1 Timothy 6:2

rather dothem service Better, serve them the rather, all the more zealously.

partakers of the benefit The article with the participle is clearly subject; and the mastersare certainly meant. But then divergence arises, Bp Wordsworth making both masters and slaves the benefactors: -they (i.e. the masters) who take part in the mutual good offices (between masters and slaves) are believing and beloved." He quotes from Thucyd. ii. 61 for this sense of the verb -to take hold of with a view to mutual assistance." Conybeare and Lewin make the slaves the benefactors, quoting from Arist. Ran. 777 for the verb -they who claim their slaves" services." Grimm, following Chrysostom and Grotius, makes the masters the benefactors, quoting from LXX. Isaiah 26:3 for the verb -they who devote themselves to the kindly care of their slaves." So far as the usage of the verb in N. T. goes -to help" -to succour," and also of the noun -the good deed" (to the impotent man), Acts 4:9 and LXX., the help of the weaker by the stronger is suggested, and so the last view is borne out. Compare too the significant use of the connected noun -benefactor," in Luke 22:25, -they that have authority over them are called benefactors." Is St Paul using a recognised synonym honoris causafor -lordship," and, with all the delicate grace natural to the writer of the Epistle to Philemon, lifting it to the height of Christian love? -Bid them serve their masters all the better. Masters did I say? Nay; own and requite the faith, the love, that makes them set it as their aim to be not Masters, no Brothers of Blessing."

Thesethings teach and exhort The words have more weight if held to close the whole section from 1 Timothy 5:1 than if thought merely to refer to 1 Timothy 6:1-2.