CHAPTER VI Ver. 1. _Whoever are under the yoke as bond-servants, let them reckon their own masters worthy of all honour._ The rendering in the Authorized Version, “as many servants as are under the yoke,” gives not an incorrect impression of the meaning to an English reader; but it does so merely fr... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 2. But supposing the masters themselves had embraced the gospel, and master and slave stood on the common footing of brethren in Christ, were those under the yoke still to be held bound to esteem and honour the masters who so held them? Should not the old relations in such a case rather give wa... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 3. _If any one teacheth other doctrine, and does not assent to sound words, those [namely] of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the instruction that is according to godliness._ This description of the false teacher incidentally arose out of the charge in the immediately preceding clause, to teach and... [ Continue Reading ]
Vers. 4, 5. Here follows the result, in a didactic point of view, of the person who so turns aside from the right course of instruction: _he is carried with conceit_ (or besotted with pride; see at 1 Timothy 3:6), _knowing nothing_ (that is, having no right sense or apprehension of anything), _dotin... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 6. _But godliness with contentment is great gain:_ the true, in contrast to the fancied or false. It is the mark of a base disposition to cultivate godliness for the sake merely of the temporal gain it may yield; but there is, at the same time, a real and most important temporal gain connected... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 7. A reason is here given for the preceding statement, that the real good for man lies in what he is as a rational and moral being, not in the outward means and possessions he may gather into his lot: _for we brought nothing into the world, because neither are we able to take anything out of it... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 8. _But_ (δὲ, contrasting the avaricious desires of some with what we actually need) _if we have food and raiment, with these we shall be satisfied,_ or have sufficient; ἀρκεσθησόμεθα, fut. pass., we shall be sufficed, have all that we really need. Many, after Luther, among others our translato... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 9. _But they who aim at being rich_ (the opposite class of characters to the preceding, having their hearts set upon the superfluities of life, large possessions), such persons get into a perilous, and what usually becomes a downward and ruinous course: first, they _fall into temptation_ that i... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 10. _For a root of all evils is the love of money_ or simply, root of all evils. Putting it in the latter way, the exact counterpart of the original, which also gives prominence to the term _root_, as the apostle undoubtedly meant, we might evade the question whether, if an article were employe... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 11. _But thou, O man of God, flee these things;_ different in character and aims, let your course be also different. The designation _man of God_ was in ancient times in frequent use for prophet, because standing in a peculiarly close relation to God, acting as His representative and spokesman... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 12. _Maintain the good contest of the faith_ literally, contend the good contest; but this does not quite accord with English usage; and I deem it better to depart a little from the precise form of the original, than to use an unsuitable combination of words, or convey a wrong impression. This... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 13. The mention of that confession or witness-bearing which had been made by Timothy seems to have suggested to the apostle's mind another and still higher act of the same kind, which he interweaves in a solemn appeal and charge to Timothy: _I charge thee before God, who preserveth alive_ (The... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 14. Here follows the thing charged upon Timothy: _that thou keep the commandment spotless and unrebukeable until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ._ Various shades of meaning have been put upon _the commandment_ (τὴν ἐντολὴν) which Timothy was enjoined to observe or keep. As there is noth... [ Continue Reading ]
Vers. 15, 16. These verses begin with a more particular description of the expected appearance of Christ in its relation to God, and then run out into a doxology, celebrating the incomparable greatness and glory of God. This Baur and others would regard as a protest against the semi-polytheism or du... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 17. The apostle here again reverts to the subject of riches, but now under a different aspect, with reference not to those who made wealth their idol, and were ready to sacrifice principle and character for its attainment, but to such as, having acquired riches, still retain their Christianity,... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 18. Here we have in one or two particulars the positive aspect of rich men's duties: _that they do good_ (ἀγαθοεργεῖν), _that they he rich in excellent deeds_ (ἐν ἔργοις καλοῖς, deeds inherently noble and praiseworthy), _free in distributing, ready to communicate_ (or, as Alford puts it, _free-... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 19. The description is here wound up by a word which very strikingly exhibits the connection between such a course of action on earth and its issues in eternity: _treasuring_ up (ἀποθησαυρίζοντες, off from what would otherwise be lost, and so _up_) _for themselves a good foundation for the futu... [ Continue Reading ]
Vers. 20-22. The conclusion, containing another very earnest charge to fidelity: O _Timothy, keep the deposit_ (τὴν παραθήκην, used again in 2Ti 1:12, 2 Timothy 1:14, and each time with the same verb). What deposit? Neither here nor in the other two passages in which the word is employed, first with... [ Continue Reading ]