2 Timothy 3:5

having a form of godliness The word for -form" is strictly -formation," its ending implying process rather than result, the producing of the form; hence in Romans 2:20 -thou hast the ideally perfect presentation of knowledge and truth." -The Jew believed that he had in the law the sole embodiment, the forming, of knowledge and truth, that he could give to knowledge and truth their right form, and so was the proper teacher of the world." Gifford. So here holding to a presentment of godliness; full -profession" though there is little enough of the substance; -still making out that there is the real nature of godliness." The stress lies on the making out, the representation, whether as here the inner reality is absent or as Romans 2:20 present. Similarly -a professor of divinity" is credited with exhibiting real truth and knowledge; not so -a religious professor." Compare too our Lord's -I will profess to you I never knew you," Matthew 7:23, with the account of -the defiled and unbelieving" who -profess that they know God, but by their works they deny him," Titus 1:16. The Greek word for -form," of which our word is the causative process, means -embodied substance," standing between -unclothed essence" and -unsubstantial appearance"; see Lightfoot, Revision of N.T. p. 77.

denying the power thereof The power lies in the production of -works" as in Titus 1:16. Cf. Bp Bull -to deny the power of godliness is for a man by indecent and vicious actions to contradict his outward show or profession of godliness" Serm. xv. p. 376 (Oxf. 1846). The force of the perfect pass, participle is noted 2 Timothy 2:25 living in denial of its power.

from such turn away The conjunction emphasises the -such," but not without affecting also the verb turn away," cf. 2 Timothy 3:9; -offenders of the first degree try to win back; but from these men, hardened in error, make it your habit to turn away," see 2 Timothy 3:1. In harmony with this direction is the conduct of St John at Ephesus some 10 or 15 years later, according to the tradition. -John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bathhouse without bathing, crying out, "Let us fly, lest even the bathhouse fall on us, because Cerinthus the enemy of the truth is within" (Iren. iii. iii. 4). Epiphanius substitutes Ebion for Cerinthus. Both Cerinthus and the Ebionites denied the reality of the Incarnation." Plummer, St John(Gosp.), Introduction, p. 15.