1 Timothy 6:8

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 translators, have taken it in an imperative sense, which the future sometimes undoubtedly bears (Winer Gr. § 43. 5). But here it is best to retain the original form, as the apostle is indicating what, on the condition supposed, should be regarded as a fact. The two words employed in the conditional clause διατροφὰς and σκεπάσματα occur only here in the New Testament; and though the latter has sometimes been taken in the more general sense of covering, so as to include our dwellings as well as our clothes, yet the other is the more natural, as the apostle is speaking simply of what is proper to the individual man to his proper life and being. In this sense it is taken by the ancient expositors, and is found also in Josephus ( Wars, ii. 8. 5) and other writers (see in Robinson's Lex.). If one, therefore, has these two essentials for the bodily life, more may be dispensed with; nature has the little it can do with; whatever besides is given may be thankfully received and found available to usefulness and comfort only, not necessary.