If any one teach differently, and do not accede to sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching which [is] according to piety,
Paul has just told Timothy what to teach about masters and servants. Now he turns to the person who refuses that teaching. His test is not clever speech. It is agreement with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and with teaching that fits godliness.
The teaching in question was practical. It was about how a believing slave should treat his master.
It seems that in those early days there were people who taught otherwise. They saw Christianity as only a way to improve people's social conditions and make this world a better, brighter place. They were probably teaching that a converted slave now came under the Lordship of Christ. So he could think of himself as free from his master on earth. Such views, however, were contrary to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching which is according to piety.
Some readers find Paul's tone here hard. One writer weighs it and finds it just.
Some may think it strange that the apostle speaks so firmly to Timothy. But weigh the moral judgment of this very sober servant of the Lord, made under the direct power of the inspiring Spirit. No one who fears God will accuse him of undue severity. Yet he condemns without reserve any man who taught a different teaching from what has been laid down. To undermine the relation of a servant to a master was wicked in his eyes. It was no less wicked because fine pretexts and high-sounding professions were put forward. The duty of submission flows from the relationship itself. The faith of those involved strengthens that duty; it does not relax it.
What makes teaching "sound"?
The word translated "sound" occurs again and again. It is the word from which we get "hygienic," so often on people's lips today. It means healthful. Sound doctrine really is teaching that makes for spiritual health.
Owning a Bible is not the same as holding these words.
We are custodians of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and they are written here. But it is not enough to own a copy of the whole Scriptures. We need the sound and healthful words of our Lord Jesus Christ and His servants in our hearts. They have the power to keep us from evil. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ never become corrupt, because they are, as they are called here, "sound words."
The verse does not only commend healthy teaching. It names whose words they are.
What the Lord Jesus spoke carried the character of grace, truth and wisdom, and people marvelled at it. That was not all. He was a divine Person, so the very form of language His blessed words took was divinely perfect. Language with Him was what it could not be with anyone else. It was the means by which He perfectly conveyed what He wished to communicate.
So refusing these words is no small difference of opinion.
Think what it is to be a sinner who owes every mercy to grace in Christ. Would such a person dare to keep on in direct opposition to His words? He is the Lord of all and the appointed Judge of the living and the dead. Would anyone be so satisfied with his own theories and arguments that he despises what the apostle says — that such teaching cannot stand with what is according to godliness?
But what does godliness itself mean?
Piety is confidence in the known and living God. That confidence leads the believer to walk in the holy fear of God through all the circumstances of life. It recognises and honours God. So it is the very opposite of the show of holiness that seeks to exalt self.
Truth and godliness cannot be pulled apart.
The Holy Spirit will not allow that "godliness", or Christian piety, can exist without the truth. Nor will He allow that the truth can be received in the love of it without producing godliness. The truth means living Godward.
What is such a teacher like inside?
The man who teaches otherwise is "puffed up": his own self-importance has inflated him. He has not learned self-judgment. He has never seen himself in the light of the cross of Christ, as a sinner condemned and worthless. He is "sick about questions and strifes of words." He has no spiritual health. He may love to argue about the logic and virtue of human rights, but he ignores the rights of God.
- Sound — "sound" means healthful. This teaching builds spiritual health, and it never becomes corrupt.
- His — the healthy words belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. His language was divinely perfect. To oppose them is to oppose the Judge of the living and the dead.
- Godward — teaching "according to godliness" grows confidence in the living God. It leads to a walk in holy fear, not a show of self.
- Tested — truth received in love always produces godliness. So weigh a teaching by the life it grows.
- Puffed up — the man who refuses is swollen with self-importance. He fights over words and human rights, and ignores the rights of God.
he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but sick about questions and disputes of words, out of which arise envy, strife, injurious words, evil suspicions,
Paul has just described teachers who refuse the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 3). Now he shows what such a man is on the inside: pride, ignorance, and an endless appetite for argument.
The verse opens with a man puffed up. Commentators tie that swelling to how little he knows.
The Apostle writes very plainly about these opponents. He unmasks their true character. They were marked by pride and ignorance. How often these two things go together! The less a man knows of God and of himself the more he imagines he has something to boast in. The true knowledge of God and of himself at once dispels his pride.
That pride is not a small flaw beside otherwise sound teaching. It is the exact opposite of piety.
The Apostle has shown that piety is the safeguard against the abuse of Christianity. Now he states that the one who teaches otherwise is moved by the pride of the flesh. Pride trusts in self and works to keep up its own importance. Piety trusts in God and seeks His glory. The two are complete opposites.
The man Paul describes may be full of information. What he lacks is the whole truth. A narrow slice of it, held proudly, is what inflates him.
We are sanctified by the truth, not by a truth. But human one-sidedness is only the knowledge that puffs up. It always boasts that its own measure is all that is worth hearing, and it boasts all the more the narrower it is... Partial views are only "knowledge." They tend to feed the self-importance that values only those who agree with self. Such a man looks down on believers who know less — and even on those who are better taught and hold to the truth without reserve.
Kelly quotes an older translation here, which reads sick about questions. He takes it as mental activity running with no conscience and no heart behind it.
Listen to how the apostle whips the offender: "He is puffed up, knowing nothing, but sick about questionings and word-disputes." Is it not a true likeness of a mind at work without conscience or heart?
Such a man never runs out of questions. Once the Lord's word settles nothing, nothing can be settled.
Verse 4 also makes plain the effect of rejecting the authority of the Lord. Questions and strifes of words come to the fore. This of course is inevitable. Once a man sets the Lord's authority aside, it all becomes a question of opinion. And if so, one man's opinion is as good as another. Arguments and word-battles can then run on almost endlessly, and all kinds of envy and strife flourish.
Paul lists four evils that come "out of" these word-battles, and they follow one another in order.
The pride that seeks to exalt self by these endless questions must inevitably lead to "envy", for the proud man can bear no rival. Naturally the flesh will strive against the one it envies. So envy leads to strife, and striving against another will lead to "injurious words" about him. When people learn that "injurious words" are being spoken, "evil suspicions" and constant quarrelling follow. Such is the evil crop that arises from envy... It was envy that led to the first murder in this world; and it was envy that led to the greatest murder in this world. Pilate "knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up" (Matthew 27:18).
The word behind "slander" here is the one usually translated "blasphemy."
In Scripture this word does not always mean speaking evil of God, though that is the only way we use the word today. Translators render the same Greek word as 'railing' in 1 Timothy 6:4 and Jude 9, and 'evil speaking' in Ephesians 4:31. It could well be translated that way in other places too.
If pride is the root, the answer is not more argument but a truer estimate of oneself.
Self-judgment keeps us best. It keeps us aware of our own smallness and in love to all the saints. It keeps us from being puffed up in self-satisfaction and contempt for other believers generally... Whatever its form, this evil betrays its foreign source and nature by its plain neglect of the teaching that is according to piety.
- Pride starts it. Refusing the Lord's words leaves a man swollen with self-importance. Pride and ignorance grow together: the less he knows of God and of himself, the more he thinks he has to boast about.
- Pride blinds it. "Knowing nothing" describes a man who may hold real information. But he holds only a narrow slice of it, and a narrow slice only puffs up.
- Pride sickens it. He is not studying; he is sick about questions — a mind working without conscience or heart. Once the Lord's authority is set aside, every opinion is as good as another, so the arguing never ends.
- Pride spreads it. The proud man can bear no rival. So envy breeds strife, strife breeds abusive words, and abusive words breed suspicion and constant quarrelling. The word for "slander" is the one usually translated "blasphemy."
- Self-judgment cures it. Seeing our own smallness keeps us in love toward all believers. The true test of any teaching is whether it produces godliness or neglects it.