings do when death shall strip them of their happiness and portion, and they must take an everlasting farewell of all these things, on which they have so much doted? They may say with poor Micah, You have taken away my gods; and what have I more? Jdg 18:24. [2.] The necessaries of life are the hounds of a true Christian's desire, and with these he will endeavour to be content; his desires are not insatiable; no, a little, a few comforts of this life, will serve him, and these may hope to enjoy: Having food and raiment.
2. The evil of covetousness. Those that will be rich (that set their hearts upon the wealth of this world, and are resolved right or wrong, they will have it), fall into temptation and a snare, Ti1 6:9. It is not said, those that are rich, but those that will be rich, that is, that place their happiness in worldly wealth, that covet it inordinately, and are eager and violent in the pursuit of it. Those that are such fall into temptation and a snare, unavoidably; for, when the devil sees which way their lusts carry them, he will soon bait his hook accordingly. He knew how fond Achan would be of a wedge of gold, and therefore laid that before him. They fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts. Observe,
(1.) The apostle supposes that, [1.] Some will be rich; that is, they are resolved upon it, nothing short of a great abundance will satisfy. [2.] Such will not be safe nor innocent, for they will be in danger of ruining themselves for ever; they fall into temptation, and a snare, etc. [3.] Worldly lusts are foolish and hurtful, for they drown men in destruction and perdition. [4.] It is good for us to consider the mischievousness of worldly fleshly lusts. They are foolish, and therefore we should be ashamed of them, hurtful, and therefore we should be afraid of them, especially considering to what degree they are hurtful, for they drown men in destruction and perdition.
(2.) The apostle affirms that the love of money is the root of all evil, Ti1 6:10. What sins will not men be drawn to by the love of money? Particularly this was at the bottom of the apostasy of many from the faith of Christ; while they coveted money, they erred from the faith, they quitted their Christianity, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Observe, [1.] What is the root of all evil; the love of money: people may have money, and yet not love it; but, if they love it inordinately, it will push them on to all evil. [2.] Covetous persons will quit the faith, if that be the way to get money: Which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith. Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, Ti2 4:10. For the world was dearer to him than Christianity. Observe, Those that err from the faith pierce themselves with many sorrows; those that depart from God do but treasure up sorrows for themselves.
II. Hence he takes occasion to caution Timothy, and to counsel him to keep in the way of God and his duty, and particularly to fulfil the trust reposed in him as a minister. He addresses himself to him as a man of God. Ministers are men of God, and ought to conduct themselves accordingly in every thing; they are men employed for God, devoted to his honour more immediately. The prophets under the Old Testament were called men of God. 1. He charges Timothy to take heed of the love of money, which had been so pernicious to many: Flee these things. It ill becomes any men, but especially men of God, to set their hearts upon the things of this world; men of God should be taken up with the things of God. 2. To arm him against the love of the world, he directs him to follow that which is good. Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness: righteousness in his conversation towards men, godliness towards God, faith and love as living principles, to support him and carry him on in the practice both of righteousness and godliness. Those that follow after righteousness and godliness, from a principle of faith and love, have need to put on patience and meekness - patience to bear both the rebukes of Providence and the reproaches of men, and meekness wherewith to instruct gainsayers and pass by the affronts and injuries that are done us. Observe, It is not enough that men of God flee these things, but they must follow after what is directly contrary thereto. Further, What excellent persons men of God are who follow after righteousness! They are the excellent of the earth, and, being acceptable to God, they should be approved of men. 3. He exhorts him to do the part of a soldier: Fight the good fight of faith. Note, Those who will get to heaven must fight their way thither. There must be a conflict with corruption and temptations, and the opposition of the powers of darkness. Observe, It is a good fight, it is a good cause, and it will have a good issue. It is the fight of faith; we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, Co2 10:3, Co2 10:4. He exhorts him to lay hold on eternal life. Observe, (1.) Eternal life is the crown proposed to us, for our encouragement to war, and to fight the good fight of faith, the good warfare. (2.) This we must lay hold on, as those that are afraid of coming short of it and losing it. Lay hold, and take heed of losing your hold. Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown, Rev 3:11. (3.) We are called to the fight, and to lay hold on eternal life. (4.) The profession Timothy and all faithful ministers make before many witnesses is a good profession; for they profess and engage to fight the good fight of faith, and to lay hold on eternal life; their calling and their own profession oblige them to this.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv4–11 He is proud,.... Or swelled and puffed up with…
He is proud,.... Or swelled and puffed up with a vain conceit of himself and his own notions, and treats with an haughty air the faithful ministers of the word. The doctrines of grace are of an humbling nature, especially when they are spiritually and experimentally understood and received; but notional knowledge, knowledge of natural things, and the doctrines of men, such as are of their own invention, fill the mind with pride and vanity:
knowing nothing; as he ought to know; not anything that is solid and substantial; nothing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: he may have knowledge of natural and civil things, but not of spiritual ones; he may have collected a medley of knowledge together, but what will be of no real use either to himself or others:
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but doting about questions and strifes of words: or he is "sick or diseased"; his mind is distempered; he is like one in a fever, that is delirious; his head is light and wild; his fancy is roving, and he talks of things he knows not what; his head runs upon "questions"; foolish and unlearned ones, about the law and works, and the necessity of them to justification and salvation; concerning genealogies, and other fruitless and unprofitable subjects:
and strifes of words; mere logomachies; contending and quarrelling more about words than things, which tend to no profit, but to the subverting and confounding of hearers. The ill effects of which are as follow:
whereof cometh envy: at the superior gifts and talents of others; at their success, and any little degree of honour and respect they have from others; which shows that such men, in whom this vice is a governing one, are carnal men, for this is a work of the flesh; and that they are destitute of charity, or the grace of love, which envieth not: also from hence comes
strife; contention, quarrelling; the peace and comfort of particular persons, and even of whole communities, are broken and destroyed hereby; for foolish and unlearned questions gender strifes, Ti2 2:24 which are very unbecoming the servants of the Lord, and very uncomfortable to the churches of Christ: yea, these also produce
railings; at one another, and especially at the faithful ministers of the Gospel; for when the false teachers cannot overcome them by Scripture and argument, they fall to railing and reviling of them: or entertain
evil surmises; groundless suspicions: or from hence follow, as the words may be rendered, "wicked opinions": concerning the being, perfections, purposes, and providence of God; concerning the person and offices of Christ; concerning the law and Gospel, grace and good works; and so the Syriac version renders it, "an evil opinion of the mind".
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv4–11 He is puffed up - Which is the cause…
He is puffed up - Which is the cause of his not consenting to the doctrine which is after inward, practical religion. By this mark we may know them. Knowing nothing - As he ought to know. Sick of questions - Doatingly fond of dispute; an evil, but common, disease; especially where practice is forgotten. Such, indeed, contend earnestly for singular phrases, and favourite points of their own. Everything else, however, like the preaching of Christ and his apostles, is all "law," and "bondage," and "carnal reasoning." Strifes of words - Merely verbal controversies. Whereof cometh envy - Of the gifts and success of others. Contention - For the preeminence. Such disputants seldom like the prosperity of others, or to be less esteemed themselves. Evil surmisings - It not being their way to think well of those that differ from themselves in opinion.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv4–11 Verse 4. He is proud] τετυφωται. He is blown…
Verse 4. He is proud] τετυφωται. He is blown up, or inflated with a vain opinion of his own knowledge; whereas his knowledge is foolishness, for he knows nothing.
Doting about questions] He is sick, distempered, about these questions relative to the Mosaic law and the traditions of the elders; for it is most evident that the apostle has the Judaizing teachers in view, who were ever, in questions of theology, straining out a gnat, and swallowing a camel.
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Strifes of words] λογομαχιας. Logomachies; verbal contentions; splitting hairs; producing Hillel against Shammai, and Shammai against Hillel, relative to the particular mode in which the punctilios of some rites should be performed. In this sort of sublime nonsense the works of the Jewish rabbins abound.
Whereof cometh envy, strife, c.] How little good have religious disputes ever done to mankind, or to the cause of truth! Most controversialists have succeeded in getting their own tempers soured, and in irritating their opponents. Indeed, truth seems rarely to be the object of their pursuit they labour to accredit their own party by abusing and defaming others; from generals they often descend to particulars; and then personal abuse is the order of the day. Is it not strange that Christians either cannot or will not see this? Cannot any man support his own opinions, and give his own views of the religion of Christ, without abusing and calumniating his neighbour? I know not whether such controversialists should not be deemed disturbers of the public peace, and come under the notice of the civil magistrate. Should not all Christians know that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of the Lord?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv6, 11 1Ti 6:6-10. But godliness — The genuine fear and…
1Ti 6:6-10. But godliness — The genuine fear and love of God, and obedience to his will; with contentment — The inseparable companion of vital piety; is great gain — Brings unspeakable profit in time as well as in eternity, and indeed is the only true abiding gain; for all other gain is perishing. For we brought nothing into this world — But were thrown naked upon the indulgent provision which our gracious Creator has been pleased to make for us; and it is certain — Whatever treasures insatiable avarice may amass; we can carry nothing out — But must, in a little time, return to the dust, stripped of all. To what purpose then do we heap together so many things? O let us remember one thing is needful, and let us, above all things, take care to ensure that. And having — While we continue in this transitory and uncertain life; food and raiment — Or food and coverings, rather; the word σκεπασματα comprehending not only clothes, but lodgings; (it signifies indeed coverings of every sort;) let us be therewith content — And not seek, with restless solicitude, the great things of this world, which are often of short continuance, and of a precarious as well as an unsatisfying nature. But they — Who, not content with these; (which are all that a Christian needs, and all that his religion allows him to desire;) will be rich — Who desire to be so, and resolve to use every means in order thereto; fall — Headlong; into temptation — Or trial, frequently great, peculiar, and distressing; and a snare — Which entangles them in sin and misery; and into many foolish and hurtful lusts — Or desires, which have no reason whatever in them, and which not only sink men below the dignity of their nature, but prove the occasion of much further mischief, yea, drown men in destruction here, and eternal perdition hereafter. “In this admirable picture the apostle represents men who are actuated by the desire of riches, and with the lusts excited by the possession of them, as pursuing, to the utmost verge of a precipice, those shadowy phantoms which owe all their semblance of reality to the magic of the passions, which riches, and the desire of them, have excited in their minds; and as falling into a gulf, where they plunge so deep that they are irrecoverably lost.” For the love of money — Commonly called prudent care of what a man has; is the root — Or source; of all — Of every kind of; evil — Of sin and misery consequent thereon, in various respects. “The pernicious influence of this vice hath been taken notice of, and painted in striking colours, by moralists and poets, even among the heathen. But none of them have drawn the picture with such skill and effect as the apostle hath done in this and the preceding verse; where he hath set forth, in the strongest colouring, and with the fewest words, the deformity of the passion, and the evils which it produces, both in the bodies and in the minds of those who indulge it.” — Macknight. Which, while some have coveted after — Greek, ορεγομενοι, reaching out to, or eagerly coveting; have erred — Απεπλανηθησαν, have wandered far from the faith, or have wholly missed the mark. Indeed they aimed not at faith, but at something else; and pierced themselves through — Or all round, as περιεπειραν properly signifies; have stabbed themselves, as it were, from head to foot on all sides, so as to be like a person wholly covered with wounds; with many sorrows — Arising from a guilty conscience, tormenting passions, desires contrary to reason, religion, and one another. How cruel are worldly men to themselves!
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv4–11 He is proud - That is, he is lifted…
He is proud - That is, he is lifted up with his fancied superior acquaintance with the nature of religion. The Greek verb means, properly, “to smoke, to fume;” and then to be inflated, to “be conceited, etc.” The idea is, that he has no proper knowledge of the nature of the gospel, and yet he values himself on a fancied superior acquaintance with its principles.
Knowing nothing - Margin, “a fool.” That is, that he does not understand the nature of religion as he supposes he does. His views in regard to the relation of masters and servants, and to the bearing of religion on that relation, show that he does not understand the genius of Christianity. The apostle expresses this in strong language; by saying that he knows nothing; see the notes on 1Co 8:2.
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But doting - Margin, “sick.” The Greek word - νοσέω noseō - means properly to be sick; then to languish, to pine after. The meaning here is, that such persons had a sickly or morbid desire for debates of this kind. They had not a sound and healthy state of mind on the subject of religion. They were like a sickly man, who has no desire for solid and healthful food, but for that which will gratify a diseased appetite. They desired not sound doctrine, but controversies about unimportant and unsubstantial matters - things that bore the same relation to important doctrines which the things that a sick man pines after do to substantial food.
Questions and strifes of words - The Jews abounded much in disputes of this sort, and it would seem probable that the persons here referred to were Jewish teachers; compare 1Ti 1:6-7 notes, and Act 18:15 note.
Whereof cometh envy - The only fruit of which is to produce envy. That is, the appearance of superior knowledge; the boast of being profoundly acquainted with religion, and the show of an ability for subtle argumentation, would produce in a certain class envy. Envy is uneasiness, pain, mortification, or discontent, excited by another’s prosperity, or by his superior knowledge or possessions; see the notes on Rom 1:29.
Strife - Or contentions with those who will not readily yield to their opinions.
Railings - Harsh and abusive language toward those who will not concede a point - a common effect of disputes, and more commonly of disputes about small and unimportant matters, than of these which are of magnitude. Such railings often attend disputes that arise out of nice and subtle distinctions.
Evil surmisings - Suspicions that they are led to hold their views, not by the love of the truth, but from sordid or worldly motives. Such suspicions are very apt to attend an angry debate of any kind. It might be expected especially to exist on such a question as the apostle refers to here - the relation of a master and a slave. It is always very hard to do justice to the motives of one who seems to us to be living in sin, or to believe it to be possible that he acts from right motives.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11 But sick about questions,[1] unprofitable disputes, blasphemies, which may…
But sick about questions,[1] unprofitable disputes, blasphemies, which may either signify against God, or railing one against another, conflicts, &c.[2] and dissensions of men corrupted in their minds: such is the character and description he gives of those ancient heretics, which applies to heretics in general. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Languens, Greek: noson. Ægrotans; Erasmus, insaniens.
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Conflictationes, Greek: paradiatribai, exercitationes.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v11 B.—Address to Timothy.—A word for the rich.—Conclusion of the…
B.—Address to Timothy.—A word for the rich.—Conclusion of the Epistle
CH. 1Ti_6:11-21
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11But thou, O man of God,7 flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 12Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on [the] eternal life, whereunto thou art also8 called [unto which thou wast called], and hast professed a [the] good profession before many witnesses. 13I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth9 all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a [the] good confession; [,] 14That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ [Christ Jesus]: [,] 15Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; [,] 16Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; [,] whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.10 17Charge them that are rich in this world,11 that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches [uncertainty of riches], but in the living12 God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; [,] 18That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, 19Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal [the true]13 life. 20O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called [falsely named knowledge]: 21Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.14
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Ti_6:11. But thou, O man of God, &c. The Apostle turns suddenly again to Timothy, as if he had entered almost too far into general topics, and wished henceforth to keep his young disciple wholly in view to the close of the Epistle. There is an emphasis in the tone with which he addresses him, as not only his spiritual son, but the man of God, the servant of the Lord. O man of God, is equivalent to the Hebrew אִישׁ אֱלּהִים. This name places Timothy, as a Christian prophet, by the side of the chosen messengers of the Divine will in the Old Testament (comp. 2Pe_1:21).—Flee these things, ταῦτα; that is, the φιλαργυρία, already spoken of, and again in 1Ti_6:17, where St. Paul mentions the true use of earthly riches.—Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness (comp. 2Ti_2:22). According to Rom_12:21, evil must be overcome by good; and thus St. Paul sets against the opposite vices a series of Christian virtues and affections. Righteousness is not here to be taken sensu forensi, but sensu morals, as uprightness, or integrity. Godliness, or, more specially, the direction of the inward life toward God (comp. Tit_2:12). Faith, love, the two primal virtues of Christianity, are to be here under stood in the usual Pauline sense. Patience, finally, concerns all which could disturb the soul; and meekness (πραϋπάθειαν, after the more probable reading; see Tischendorf), refers to all which might embitter the heart. So long as Timothy grew into this moral character, he ran no danger of infection from the shameless avarice of the heretical teachers. [These virtues seem grouped in pairs; δικαιοσύνη and εὐσέβεια, touching general obedience to God’s law; πίστις and ἀγἀπη, the inner springs of Christian character; ὑπομ. and πραύ̈π., our spirit toward the enemies of the truth; see Huther, in loco.—W.]
1Ti_6:12. Fight the good fight of faith (comp. 1Co_9:24; Php_3:12; 1Ti_1:18; 2Ti_4:7). A repetition of the favorite image by which St. Paul is wont to describe the Christian life, and especially that of the minister of the Lord. Here, too, Timothy is not addressed merely as a man or as an Evangelist, but in both relations. This fight is called good, not only in regard of its moral excellence, but as a lofty and noble one.—Fight of faith; not strictly because it is on behalf of the faith (Mack and Heydenreich), but rather because it is born of the faith, is proper to the faith, and has its power only from the faith. The same figurative style is continued in what follows.—Lay hold on eternal life; as the βραβεῖον, for which the athlete strives, and which he grasps at the end of his course.—Whereunto thou art called. This, according to Heydenreich, should also be considered a figurative expression, alluding to the herald who solemnly summons the athletes to the contest But this is less probable, since such a summons, though required, indeed, for the strife, was not so for the prize. We therefore understand ἐκλήθ. here in the ordinary sense of that outward and inward calling which gave success to the confessor of the gospel. This remembrance would awaken Timothy to his duty to press toward the mark; it would strengthen him in the assurance that, if he strove, his calling was the pledge of eternal life.—And hast professed the good profession. A. fresh motive for Timothy in the fight of faith. Thou hast professed, should rather (De Wette, and others) be considered a new, independent proposition, than, as many do, to make ὡμολόγησας dependent on the preceding εἰς ἥν, which gives a hard construction and a scarcely intelligible sense. The good profession which Timothy had made is not clearly defined by Paul. Some think it the confession made at baptism; others, that given at his induction into the ministry; others, a Christian testimony, given by him during some public persecution or some severe conflict But the youth of Timothy makes the last view improbable; and as his testimony (1Ti_6:13) is compared in some degree with that of the Lord, who had borne witness before Pilate in words as well as deeds, we may best refer this to one of the two occasions already named. The many witnesses, who surely were present at his ordination rather than his baptism, lead us to conclude that the Apostle alludes to the same event, named in 1Ti_4:14 and 2Ti_1:6. [This view of the text is maintained by Neander, “Planting and Training of the Church,” vol. ii; also by Ellicott, and others, in loco. It is worth noting, however, that the authentic traditions of the Church point back to the custom of such a “confession of faith” at baptism. “Mos ibi servatur antiquus, eos qui gratiam baptismi suscepturi sunt publice, id est, fidelium populo audiente symbolum reddere;” Ruffinus, De Symb. 3. We do not suppose that the later baptismal office existed in the apostolic day; but it is not at all improbable that the germ of such a usage began at that time.—W.]
1Ti_6:13. I give thee charge … confession. The allusion to Timothy’s confession leads the Apostle now to speak of the Saviour Himself, whose remembrance must awaken a new motive for fidelity and zeal.—I charge thee (comp. 1Ti_1:3); a form of solemn adjuration well fitted to the grandeur of the subject—In the sight of God, who quickeneth all things. “An encouraging remembrance of the resurrection, and thus indirectly a motive against the fear of death in the cause of Jesus, to which the following clause also alludes;” De Wette.—And before Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate. ̓Επὶ does not signify under Pontius Pilate (De Wette; so Bengel, periocha temporis notissima), but, as Mat_28:14, and elsewhere, coram. The recollection that the Lord had lived and suffered in the days of Pontius Pilate, was quite superfluous; but the statement that His confession was made coram procuratore, clearly shows to what witness the Apostle refers. It can only be that narrated in Joh_18:36 and Mat_27:11; and this was indeed worthy to be held up to Timothy, as the pattern of a true confessor of the truth in face of death. Μαρτυρεῖν means here the same as ὁμολογεῖν in the verse before; and we may thus, when we recall this passage, justly regard Christ as the first Martyr of the New Covenant.
[There is somewhat striking in the identity of these words of Paul with the clause of the Apostle’s Creed, “suffered under Pontius Pilate.” It does not seem to us a mere verbal fancy, if we regard it, when coupled with the καλὴ ὁμολογία made by Timothy, as giving a hint in regard to the formation of that first and simplest symbolum of the faith. We reject, of course, the old, mechanical tradition, that this creed was made by the Apostles, or existed in its present written form before a later age. But the various fragments of such a received “form of words,” as we find them in Justin Mart., Apol., i. 13, Dial., 85; Irenæus, Hæres., 1, 2, and Tertullian; all agreeing in the ideas and general structure, while differing in detail, point clearly to some original “confession of faith,” probably oral; and although without sure date or authorship, yet running back so far toward apostolic time as to have been naturally ascribed to it. Thus this phrase, “under Pontius Pilate,” as cited by St. Paul, may have become incorporated with the earliest germinal creed. We have here what seems the structural law of growth in the church: first the age of organic, yet undeveloped life, then of scientific formation in doctrine and worship.—W.]
1Ti_6:14. That thou keep, &c. St. Paul now sets forth the matter, which he has introduced to Timothy with so solemn a charge. Τηρῆσαί σε τήν ἐντολήν. It is not likely, after so lofty an adjuration, that he meant merely his exhortation to flee from avarice (1Ti_6:11), and like sins. We look rather at his encouragement to the good fight of the Christian life, and the bold confession of the Lord (1Ti_6:12, et seq.). We may say that in this, as the chief commandment, all is embraced which could be asked of Timothy. The view of many, that we must regard this word, commandment, as the παραγγελία of the Christian moral law in general (1Ti_1:5), seems too far-fetched, and quite needless.—Without spot, unrebukable; not to be referred to σε, but to ἐντολήν. “Paul exhorts Timothy so to keep the law, that it may not be stained and open to reproach, as with the false teachers;” Huther.—Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. The final παρουσία of the Lord, at the judgment of the world, which in the apostolic age was expected as nigh at hand. Bengel justly says: “Fideles in praxi suâ proponebant sibi diem Christi ut appropinquentem; not solemus nobis horam mortis proponere.” We must, however, add that the Christian life of many has gained nothing by the change.
[It is to take nothing from the essential authority of the apostolic writings, if we grant their belief in a speedy advent of Christ. Indeed, our Lord declared that they had no revelation of the times (Act_1:7). The prophecy was, in its nature, a dim one, only to be interpreted by history; and it was natural that to them the lofty truth should be a present reality. It is thus by degrees the crude millennial theories of a Papias have faded away, because through eighteen centuries the Church has seen always a new, further horizon rise before it, and can more soberly read the historic plan of Christianity. Yet the kingdom of God should be to our mature faith a nobler reality than if we believed it literally at hand. See, in Neander’s “Planting and Training,” some admirable remarks on the spiritual character of St. John’s doctrine of the παρουσία.—W.]
1Ti_6:15. Which in his times, &c., ἥν καιροῖς ἰδίοις δείξει, κ.τ.λ.; a peculiar expression, unlike the usual style of St. Paul, yet clear in its meaning. God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, will show, set forth, bring to pass, the glorious revelation of His Son (δεικνύναι). Christ is unseen for a while; the time of His manifestation in full glory (ἐπιφάνεια) rests in the counsels of God, who has appointed the exact moment.—In his times (comp. Tit_1:3; Gal_4:4).—The blessed and only Potentate. This mention of God, as One through whom the Epiphany of Christ is to be made known, calls forth from the Apostle a psalm of thanksgiving, in which he expresses those attributes of the Almighty which confirm this Christian hope, and which are contrasted with the desires of man after the transient goods of this world. Blessed, signifies one who has in Himself alone the sources of the highest joy; the only Potentate, the one only who has and exercises power. Perhaps μόνος is indirectly contrasted with the Gnostic notion of the many Æons—a notion which existed in its germ already in the Pauline age.—The King Of kings and Lord of lords; not only in a spiritual, but a cosmical sense.
[We cannot but think that this passage, taken in connection with the whole sketch of these errorists, refers emphatically to a Jewish doctrine of Æons. It may be clearly traced to the mystics of the Essene type. They held a hierarchy of Powers, emanations from the First Principle, and presiding over certain cosmical spheres. It was the germ of the Sephiroths of the Kabbala, and the Æons of the Gnosis. See Ewald, Gesch. d. Volkes Israel, B. 4, p. 208. This was the esoteric science, kept for the illuminati, while the people held only the Jewish angelology in its exoteric, fanciful form. Such floating seeds of error may easily have fallen into the Jewish-Christian soil of the Church. See, for a clear view of this earlier Jewish Gnosticism, Reuss, Theol. Chret., vol. 1, p. 371, et seq.—W.]
1Ti_6:16. Who only hath immortality. The Apostle continues to praise the excellencies of God; and here he specially sets forth that completeness, whereby in His eternal Being He is lifted above all changing things. “Ac si dixisset Paulus, solum Deum non a seipso tantum esse immortalem et suapte natura, sed immortalitatem in potestate habere, ut in creaturas non competat, nisi quatenus suam illis virtutem inspirans eas vegetat;” Calvin.—Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto. Possessor of the light, as He is possessor of the life. Like descriptions are found in Psa_104:2. God is clothed with light, as a garment, 1Jn_1:5. God is light, &c.—Whom no man hath seen, nor can see. A description of the invisible nature of God, which includes also the idea that He is incomprehensible (comp. Joh_1:18; 1Jn_4:12; Col_1:15; Heb_11:27; Rom_11:33-36).—To whom be honor and power everlasting) i.e., to whom they properly belong. Some suppose that we have here, as 1Ti_3:16, he fragment of an ancient church-hymn.
1Ti_6:17. Charge them that are rich in this world. The Apostle might have fitly closed the Epistle with this doxology. But he once more turns back to the topic, which bad been interrupted by his digression (1Ti_6:11-16). He had named the dangers of those who would be rich; he now addresses those who are rich in worldly goods. But he at once shows the merely relative worth of their wealth, in calling it of “this world.” He does not, however, speak of the rich as having their part exclusively in this world (Luk_16:25); rather, he encourages them to Christian godliness, because their wealth, though in itself temporal, may, by a wise and reasonable use, be raised to somewhat higher. Timothy must, therefore, warn them of their peril, and charge them not to he high-minded—a peculiar vice of rich men (Jer_9:24; Psa_62:9). Pride may be found without wealth; but it is hard to have wealth without pride.—Nor trust in uncertain riches. The Apostle, in speaking not only of uncertain riches, but in substant. of the uncertainty of all riches, beautifully conveys the thought that he who trusts in them rests on that which is itself ὰδηλότης, and so is in worst peril.—But in the living God, who giveth us richly, &c. As ζῶντι is critically untenable, many of the comments here are useless; yet those of Melanchthon and Calvin deserve notice. Instead of trusting in wealth, the rich should trust in the Giver, who wills that we should enjoy His rich gifts. Εἰς ἀπόλαυσιν, not strictly contrasted with asceticism, but with excessive desire for earthly things. “To enjoy, not to rest our hearts on;” Wiesinger.
1Ti_6:18. That they do good … communicate. The Apostle does not merely warn the rich against error, but sets before them the right way which will gain the enjoyment God allows. To do good, is a general conception, like ἀγαθοποιεῖν (Act_14:17); promoting the happiness of others.—Rich in good works; meaning not Christian beneficence merely, but good action in general. The two next words are specific: ready to distribute, willing to communicate (comp. Luk_3:11;, Eph_4:28). If there be any distinction here, the former may mean the generous hand, the latter the sympathetic heart; both conceptions, however, are connected, and neither of worth without the other.
1Ti_6:19. Laying up in store, &c., ἀποθησαυρίζοντας ἑαυτοῖς. St. Paul makes clear, that through such works of love we promote our own eternal interests. Our action toward others is a treasure for ourselves (comp. Mat_6:21). It is obvious that spiritual treasures are meant, as a good foundation against the time to come, θεμέλιον καλὸν εἰς τὸ μέλλον. This view of a treasure as θεμέλιον is not strange in such a concise style as the Apostle here uses, evidently hastening to the close, and critical conjectures are thus superfluous. The conception is at bottom the same with that of our Lord (Luk_16:9).—That they may lay hold on the true life. Ὀντως instead of αἰωνίου (see textual note above). Ἴνα τελικῶς, not ἐκβατικῶς, is here to be understood. The attainment of a true life is thus the highest end, which the rich must seek by the wise and worthy use of his wealth. Thus he reaches the βραβεῖον, which St. Paul set before Timothy. Bengel very finely says: “Mercator, naufragis salvus, thesauros domum præmissos invenit.” [This strong expression of St. Paul seems at first glance hardly Pauline. It must not be abused into any notion of a deposit of meritorious works, as it has been by some Roman expositors. In the deepest sense, eternal life is a gift, and its only θεμέλιον the grace of God. To be charitable for the sake of gaining heaven by it, is absurdity, for the selfish motive vitiates the act. It is the same fallacy which in former days so often led the rich noble, after a life of bloodshed, to wipe out his sins by building a church. But St. Paul alike denies that empty faith which has no fruit in real charity. The love that is “rich in good works,” grows within as it gives away; and that wealth of the heart a Christian man shall “carry with him when he dieth,” for it is of the very being of the sow.—W.]
1Ti_6:20. O Timothy, keep that, &c. Once more the Apostle sums the whole Epistle in one heartfelt, closing injunction. O Timothy, he says out of the fulness of his fatherly heart, keep that committed to thy trust, τὴν παρακαταθήκην φύλαξον (comp. 2Ti_1:12). As there is no exact statement here, there is room for many conjectures, and there have been enough, older and newer. It seems obvious, from the occurrence of παρακαταθήκη at the close, that something general and of high value is meant; it may be the sound doctrine, it may be the ministerial office, or both together. The former view seems preferable, since φύλασσειν is better referred to the treasure of the word, than of the διακονία; and yet more there seems to be, in what directly follows, an antithesis between sound doctrine and error. Παραθήκη as well as παρακαταθήκη in the Greek signifies the deposit of anything with a person, who holds himself bound to return it uninjured; and hence the word is applied to the thing, the depositum itself.—Avoiding, &c.; denoting the way in which Timothy should keep this trust.—Profane and vain babblings (comp. 2Ti_2:16). Nothing is here meant beyond the ματαιολογία and λογομαχία, whose worthlessness St. Paul has already shown; the error of the heretical teachers, here anew branded as at bottom empty negation. He adds a yet further feature: oppositions of science falsely so called; i.e., unworthy of so good a name. The errors are called ἀντιθέσεις, not only because they were utterly opposed in themselves to pure gospel doctrine, but brought forward in a direct polemic way against it. For other explanations, see Be Wette. Conybeare and Howson well say in loco: “The most natural interpretation (considering the junction with κενοφωνίας and the λογομαχίας ascribed to the heretics above, 1Ti_6:4) is to suppose that St. Paul here speaks not of the doctrines, but of the dialectical and rhetorical arts of the false teachers.” These antitheses were the fruit of the falsely so-called science. It is acknowledged that the errorists already in that time boasted of a higher knowledge in the mysteries (Col_2:8). But St. Paul, at the close, explains how this γνῶσις was the direct enemy of the πίστις, the principle of faith in the truth.
[This expression at the close deserves far more study than most expositors give it. It clearly shows that these false theories not only existed in a sporadic way, but had already assumed the defined form, and even the name of a Gnosis. No explanation of the ἀντιθέσεις is satisfactory, from our almost entire ignorance of the methods of that early school. Perhaps some earlier Marcion had brought forward his views in the shape of an antilogy to the received teaching. But, in any case, St. Paul recognized the distinct chasm between a Christian truth and a false science. The one was a theosophy, the other a living spiritual fact. The one turned Christianity into a Rabbinical school, with its doctrine of divine emanations and the dualism of an evil material principle; the other taught the plain revelation of God in the incarnate Son. The one held the union of the soul with the divine by a rigid asceticism, or a spiritual ecstasy; the other knit Christian growth with the ties of household and social life. The one gave an esoteric knowledge for the few initiated; the other a religion of duty for all men. We cannot read this Epistle, and that to the Colossians, without clearly seeing the seed-vessels of all, which ripened in Marcion and Valentinus.—W.]
1Ti_6:21. Which some professing, &c. The worst peril of a Christian man is surely in losing the straight road of the gospel and straying into the byway. It had been so with many so-called wise, whose hapless end should be a warning to Timothy. Which some professing, ἥν τιενς ἐπαγγελλόμενοι; quam nonnulli profitentes, quite as in 1Ti_2:10. They professedly sought salvation in their knowledge, and in this very way have erred concerning the faith, ἠστόχησαν (comp. 2Ti_2:18). Bengel: “Veram sagacitatem, quæ fidei est, amiserunt, non capientes quid sit credendum et quid sit credere” (comp. 2Ti_3:7-8).—Grace be with thee. Amen. Μετὰ σοῦ; according to A. F. G., ὑμῶν should be read, in which case the church would be included, so far as it had any knowledge of the Epistle. As, however, it is addressed specially to Timothy, no more salutations are added. In the Second Epistle it is otherwise, since it was, in a measure, the farewell of the Apostle to the church, and to life.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The illustration, drawn from the ancient athletic contests, sketches most strikingly the character, the calling, the dangers, and high hopes of the Christian life. It is not strange that it has been a favorite figure of believers in all times, as well as of Paul. But it sets before us likewise the object of the minister of the gospel, who is called to be a witness of the Lord. His life is a combat, but a combat which assures him, if he be faithful to the end, of the heavenly crown.
2. The remembrance of the solemn profession made by the Christian on entering the church, must indeed inspire in him a true and steadfast zeal. We also, as well as Timothy, have, in our union with Christ and His Body, confessed before many witnesses—ministry, teachers, friends, the whole visible and invisible Church—nay, before the Lord and His angels. This confession is, then, more than an outward show; it is to be confirmed by our life. Next to the thought of the Lord’s coming (Mat_10:32-33), this of our good confession has the strongest influence on our fidelity. (Compare the view of the nature and importance of confirmation, by Nitzsch, “Pract. Theol.,” vol. ii., p. 436).
3. Shallow and unsatisfying as the rationalistic view is of our Lord’s suffering and death, as only the confirmation of His teaching and the bestowal of a high example, yet it would be as one-sided if we forget that He was the first, noblest witness of the truth. It is to be noted, that martyrs and witnesses (μάρτυρες) are the same word.
4. The doctrine of the invisible being of God, rightly understood, is a needful safeguard against all anthropomorphism and anthropopathism (comp. Exo_33:18; Exo_33:23). Whatever in this truth of the unseen Jehovah was hard for Israel, is done away for us Christians, who have seen the Father in the Son (comp. Joh_1:18; Joh_14:9).
5. The name here ascribed to God—King of kings and Lord of lords—is the same given (Rev_17:14; Rev_19:16) to the glorified Saviour; a clear proof of the divinity of the Son.
6. Christianity does not forbid the use of riches, and assigns no other limits to the lawful enjoyments of life than what reason and conscience approve. But it warns the rich of his special perils, and strives to make earthly wealth the means of growth in the heavenly. The story of the rich young man (Mat_19:16-21) is a weighty illustration of St. Paul’s precept.
7. The relation of πίστις to γνῶσις has been always an essential question. The credo quia absurdum and the quæro intelligere, ut credam, are alike one-sided. The true position is given in the credo, ut intelligam. Man must rise through faith to knowledge, and again pass through knowledge to a growing faith. The true connection is nobly pointed out by St. John (1Jn_5:13): “These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God.” Irrational as it is to scorn knowledge in the name of faith, it is as fruitless to recognize nothing as the object of πίστις, which has not been first reached by γνῶσις. The credo, quamquam absurdum, finally, is truer than the non credo, quia absurdum. The γνῶσις may develop the truths of faith, but can in no way take the place of faith.
[St. Augustin: Reason should not submit, unless it decides for itself that there are occasions when it ought to submit. Its very submission is then reasonable.
Pascal, Penseés: Nothing is so rational, as the disavowal of reason in what is of faith. And nothing is so contrary to reason, as the disavowal of reason in what is not of faith. Both extremes are alike dangerous: the exclusion of reason, and the admission of reason alone.—W.]
9. “Nullusne ergo in Ecclesia Christi profectus habebitur religionis? Habeatur plane et maximus, sed ita tamen ut vere profectus sit ille fidei, non permutatio. Siquidem ad profectionem pertinet, ut in semet ipsa una quæque res amplificetur, ad permutationem vero, ut aliquid ex alio in aliud transvertatur. Crescat igitur oportet, et multum vehementerque proficiat tam singulorum quam omnium, tam unius hominis quam totius Ecclesiæ ætatum ac sæculorum gradibus intelligentia, scientia, sapientia, sed in suo dumtaxat genere, in eodem scilicet dogmati, eodem sensu eademque sententia. Imitetur animarum religio rationem corporum, quæ licet annorum processu numeros suos evolvant et explicant, eadem tamen quæ erant, permanent;” Vincent. Lirin., Commonitorium, chap. 28.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The minister of the gospel a man of God: (1) His inferiority to, (2) his equality with, (3) his rank above the prophets of the Old Covenant—Not enough to escape error; we must also excel in godliness.
1Ti_6:12 (specially fitted for confirmation): The combat of the Christian life: (1) The life of the Christian a fight; (2) a good fight; (3) a fight of faith; (4) a fight whose prize is life eternal; (5) a fight inspired by the remembrance of our good confession.—Jesus before Pilate, the archetype of a confessor of the truth.—How the thought of the Lord’s advent should fill us with steadfastness.—Although the time of Christ’s coming be wisely hid from us, yet it is exactly fixed in the counsels of God.—God, who only hath immortality: (1) The sublimity; (2) the comfort of this truth.—Dangers, duties, blessings of wealth.—The illusion of worldly, and the sure hope of heavenly riches.—How may wealth be a hindrance, how a help to eternal life?—The wealth of God: (1) He gives all things; (2) He gives richly; (3) He gives for us to enjoy.—The unity of faith and knowledge in Christianity.—The true and false illumination.—Christian faith also true wisdom (comp. Luk_10:21).
Starke: Anton: There is much to endure in the office of the Christian teacher, but eternity lies beyond. If we look thither, we shall not weary of the combat (1Pe_5:4; 2Co_4:14; 2Co_4:16).—Hedinger: Knowing and professing [Erkennen u. bekennen] should not be separated (Rom_10:9.).—Anton: There is no higher comfort than in looking to Christ. Nothing can befall us in the work of the ministry which has not a response from Christ (Heb_12:2).—It is a well-tried Christian habit, to strengthen ourselves through the sufferings of Christ—As God is King of kings and Lord of lords, we must never obey the kings and lords of this world when they claim what is against God’s law (Act_5:29).—Cramer: God hath still as much to give as He hath given. The earth is His, and all that therein is (Psa_24:1).—Starke: God gives many wealth, that He may try partly their gratitude to Him, partly their kindness to the needy (Exo_16:4)—He who helps the poor, gives God his money on interest, and gains more than he lays out (Pro_19:17).—The gospel is a wealth entrusted us by God; therefore must we care, like all who hold trust funds, not to lose this treasure (Rev_3:10-11).—Osiander: The highest science is, to know, to simply believe, and freely obey God’s word (Luk_8:16).
Heubner: The remembrance of past battles strengthens for the new.—We should never fall behind ourselves.—The sottishness of the proud is trust in wealth.—Good works are a heavenly capital, yielding an overflowing profit.—The notes of the true knowledge (see Jam_3:17).
Von Gerlach: “Whoso builds on the changeable, must needs be lost; whoso builds on the immortal, changeless God, lives in His life, His wealth, and shall share His eternity.”
Lisco: The Christian life (1) strives after perfection (1Ti_6:11); (2) fights against sin (1Ti_6:12); (4) endures till the life of glory (1Ti_6:13-14).—Counsel: (1) for the worldly rich; (2) the mentally rich, who overvalue knowledge.—Nitzsch (1Ti_6:12; 1Ti_6:15): How right and needful that we make a good confession to the best of Confessors (Sermon V., p. 138).—Beck: The high calling of the man of God: (1) To what; (2) for what.—Fischer: The characteristics of the Christian life.
Footnotes:
[7]1Ti_6:11.—[Lachmann omits the article before Θεοῦ; so also the Sinaiticus. In the same verse, πραϋπαθίαν is to be preferred to the common reading, πραότητα.—E. H.]
[8]1Ti_6:12.—καὶ after εἰς ἣν omitted by the modem authorities; see Tischendorf. [Not in the Sinaiticus.—E. H.]
[9]1Ti_6:13.—[Tischendorf and Lachmann, after A. D. G., read ζωογονοῦντος. Sinaiticus has, like the Recepta, ζωοποιοῦντος. Etymologically, of course, the words differ, but there is not much difference in the sense in this place.—E. H.]
[10]1Ti_6:16.—[I suggest the following translation of 1Ti_6:15-16 : Which in his own times the blessed and sole sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, (who) is dwelling in light inaccessible, whom no man (or, none amongst men) hath seen, or can see, shall shew. To whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.—E. H.]
[11]1Ti_6:17.—Instead of the usual ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι, the Sinaiticus has καιρῷ.
[12]1Ti_6:17.—This adjective is wanting in A. G., and others, and is omitted by Tischendorf. In D., and in the Sinaiticus, the article is wanting. [The Sinaiticus has ἐπί θεῷ; Lachmann, ἐπὶ τῷ Θεῷ. Tischendorf retains ἐν.—E. H.]
[13]1Ti_6:19.—Instead of αἰωνίου, we should read, with A. D.1 E. F. G., the Sinaiticus, and others, ὅντως. So Griesbach, in this place.
[14]1Ti_6:21.—Probably spurious.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4–11 He is proud--literally, "wrapt in smoke"; filled with the…
He is proud--literally, "wrapt in smoke"; filled with the fumes of self-conceit (Ti1 3:6) while "knowing nothing," namely, of the doctrine which is according to godliness (Ti1 6:3), though arrogating pre-eminent knowledge (Ti1 1:7).
doting about--literally, "sick about"; the opposite of "wholesome" (Ti1 6:3). Truth is not the center about which his investigations move, but mere word-strifes.
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questions--of controversy.
strifes of words--rather than about realities (Ti2 2:14). These stand with them instead of "godliness" and "wholesome words" (Ti1 6:3; Ti1 1:4; Tit 3:9).
evil surmisings--as to those who are of a different party from themselves.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv4–11 4. Proud—The Gnostics, or knowing ones, (see note, Act_11:19,)…
4. Proud—The Gnostics, or knowing ones, (see note, Act_11:19,) claimed to be the aristocracy of knowledge.
Knowing nothing—Although claiming, as Gnostics, to know every thing.
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Questions—Note 1Ti_1:4.
Strifes of words—Literally, logomachies; either where the words had no meaning, or the whole dispute was about a word. The evil tempers by this aroused, are next traced.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv4–11 4. he is proud, knowing nothing] ‘Puffed up,’ R.V.…
4. he is proud, knowing nothing] ‘Puffed up,’ R.V. The word occurs only here and 1Ti_3:6; 2Ti_3:4; and goes towards composing the strong vocabulary of the Epistles: ‘filled with a blind “inflated ignorance” ’ (to quote from Dr Farrar’s strong modern vocabulary) may represent the force. The perfect expresses the state in which he is; the particular negative his relative, not absolute, ignorance, according to the tendency of N. T. usage.
doting about questions] ‘Diseased’ or ‘mad’ on points of subtle disputation. The word in other writers has both meanings, and the opposition to ‘sound’ would hold equally good with both; but the moral responsibility for this state is clearly implied, and points rather to the former: ‘full of a diseased disputatiousness.’ For ‘questionings,’ see note on 1Ti_1:4.
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strifes of words] Our own derived ‘logomachies.’ The corresponding verb occurs 2Ti_2:14, ‘otherwise only in ecclesiastical writers,’ Alford.
railings] Clearly as in Eph_4:31, ‘anger, and clamour, and railing;’ Judges 9, ‘durst not bring against him a railing judgment,’ not blasphemy against God, but slanderous reviling of one another.
evil surmisings] Our ‘suspicions;’ this word again is new to N.T. usage. Altogether we have four peculiar words in this verse, puffed up, doting, strifes of words, surmisings, indicating the new region of the Church’s experience and of the Apostle’s feeling.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv4–11 (4) He is proud.—St. Paul, with righteous anger, flames…
(4) He is proud.—St. Paul, with righteous anger, flames out against these perverse men, who, using the name of Christ, substitute their short-sighted views of life for His, throw doubt and discredit upon the teaching of His chosen Apostles and servants, stir up discord, excite party spirit, barring, often hopelessly, the onward march of Christianity. The true Christian teaching is healthy, practical, capable of being carried out by all orders in the state, by every age or sex, by bond and free. The spurious Christian maxims of these men deal with subtle, useless, unpractical questions, which have no influence on ordinary life, and only tend to stir up strife and useless inquiry, and to make men discontented and rebellious. These unhappy men he first characterises as “proud:” literally, blinded with pride.
Knowing nothing.—Better rendered, yet without knowing anything; having no real conception of the office and work of Christ in the world.
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But doting about questions.—While so ignorant of the higher and more practical points of Christian theology, the false teacher is “mad upon” curious and debatable questions, such as the nature of the ever blessed Trinity; God’s purposes respecting those men who know not, have not even heard of the Redeemer; and the like—problems never to be solved by us while on earth—questions, the profitless debating of which has rent asunder whole churches, and individually has broken up old friendships, and sown the seeds of bitter irreconcilable hatred.
And strifes of words.—Verbal disputes, barren and idle controversies about words rather than things; such wild war as also has raged, not only in the days of Timothy and of St. Paul, but all through the Christian ages, on such words as Predestination, Election, Faith, Inspiration, Person, Regeneration, &c.
St. Paul was writing, then, in the spirit of the living God, and was warning no solitary pastor and friend at Ephesus of the weeds then springing up in that fair, newly-planted vineyard of his, but was addressing the Master’s servants in many vineyards and of many ages; was telling them what would meet them, what would mar and spoil their work, and in not a few cases would break their hearts with sorrow.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv4–11 Puffed up for proud, A.V; questionings for questions, A.V;…
Puffed up for proud, A.V; questionings for questions, A.V; disputes for strifes, A.V He is puffed up (tetufwtai); see; 1Ti_3:6, note. Doting (noswn) here only in the New Testament, but found occasionally in the LXX Applied in classical Greek to the mind and body, "to be in an unsound state." Here it means "having a morbid love of" or "going mad about." In this morbid love of questionings and disputes of words, they lose sight of all wholesome words and all godly doctrine. Questionings (zhthseiv seeav); 1Ti_1:6, note. It corresponds nearly to our word "controversies." Disputes of words (logomaci) found only here. The verb logomacew is used innoiai); 2Ti_2:14. Would that the Church had always remembered St. Paul"s pithy condemnation of unfruitful controversies about words! Surmisings (uJpo) only here in the New Testament. In classical Greek it means "suspicion," or any under-thought. The verb uJponoew occurs three times in the Acts deem, think, or suppose." Here the "surmisings" are those uncharitable insinuations in which angry controversialists indulge towards one another.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 9, 11 1Ti_6:3; 1Ti_6:5
1Ti_6:3; 1Ti_6:5
Wholesome words.
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Wholesome words
The opposite of wholesome in our common speech is that which tends to produce disease; but the opposite of the Greek word, of which this is a translation, is that which is already unsound or diseased. The thought of the apostle is, that there is nothing morbid or unhealthy about the words of Jesus. The words of the Lord are healthy, having nothing of the disproportion of monstrosity, or the colouring of disease about them; and therefore they are wholesome, so that all who believe and obey them become thereby stronger, nobler, and sounder in all the qualities of moral manhood. Now let us see how this statement of Paul may be verified and illustrated.
I. We may take first the matter of creed, and we shall find, when we come to investigate, that in this department the words of the Lord Jesus were distinguished by two qualities which mark them as pre-eminently healthy. The first of these is their positive character. The Lord was no mere dealer in negations. Dr. Samuel Johnson complained of Priestley, as a philosopher, that he unsettled everything and settled nothing; but no one can read the four Gospels without feeling that in meeting Jesus he has come into contact with One who speaks in the most positive manner. On subjects regarding which the wisest minds of antiquity were completely uncertain, He has the fullest assurance. We may wade through volumes of metaphysics, from those of Aristotle to those of Kant, without getting any distinct notion of God, but when we hear Jesus say, God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, we feel that God is a personal reality; and though Christ does not define the nature of spirit, yet when He speaks of God as thinking, loving, willing--His Father and ours--we understand Him better than the philosophers, though He penetrates to the depth of a nature which they had vainly sought to define. He has settled our minds upon the subject, not by argument, but by awakening in us the God-consciousness which is one of the instincts of our being, and so bringing us to say, It must be so, for I can rest in that. In like manner, when He enforces duty He evokes the conscience within us to a recognition of its responsibility. So, too, in reference to the future. He does not argue, He asserts with the speech of One who knows whereof He affirms, and forthwith the natural longing of the heart for immortality finds its craving satisfied, and settles in the certainty that dust thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul. Akin to this positive characteristic of the Saviours words concerning creed is the discouragement which they give to all indulgence in speculations about things which are merely curious, and have no bearing upon our character or conduct. Thus, when one of His disciples asked, Are there few that be saved? He declined to answer the question, and fixed the attention of His hearers on the vital and urgent matter of individual duty, saying, Strive ye to enter in at the strait gate, Everything that is profitless and without bearing on life and godliness He brands as unworthy of consideration or discussion, and all mere logomachies are unsparingly condemned by Him. Now in these two things you have the symptoms of mental and spiritual health. The man who accounts nothing certain never focuses his mind on anything; while he who runs after every sort of speculation, scatters his mind over everything. The one never gets ready to do anything; the other attempts so much that he really accomplishes nothing. Is it not, precisely, in these two respects that the unhealthiness of much of the thinking in our own age manifests itself?
II. But now, passing from the domain of creed to that of character, we are equally struck with the healthiness of the Saviours words in reference to that.
1. For in dealing with that subject He is careful to put supreme emphasis, not on that which is without, but on that which is within. He distinguishes between the head and the heart, and never confounds intellectual ability with moral greatness. Now the healthiness of all this is apparent at a glance, for it goes to the root of the matter, and only One who was Himself whole-hearted could thus have prescribed for diseased humanity.
2. Again, in reference to character, the healthiness of the Saviours words appears in that He insists, not on asceticism in any one particular, but on full-rounded holiness. He does not require the eradication of any one principle of our nature, but rather the consecration of them all.
3. But looking now, to the department of conduct, we have in that another equally striking exemplification of the healthiness of the words of the Lord Jesus. He was very far from giving any countenance to the idea that religion is a thing only of sentiment. He insisted, indeed, as we have seen, on the importance of faith in the great central doctrines; and He was equally emphatic in declaring the innerness of holiness. But He dwelt on both of these only that He might the more effectually reach that conduct which one has called three-fourths of life.
4. But another illustration of the healthiness of Christs words in regard to conduct may be seen in the absence of all minute and specific details. He lays down great principles, leaving it to the conscience of the individual to make the application of these to the incidents and occasions of life as they arise. The words of Christ are not like the directions on a finger-pest at a crossing, or the indicators of the cardinal points upon a spire, which are of service only in the places where they are set up; but rather like a pocket compass, which, rightly used and understood, will give a man his bearings anywhere. Nothing so educates a man into weakness and helplessness as to be told in every emergency precisely what he must do. That makes for him a moral go-cart, outside of which he is not able to stand, and the consequence is that he can never be depended upon. If the teacher shows the pupil how to work each individual sum, he will never make him proficient in arithmetic. The man who is continually asking himself, as to his food, what he shall eat and what he shall drink and what he shall avoid, is either a dyspeptic or a valetudinarian. He is not healthy. And in like manner, he who in the domain of morals is continually inquiring of somebody, may I do this? may I go thither? or must I refrain from that? has never rightly comprehended the healthiness of Christs words, and is far from having attained the strength which they are calculated to foster. Here is the great law, Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
A contrast between true and false teaching
At the close of the second verse Paul urges Timothy not to be silent, but to teach and exhort the Christians in Ephesus on the subject in slavery.
I. The wholesomeness of Christs teaching. The apostle speaks of wholesome words, a translation which we prefer to that given in the Revised Version (sound words), because it conveys the idea of imparting health to men and to society. Christs teaching is the ozone of the moral atmosphere.
1. It concerned itself with practical questions. The Sermon on the Mount (which is the chief specimen given us of His teaching) proves this to demonstration. As Jesus Himself put it: a candle was not lighted by Him in order to be looked at or talked about; but that it might give light to all that were in the house. In other words, the Christian religion is to be used rather than to be discussed, and is meant to throw light upon all the obscurities of lifes pathway until it leads up to the light of heaven.
2. His teaching was embodied in His perfect life. This made it the more helpful. These slaves, for example, to whom the apostle had been speaking, wanted to know what they were to do under the provocations and hardships of their lot. And nothing could help them more than the knowledge of Him whose gentleness was never at fault; who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.
3. His teaching, tended, to the increase of godliness. The doctrine which is according to godliness, means the teaching which makes men more like God--in holiness and righteousness and love. But in sharp contrast with this is presented--
II. the unwholesomeness of false teaching, the effects of which were visible in the character of those who accepted and taught it.
1. Self-sufficiency was written on the forehead of each of them. As Paul says, He is proud, literally carried away with conceit, knowing nothing. A footman is generally more awe-inspiring than his master. And this was true of pretentious teachers in Pauls days, of whom he says they are carried away with conceit.
2. Love of verbal disputes was another characteristic of theirs. The word translated doting indicates a distempered and sickly condition, which turns away from the wholesome food of the gospel; just as a child with a poor appetite refuses bread-and-butter, and can only daintily pick and choose among delicacies, and the more he has of them the worse his appetite becomes. It is a bad sign when society has unwholesome appetites, caring more for art than for truth--more for manner than for matter; for these are signs of decadence such as preceded the fall of the Roman empire.
3. A carnal appetite was displayed by these opponents of our Lords wholesome words. Our translation, supposing that gain is godliness, is incorrect and misleading. No one supposes, or ever supposed, that worldly gain is godliness, or leads to it; but many in all ages have been guilty of what Paul suggests, namely, of using godliness as a way of gain. In other words, these men, corrupted as they were in mind, in the whole inner life, and bereft of the truth, only professed the Christian faith so far as it was serviceable to their worldly interests. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
Supposing that gain is godliness.--
Gain not godliness
That men are greatly exposed to embrace the absurd doctrine that virtue exists in utility.
I. I am to explain the meaning of the doctrine that virtue consists is utility. This sentiment has been maintained by those who believe, as well as by those who disbelieve Divine revelation. The turning point is utility. Intention is of no farther value than as it leads to utility: it is the means, and not the end. The result of this part of the subject is, that those persons have been grossly mistaken, who taught that virtue was to be pursued for its own sake. Virtue is upon no other account valuable, than as it is the instrument of the most exquisite pleasure. All who suppose that virtue consists in utility, agree in maintaining that virtue has no intrinsic excellence, as an end, but only a relative excellence, as a means to promote the only ultimate end in nature, that is, happiness. Since happiness is, in their view, the supreme good, and misery the supreme evil, they conclude that the whole duty of men consists in pursuing happiness, and avoiding misery. Upon this single principle, that virtue wholly consists in its tendency to promote natural good, in distinction from natural evil, Godwin has founded a scheme of sentiments which, carried into practice, would subvert all morality, religion and government.
II. I proceed to demonstrate the absurdity of supposing that gain is godliness, or that virtue essentially consists in utility. This sentiment is not only false, but absurd, because it contradicts the plainest dictates of reason and conscience.
1. To suppose that virtue consists in utility, is to suppose that virtue may be predicated of inanimate objects. These have a natural tendency, in various ways, to promote human happiness. The mode in which a man is made subservient is by inducement and persuasion. But both are equally the affair of necessity. The man differs from the knife as the iron candlestick differs from the brass one; he has one more way of being acted upon. This additional way in man is motive, in the candlestick it is magnetism. Such is the natural and avowed consequence of the doctrine, that virtue consists in utility. It necessarily implies that mere material objects may be really virtuous; and some material objects may have more virtue than the most benevolent of the human race.
2. To suppose that virtue consists in utility, is to suppose that virtue may be predicated of the mere animal creation. It is no less absurd to ascribe virtue to the utility of animals than to ascribe virtue to a refreshing shower, or a fruitful field.
3. To suppose that virtue consists in utility, is to suppose that men may be virtuous, without any intention to do good. They certainly may be very useful, without having utility in view. Men are every day performing actions which have a tendency to promote that public good which lies beyond all their views and intentions. But the doctrine under consideration places all virtue in the tendency of an action, and not in the intention of the actor. Intention is of no farther value than as it leads to utility. This is stripping moral virtue of every moral quality, which is a gross absurdity.
4. To suppose that virtue consists in utility, is to suppose that men may be virtuous in acting, not only without any intention, but from a positively bad intention. If the virtue of an action consists altogether in its tendency, it may be as virtuous when it flows from a bad intention as when it flows from a good intention, or from no intention at all. The intention of an agent does not alter the tendency of his action. A man may do that from a good intention, which has a tendency to do evil; or he may do that from a bad intention, which has a tendency to do good. Some actions done from the worst intentions have been the most beneficial to mankind. Be it so, that no malevolent action has a natural or direct tendency to promote happiness; yet if virtue consists in utility the good effect of a malevolent action is just as virtuous as the good effect of a benevolent one. For the doctrine we are considering places all virtue in the tendency of an action, and not in the intention of the agent.
5. To suppose that virtue consists in utility, is to suppose that there is nothing right nor wrong in the nature of things, but that virtue and vice depend entirely upon mere accidental and mutable circumstances. There are certain relations which men bear to each other, and which they bear to our Creator, which create obligations that never can be violated without committing a moral crime.
6. To suppose that virtue consists in utility is to suppose that there is nothing in the universe intrinsically good or evil but happiness and misery.
7. To suppose that virtue consists in utility is to suppose that there is really no such thing as either virtue or vice in the world. If the actions of free agents are either good or evil, solely on account of their tendency to promote either pleasure or pain, then nothing can be predicated of them but advantage or disadvantage. Actions which promote happiness may be denominated advantageous, but not virtuous; and actions which produce misery may be denominated disadvantageous, but not vicious.
III. Men are greatly exposed to embrace it. This the apostle plainly intimates, by exhorting Timothy to withdraw himself from those who supposed that gain is godliness.
1. From the resemblance which this error hears to the truth, though it be diametrically opposite to it. Those who maintain that virtue consists in utility, represent it under the alluring name of universal philanthropy, which is an imposing appellation. They pretend that happiness is the supreme good, and virtue solely consists in promoting it to the highest degree. They insinuate that this philanthropy directly tends to diffuse universal happiness, and to raise human nature to a state of perfection in this life.
2. The danger will appear greater if we consider by whom this pleasing and plausible error is disseminated. It is taught by grave divines, in their moral and religious treatises and public discourses. Law and Paley have been mentioned as placing the whole of virtue in utility. Dr. Brown, in his remarks upon the Earl of Shaftesburys characteristics, maintains that virtue consists in its tendency to promote individual happiness.
3. There is a strong propensity in human nature to believe any other scheme of moral and religious sentiments, than that which is according to godliness. Men naturally love happiness, and as naturally hate holiness. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
A mercenary motive
A Christian lady in America, who has earnestly and prayerfully laboured to carry the gospel to the Mongolian laundrymen around her, at length succeeded in getting one of them to attend Sunday school and church regularly. The man was attentive and well-behaved, and the lady had great hopes of him. She tried to interest others in his welfare, too, and induced her friends to patronise his laundry. Visiting him at his home a few days ago, she received a warm welcome. John gave her to understand that he enjoyed very much attending the Sunday school, information that was exceedingly gratifying. Anxious, however, to receive more practical demonstration of the influence of the school upon him, she asked him if he did not think it did him good. Yi, yi! came the convincing response, washee fol le whole conglogation. The Chinamans idea of getting good is not an uncommon one; unhappily, it is the motive of many a church connection.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v5 Chapter 17
Chapter 17
THE GAIN OF A LOVE OF GODLINESS, AND THE UNGODLINESS OF A LOVE OF GAIN. - 1Ti_6:5-7; 1Ti_6:17-19
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IT is evident that the subject of avarice is much in the Apostles mind during the writing of the last portion of this Epistle. He comes upon it here in connection with the teachers of false doctrine, and speaks strongly on the subject. Then he writes what appears to be a solemn conclusion to the letter (1Ti_6:11-16). And then, as if he was oppressed by the danger of large possessions as promoting an avaricious spirit, he charges Timothy to warn the wealthy against the folly and wickedness of selfish hoarding. He, as it were, reopens his letter in order to add this charge, and then writes a second conclusion. He cannot feel happy until he has driven home this lesson about the right way of making gain, and the right way of laying up treasure. It is such a common heresy, and such a fatal one, to believe that gold is wealth, and that wealth is the chief good.
"Wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth." That is how St. Paul describes the "dissidence of dissent," as it was known to him by grievous experience. There were men who had once been in possession of a sound mind, whereby to recognize and grasp the truth; and they had grasped the truth, and for a time retained it. But they had "given heed to seducing spirits," and had allowed themselves to be robbed of both these treasures, - not only the truth, but the mental power of appreciating the truth. And what had they in the place of what they had lost? Incessant contentions among themselves. Having lost the truth, they had no longer any center of agreement. Error is manifold and its paths are labyrinthine. When two minds desert the truth there is no reason why they should remain in harmony any more; and each has a right to believe that his own substitute for the truth is the only one worth considering. As proof that their soundness of mind is gone, and that they are far away from the truth, St. Paul states the fact that they suppose that godliness is a way of gain.
It is well known that the scholars whose labors during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries produced at last the Authorized Version, were not masters of the force of the Greek article. Its uses had not yet been analyzed in the thorough way in which they have been analyzed in the present century. Perhaps the text before us is the most remarkable among the numerous errors which are the result of this imperfect knowledge. It seems so strange that those who perpetrated it were not puzzled by their own mistake, and that their perplexity did not put them right. What kind of people could they have been who "supposed that gain was godliness?" Did such an idea ever before enter the head of any person? And if it did, could he have retained it? People have devoted their whole souls to gain, and have worshipped it as if it were Divine. But no man ever yet believed, or acted as if he believed, that gain was godliness. To make money-getting a substitute for religion, in allowing it to become the one absorbing occupation of mind and body, is one thing-to believe it to be religion is quite another.
But what St. Paul says of the opinions of these perverted men is exactly the converse of this: not that they supposed "gain to be godliness," but that they supposed "godliness to be a means of gain." They considered godliness, or rather the "form of godliness" which was all that they really possessed, to be a profitable investment. Christianity to them was a "profession" in the mercantile sense, and a profession that paid: and they embarked upon it, just as they would upon any other speculation which offered equally good hopes of being remunerative.
The Apostle takes up this perverted and mean view of religion, and shows that in a higher sense it is perfectly true. Just as Caiaphas; while meaning to express a base and cold-blooded policy of expediency, had given utterance to a profound truth about Christ, so these false teachers had got hold of principles which could be formulated so as to express a profound truth about Christs religion. There is a very real sense in which godliness (genuine godliness and not the mere externals of it) is even in this world a fruitful source of gain. Honesty, so long as it be not practiced merely as a policy, is the best policy. "Righteousness exalteth a nation": it invariably pays in the long run. And so "Godliness with contentment is great gain." They suppose that godliness is a good investment:-in quite a different sense from that which they have in their minds, it really is so. And the reason of this is manifest.
It has already been shown that "godliness is profitable for all things." It makes a man a better master, a better servant, a better citizen, and both in mind and body a healthier and therefore a stronger man. Above all it makes him a happier man; for it gives him that which is the foundation of all happiness in this life, and the foretaste of happiness in the world to come, - a good conscience. A possession of such value as this cannot be otherwise than great gain: especially if it be united, as it probably will be united, with contentment. It is in the nature of the godly man to be content with what God has given him. But godliness and contentment are not identical; and therefore, in order to make his meaning quite clear the Apostle says not merely "godliness," but "godliness with contentment." Either of these qualities far exceeds in value the profitable investment which the false teachers saw in the profession of godliness. They found that it paid; that it had a tendency to advance their wordly interests. But, after all, even mere worldly wealth does not consist in the abundance of the things which a man possesses. That man is well off who has as much as he wants; and that man is rich who has more than he wants. Wealth cannot be measured by any absolute standard. We cannot name an income to rise above which is riches, and to fall below which is poverty. Nor is it enough to take into account the unavoidable calls which are made upon the mans purse, in order to know whether he is well off or not: we must also know something of his desires. When all legitimate claims have been discharged, is he satisfied with what remains for his own use? Is he contented? If he is, then he is indeed well to do. If he is not, then the chief element of wealth is still lacking to him.
The Apostle goes on to enforce the truth of the statement that even in this world godliness with contentment is a most valuable possession, far superior to a large income: and to urge that, even from the point of view of earthly prosperity and happiness, those people make a fatal mistake who devote themselves to the accumulation of wealth, without placing any check upon their growing and tormenting desires, and without knowing how to make a good use of the wealth which they are accumulating. With a view to enforce all this he repeats two well-known and indisputable propositions: "We brought nothing into the world" and "We can carry nothing out." As to the words which connect these two propositions in the original Greek, there seems to be some primitive error which we cannot now correct with any certainty. We are not sure whether one proposition is given as a reason for accepting the other, and, if so, which is premise and which is conclusion. But this is of no moment. Each statement singly has been abundantly proved by the experience of mankind, and no one would be likely to dispute either. One of the earliest books ill human literature has them as its opening moral. "Naked came I out of my mothers womb, and naked shall I return thither," are Jobs words in the day of his utter ruin; and they have been assented to by millions of hearts ever since.
"We brought nothing into the world." What right then have we to be discontented with what has since been given to us? "We can take nothing out." What folly, therefore, to spend all our time in amassing wealth, which at the time of our departure we shall be obliged to leave behind us! There is the case against avarice in a nutshell. Never contented. Never knowing what it is to rest and be thankful.
Always nervously anxious about the preservation of what has been gained, and laboriously toiling in order to augment it. What a contrast to the godly man, who has found true independence in a trustful dependence upon the God Whom he serves! Godliness with contentment is indeed great gain.
There is perhaps no more striking example of the incorrigible perversity of human nature than the fact that, in spite of all experience to the contrary, generation after generation continues to look upon mere wealth as the thing best worth striving after. Century after century we find men telling us, often with much emphasis and bitterness, that great possessions are an imposture, that they promise happiness and never give it. And yet those very men continue to devote their whole energies to the retention and increase of their possessions: or, if they do not, they hardly ever succeed in convincing others that happiness is not to be found in such things. If they could succeed, there would be far more contented, and therefore far more happy people in the world than can be found at present. It is chiefly the desire for greater temporal advantages than we have at present that makes us discontented. We should be a long way on the road to contentment, if we could thoroughly convince ourselves that what are commonly called temporal advantages such as large possessions, rank, power, honors, and the like-are on the whole not advantages; that they more often detract from this worlds joys than augment them, while they are always a serious danger, and sometimes a grievous impediment, in reference to the joys of the world to come.
What man of wealth and position does not feel day by day the worries and anxieties and obligations which his riches and rank impose upon him? Does he not often wish that he could retire to some cottage and there live quietly on a few hundreds a year, and sometimes even seriously think of doing it. But at other times he fancies that his unrest and disquiet are owing to his not having enough. If he could only have some thousands a year added to his present income, then he would cease to be anxious about the future; he could afford to lose some and still have sufficient. If he could only attain to a higher position in society, then he would feel secure from detraction or serious downfall; he would be able to treat with unconcerned neglect the criticisms which are now such a source of annoyance to him. And in most cases this latter view prevails. What determines his conduct is not the well-grounded suspicion that he already has more than is good for him; that it is his abundance which is destroying his peace of mind; but a baseless conviction that an increase of the gifts of this world will win for him the happiness that he has failed to secure. The experience of the past rarely destroys this fallacy. He knows that his enjoyment of life has not increased with his fortune. Perhaps he can see clearly that he was a happier man when he possessed much less. But, nevertheless, he still cherishes the belief that with a few things more he would be contented, and for those few things more he continues to slave. There is no man in this world that has not found out over and over again that success, even the most complete success, in the attainment of any worldly desire, however innocent or laudable, does not bring the permanent satisfaction which was anticipated.
Sooner or later the feeling of satiety, and therefore of disappointment, must set in. And of all the countless thousands who have had this experience, how few there are who have been able to draw the right conclusion, and to act upon it!
And when we take into account the difficulties and dangers which a large increase in the things of this world places in the way of our advance towards moral and spiritual perfection, we have a still stronger case against the fallacy that increase of wealth brings an increase in well-being. The care of the things which we possess takes up thought and time, which could be far more happily employed on nobler objects; and it leads us gradually into the practical conviction that these nobler objects, which have so continually to be neglected in order to make room for other cares, are really of less importance. It is impossible to go on ignoring the claims which intellectual and spiritual exercises have upon our attention without becoming less alive to those claims. We become, not contented, but self-sufficient in the worst sense. We acquiesce in the low and narrow aims which a devotion to worldly advancement has imposed upon us. We habitually act as if there were no other life but this one; and consequently we cease to take much interest in the other life beyond the grave; while even as regards the things of this world our interests become confined to those objects which can gratify our absorbing desire for financial prosperity.
Nor does the mischief done to our best moral and spiritual interests end here; especially if we are what the world calls successful. The man who steadily devotes himself to the advancement of his worldly position, and who succeeds in a very marked way in raising himself, is likely to acquire in the process a kind of brutal self-confidence, very detrimental to his character. He started with nothing, and he now has a fortune. He was once a shop-boy, and he is now a country gentleman. And he has done it all by his own shrewdness, energy, and perseverance. The result is that he makes no account of Providence, and very little of the far greater merits of less conspicuously successful men. A contempt for men and things that would have given him a higher view of this life, and some idea of a better life, is the penalty which he pays for his disastrous prosperity.
But his case is one of the most hopeless, whose desire for worldly advantages has settled down into a mere love of money. The worldly man, whose leading ambition is to rise to a more prominent place in society, to outshine his neighbors in the appointments of his house and in the splendor of his entertainments, to be of importance on all public occasions, and the like, is morally in a far less desperate condition than the miser. There is no vice more deadening to every noble and tender feeling than avarice. It is capable of extinguishing all mercy, all pity, all natural affection. It can make the claims of the suffering and sorrowful, even when they are combined with those of an old friend, or a wife, or a child, fall on deaf ears. It can banish from the heart not only all love, but all shame and self-respect. What does the miser care for the execrations of outraged society, so long as he can keep his gold? There is no heartless or mean act, and very often no deed of fraud or violence, from which he will shrink in order to augment or preserve his hoards. Assuredly the Apostle is right when he calls the love of money a "root of all kinds of evil." There is no iniquity to which it does not form one of the nearest roads. Every criminal who wants an accomplice can have the avaricious man as his helper, if he only bids high enough.
And note that, unlike almost every other vice, it never loses its hold: its deadly grip is never for an instant relaxed. The selfish man can at a crisis become self-sacrificing, at any rate for a time. The sensualist has his moments when his nobler nature gets the better of his passions, and he spares those whom he thought to make his victims. The drunkard can sometimes be lured by affection or innocent enjoyments to forego the gratification of his craving. And there are times when even pride, that watchful and subtle foe, sleeps at its post and suffers humble thoughts to enter. But the demon avarice never slumbers, and is never off its guard. When it has once taken full possession of a mans heart, neither love, nor pity, nor shame, can ever surprise it into an act of generosity. We all of us have our impulses; and however little we may act upon them, we are conscious that some of our impulses are generous. Some of the worst of us could lay claim to as much as that. But the misers nature is poisoned at its very source. Even his impulses are tainted. Sights and sounds which make other hardened sinners at least wish to help, if only to relieve their own distress at such pitiful things, make him instinctively tighten his purse-strings. Gold is his god; and there is no god who exacts from his worshippers such undivided and unceasing devotion. Family, friends, country, comfort, health, and honor must all be sacrificed at its shrine. Certainly the lust for gold is one of those "foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition."
In wealthy Ephesus, with its abundant commerce, the desire to be rich was a common passion; and St. Paul feared-perhaps he knew-that in the Church in Ephesus the mischief was present and increasing. Hence this earnest reiteration of strong warnings against it. Hence the reopening of the letter in order to tell Timothy to charge the rich not to be self-confident and arrogant, not to trust in the wealth which may fail them, but in the God Who cannot do so; and to remind them that the only way to make riches secure is to give them to God and to His work. The wealthy heathen in Ephesus were accustomed to deposit their treasures with "the great goddess Diana," whose temple was both a sanctuary and a bank. Let Christian merchants deposit theirs with God by being "rich in good works"; so that when He called them to Himself, they might receive their own with usury, and "lay hold on the life which is life indeed."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv4–11 4. He is proud. The idea is that he…
4. He is proud. The idea is that he is blinded with pride, so that he really knows nothing. Doting. Morbidly dwelling upon foolish questions. He no doubt refers to foolish disputes which had been sprung upon the church by heretical teachers.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv6, 9, 11 1Ti_6:7. We brought nothing into this world.—Compare Job_1:21. It…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Ti_6:7. We brought nothing into this world.—Compare Job_1:21. It is not safe to say St. Paul is quoting here. All times and peoples have such sayings.
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1Ti_6:8. Let us be therewith content.—R.V. margin, “in these we shall have enough.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Ti_6:6-8
Godliness the Highest Gain—
I. Because it ensures the supply of absolute necessities.—“Having food and raiment let us be therewith content” (1Ti_6:8). Our real wants are few. What do we need more than food and covering? They who fear the Lord have the promise of sustenance (Isa_33:16; Psa_37:3). The godly are under the special care of the Divine Universal Provider.
II. Because it promotes a spirit of contentment.—“Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1Ti_6:6). Godliness is a great means of gain—not of that gain which breeds discontent in its covetous pursuit, but the present and eternal gain which piety brings to the soul. Godliness is gain when it is accompanied with the contentment it inspires. It not only feels no need of what it has not, but also has that which exalts it above what it has not. Godliness is its own sufficiency, and satisfies every want of the complex nature of man. Godliness, even with affliction, is great gain. A minister recovering from a dangerous illness confessed, “This six weeks’ illness has taught me more divinity than all my past studies and all my ten years’ ministry put together.”
III. Because the contentment accompanying true godliness is independent of worldly possessions (1Ti_6:7).—Godliness reminds us of the condition in which we entered the world, and in which we shall leave it. We brought nothing with us; we shall take nothing away. If we have little, we are taught to be content with that little; if we have much, we are taught how fragile is our hold upon our possessions—not to set our hearts upon them, but use them as stewards who must give an account to the Giver of all good. Richard Boyle, the great Earl of Cork, outlived most of those who had known the meanness of his beginning. He never forgot it himself, but took pains to preserve the memory of it to posterity in the motto he always used, and which he caused to be placed on his tomb: “God’s providence is my inheritance.”
Lessons.—
1. Our spiritual gains are our truest wealth.
2. Contentment is a special endowment of godliness.
3. The godly man makes the best of both worlds.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ti_6:6-8. The Cultivation of Christian Contentment.
I. Godliness is itself a gain.—
1. Because it is a satisfying reality.
2. Because it gives us the highest pleasures of which we are capable.
II. Godliness with contentment is great gain.—
1. Contentment is the outcome of godliness.
2. Reasons for cultivating Christian contentment.
(1) We have nothing (1Ti_6:7).
(2) We have need of nothing (1Ti_6:8).
(3) We are in danger of being entangled by striving after earthly things (1Ti_6:9-10).
3. The advantages of cultivating Christian contentment.
(1) It will protect us from the temptation to become rich anyhow.
(2) It will shield us from avarice.
(3) It will teach us to acquire spiritual riches.
(4) It will gladden the brief space of our earthly probation.—Lay Preacher.
1Ti_6:6. Contentment.
I. The text presents us with a bride.—“Godliness.”
II. A bridesmaid.—“Contentment.”
III. Her great dowry.—“Great gain.”
IV. The present payment.—“Godliness with contentment is great gain.”
1. What the world counts gain is loss.
2. What the world counts loss is gain.—T. Fuller.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v7 7. “We brought nothing into the world, because we…
ARGUMENT 16
THE DANGER OF RICHES
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7. “We brought nothing into the world, because we are not able to carry anything out.”
8. “Having food and raiment, we shall be content with these.” I am sorry for my rich friends. They are slaves to their possessions. O how free I am, possessing nothing!—still get as much as the rich. I am as sure of a coffin and shroud as they are.
9. “Those wishing to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many injurious and hurtful lusts, which drown people in destruction and perdition.” Could you uncap hell, and hear the mournful wails of the countless millions who have been drowned in the bottomless abyss of unquenchable fire through the allurements of riches, you would surrender forever your cherished aspirations after wealth. I knew a man, already rich, to kill his own dear brothers, and appropriate their part of the estate.
What will not fallen man do for money? Nothing but entire sanctification can make you as dead to money as to oyster shells. Hence, you are never safe without it. Satan is watching for a chance to throw the lasso of money love about your neck.
10. “For the love of money is a root to all evils.” “The root of all evil,” E.V., is not in harmony with the Greek, nor with the facts of universal observation. Many evils come from other sources than the love of money, and are really antagonistical to it; e.g., drunkenness and debauchery, which, instead of loving money, entail swift bankruptcy in earth and hell. “Which certain ones seeking after have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” The love of money is a wooden horse carrying Satan’s Greeks into the Churches of the present day. Why all these projects, causing wholesale apostasy? It is to get money, scandalizing the Christian’s God as if he were poor, when he is so rich that he needs none of these things. Preachers and people thus backslide together, hunting money. It ruined poor Judas, and nearly ruined Jacob. Look out, preacher, lest you prove a follower of Judas. You do not need any of these money-raising fandangoes. God’s ravens are not all dead. God open your eyes to see your members going to hell in platoons! You need a revival, instead of a festival.
11. “O man of God, fly from these things!” What things? Doctrinal heresies—i.e., all anti-holiness teaching; for godliness is everything—and from the love of money. Be God’s freeman, and not man’s hireling. Good Lord, give us the spirit of Elijah, who stood alone for God! “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, Divine love, patience, and meekness.” Let us appropriate these beautiful graces in their perfection!
12. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” When the sinner is not willing to be led captive by the devil at his will, he fights his own fight, and gets whipped all the time. When converted, it becomes a partnership fight between him and Jesus. But when he gets sanctified, then he fights the fight of faith alone, sweetly resting in the arms of Jesus, and shouting all the time over the victory which he receives by faith, even in anticipation; meanwhile Jesus does all the fighting for him, and gives him an everlasting victory. “Lay hold on eternal life.” Timothy was gloriously saved and sanctified long before this was written, and, of course, had the life of God in his soul. Yet he was still on probation, and liable to forfeit that life by apostasy; so Paul exhorts him to “lay hold on eternal life;” evidently, as we see from the context, referring to his admission into heaven at the end of probation. A man does not “lay hold on” what he already possesses. Hence, there was a sense in which Timothy did not then possess eternal life. What is that sense? Why, he did not at that time posses it in a non-forfeitable sense. There are no non-forfeitable blessings here. Let us take God’s Word as it is, and not trust to our creed, or trust that of another. This Scripture is decisive on this question. Lord, save us from controversy and creedism, make us to receive thy plain Word as the umpire in every case, and never bring our poor little ratiocinaton against thy ipse dixit!
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v11 (See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
righteousness
(See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv6, 11 The Sin of Avarice and Its Results.
The Sin of Avarice and Its Results.
v. 6. But godliness with contentment is great gain.
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v. 7. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
v. 8. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.
v. 9. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
v. 10. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
At the opening of this paragraph, Paul arranges to obviate a misunderstanding, as though Christianity were under no circumstances a source of gain: But a great gain indeed is godliness with contentment, with the feeling of possessing all that one needs. Piety does indeed result in a gain, and one that is far more excellent than that which the errorists had in mind. It is a characteristic of godliness that this virtue offers a real gain only in connection with such an attitude of satisfaction with one’s lot as places its hope and confidence in the Lord and His providence, Psa 37:5; Pro 30:8; Mat 6:33.
The first reason adduced by the apostle in support of his statement is that taken from the transitory character of this world’s goods: For nothing it was that we brought into this world; that we also can bring nothing away (who will doubt?). That is the common, the general human experience. Not only without money and goods, but in absolute nakedness man is born into the world, Job 1:21. And no matter how much he may earn and gain during this short life, no matter how greedily he may seek the things of this world, he can take nothing along with him into eternity, Psa 49:17; Luk 12:15-21. All the money and goods of this present life are thus transitory in character; they can be our property at best for only a short time, take them along with us we cannot: why, then, strive after that which cannot bring lasting satisfaction?
The second reason of the apostle in support of his statement warning against dissatisfaction and avarice: But having food and raiment, with these let us be content. The actual needs of a man are really much smaller than he himself usually is willing to believe. If he is in possession of that which keeps him alive from day to day; if he has the simplest foods to eat and water to drink; if he can cover his nakedness against heat and cold; if he has some form of shelter against the inclemencies of the weather, then he is in possession of those factors which he needs for the sustaining of his life. Christians that realize the truth of these facts will therefore gladly heed the admonition to be content with this measure of God’s goodness and bounty, especially since they have the promise that they will always have what they need for the support and wants of the body, Mat 6:33-34.
The apostle furthermore refers to the danger connected with the possession of many goods of this world: They, however, that desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many senseless and pernicious lusts, which drown the people in ruin and destruction. Note that Paul does not condemn riches in themselves, not the fact that a person is rich, his having received an unusual amount of God’s blessings, although it remains true that such people are exposed to very great temptations. He is speaking of such as make it their object and goal to be rich at all costs, that have no other interest in the world than to heap up riches to themselves. People of this kind deliberately court temptation and therefore find little difficulty in finding it; in fact, they readily fall into temptation, they find cause and inspiration for many sins, they find many sins beckoning them on to which they, in their former less prosperous state, never gave a second thought. Following the lure of riches, they fall into the snares of sins, of intemperance, of dissipation, of voluptuousness, and many other vices. Every new day provides further food for the lust of their heart and eyes; with ever greater eagerness they strive after the flimsy hollowness of this world’s gifts. Foolish the apostle calls these desires, since they take away all decent reasoning, all moral common sense, causing people to be drowned, to be dragged down into ruin and destruction, into moral and spiritual bankruptcy. So immeasurably deep is this perdition that it includes bodily ruin as well as intellectual, spiritual, and eternal condemnation. At present all the nations of the world seem to have been caught in the vortex of a wild whirlpool, as the mania for amusements and luxuries indicates all too plainly.
In conclusion, the apostle characterizes this insane desire for money: For a root of all evils is the eagerness for money, which some coveting after have erred from the faith and have transfixed themselves with many sorrows. So dangerous is avarice, the love of money, the desire for riches, that St. Paul expressly says there is no evil in the world which cannot grow and receive its nourishment from this terrible vice. Every sin in the Decalogue may directly or indirectly be traced back to avarice. Those are the fruits which a person harvests if he permits this root to obtain a firm hold in his heart. From his experience of many years, gained in many countries, the apostle is able to add that such people as did covet after money, as did desire it with all the eagerness of their foolish mind, lost the spiritual life given to them by faith with this gift itself. They have gone aside, they have erred from the right way. They may not have felt the danger of the situation at first, but the more their love for money grew, the more their love for their neighbor, for Christ, was stifled. They made Mammon their god, and that god made them unhappy. They are plagued with many sorrows and restless thoughts, not only thoughts of remorse, but also internal torments of various kinds: worry for the future, apprehension for the safety of all the money and goods that they have accumulated, fear on account of the uncertainty of investments. Thus Paul characterizes the foolishness, the sinfulness, the damnableness of the love of money. All the more should Christians be found willing to heed his warning and to flee the vice of covetousness.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6, 9, 11 This marks a break in the teaching. Here Paul…
Now
This marks a break in the teaching. Here Paul begins to contrast the kind of riches the wicked people seek through godliness (1 Timothy 6:5) and the true kind of gain people receive through godliness. AT: "Of course"
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godliness with contentment is great gain
The words "godliness" and "contentment" are abstract nouns. AT: "it is great gain for a person to do what is godly and to be content with what they have" (See: Abstract Nouns)
is great gain
"provides great benefits" or "does many good things for us"
brought nothing into the world
"brought nothing into the world when we were born"
Neither are we able to take out anything
"And we can take nothing out of the world when we die"
let us
"we should"
translationWords
godly
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 5, 6, 11 6:4 This stirs up arguments: This is the same…
6:4 This stirs up arguments: This is the same problem as in 1:4 (see also 2 Tim 2:23-24; Titus 3:9).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.