Scripture Daily

Context No. 2855 of 4322 · 1 Timothy

Context · Reflection

1 Timothy 6:1-5: in context

1Let as many as are bondservants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and the doctrine not be blasphemed. 2Those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brothers, but rather let them serve them, because those who partake of the benefit are believing and beloved. Teach and exhort these things. 3If anyone teaches a different doctrine and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, 4he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil suspicions, 5constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.

Paul instructs servants to honor their masters so that God's name and teaching are not brought into disrepute, and those with believing masters to serve them all the more, not less. Then he turns to a certain kind of false teacher: someone who rejects sound words, puffed up and understanding nothing, with a craving for controversy and word-battles that breed envy, strife, and suspicion.

The phrase that exposes them is sharp: they imagine that godliness is a means of gain. They have turned faith into a tool for profit and status, and it shows in their appetite for quarrels over truth. Paul's warning is worth keeping close, because the temptation is not only theirs. The test of a teacher, and of my own heart, is partly what we are actually after: God himself, or what we can get by appearing godly.

Do I ever treat godliness as a means to something else I really want, rather than as its own reward in knowing God?

Sources