Instruction about slaves
6
📚As many slaves as are still under the yoke must count their masters worthy of complete respect, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed 📖. 2 📚And those who have believing masters, should not regard them lightly because they are brethren 📖, but rather serve them, because those who are benefitted are believers and loved 📖. Teach and encourage these things.6:2 Christian servants or slaves thinking that their believing masters were kind and merciful might try to take advantage of them and not do their work properly. This sort of thing is unworthy of any Christian in any job.⚜
Instruction about false teachers
3 📚If any man teaches otherwise 📖, and does not consent to wholesome words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the teaching that is according to godliness, 4 📚he is proud, understanding nothing, but has a morbid interest 📖 in debates and quarrels about words, from which come envy, strife, abusive language, evil conjectures, 5 📚and empty disputations from men of corrupt minds 📖 who are destitute of the truth 📖 and suppose that financial gain is godliness. Keep away from such people.
Contentment with what one has
6 📚But godliness with contentment is great gain.
6:6 Phil 4:11-12; Heb 13:5. Christ’s believers should desire to be rich not in material things but in spiritual. Only in these is their eternal benefit (Matt 6:19-21). Contentment is the result of confidence and trust in God. The way to contentment is believing that God has put us in the place and position and circumstances He knows are best for us and has given us what He knows we should have, neither more nor less.
Contentment will keep us from complaining, and from going after greedy desires (which are the same as idolatry – Eph 5:5; Col 3:5). It will keep us from allowing material things to rule us. Contentment is a very important quality in a servant of Christ. Refusing to be contented is the same as criticizing God’s ways and His behavior toward us. It leads to the sin of murmuring against God. Compare Ex 14:11-12; 15:22-24; 16:2-3, 8; Num 14:3.⚜
7 📚For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
6:7 Job 1:21; Ps 49:16-20; Eccl 5:15. During our time on this earth the only things we can store up are the things we send to heaven before us (Matt 6:19-21).⚜
8 📚So having food and clothing let us be content with that.
6:8 Paul means the things that are really essential to life. Here he does not even speak of a house of one’s own – possibly because one can live his whole life on earth without owning a house.⚜
The danger of loving money
9 📚But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful desires which drown men in destruction and ruin.
6:9 People (including some Christians) may think that running after money is a very wise thing to do. But such people are terribly deceived, and are in the way that leads to destruction. Desire for riches is a trap laid by the devil, a temptation he puts to ruin us. This desire never brings contentment, but only increases as possessions increase and at last it leads to destruction (Matt 7:13; 2 Thess 1:8-9; Ps 49:20; 73:18-19). Consider some Bible examples of this – Balaam (2 Pet 2:15), Gehazi (2 Kings 5:20-27), Judas (Matt 26:14-16; John 12:4-6). Do we want to end up as they did? If not, let us not permit desires like theirs to rule us.⚜
10 📚For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. Some while coveting it have gone astray from the faith 📖, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows 📖.
6:10 The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil because it turns us away from God and spiritual matters to material things, and lets them have power over us. See Matt 6:22-24. Love of money is actually hatred toward God. If we keep the command in Matt 22:37 there will be no room in our hearts for the love of money. On the other hand if we allow the love of money to possess us there will be no room in our hearts for the love of God. One of the sins (possibly the principal sin) that made Judas Iscariot like a demon was the love of money (John 6:70-71; 12:6; Matt 26:14-16). If we have any spiritual understanding, any sense at all, will we want to follow that path?⚜
What believers should pursue
11 📚But you, O man of God, flee from these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness.
6:11 Every servant of Christ, every believer must flee from the temptation to go after money and property. If they do not they are likely to fall into the trap of the devil (v 9). Let every one of us turn our back to all of that and go after the true riches Paul speaks of here – the fruit of God’s Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). If we do so we will not need to worry about the necessities of life (Matt 6:33; Phil 4:19), and will have contentment along with them.⚜
Fighting the good fight of faith
12 📚Fight the good fight 📖 of faith, lay hold 📖 on eternal life 📖, to which also you were called, and have made a good confession 📖 in the presence of many witnesses. 13 📚I charge you in the sight of God who gives life 📖 to all things, and in the presence of Christ Jesus who, standing before Pontius Pilate 📖, gave witness in a good confession, 14 📚that you keep this command 📖 without spot, blamelessly, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ 📖,
The King of kings and Lord of lords
15 📚which in his own time 📖 he will reveal. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 📚who alone has immortality, dwelling in the light 📖 which no man can approach, whom no man has seen or can see. To him be eternal honour and power. Amen.
Commands for the rich
17 📚Command those who are rich in this world not to be arrogant, and not to trust in uncertain riches 📖, but in the living God, who gives us richly 📖 all things to enjoy 📖.
18 📚Command them to do good, and to be rich in good deeds 📖, ready to give, willing to share 📖, 19 📚and so storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
Things for Timothy to avoid