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.
constant quarrellings of men corrupted in mind and destitute of the truth, holding gain to be [the end of] piety.
Verse 5 closes a chain that begins with pride over words and ends with men who treat religion as a way to make money. Paul is describing teachers here, and the verse forces one question: what is godliness for?
The friction in this verse is not an accident of temperament. One writer traces the whole sequence in verses 4 and 5 back to a single root, showing how each evil breeds the next:
Such disputes of words do not strengthen piety. They only give the works of the flesh a chance to show. Pride seeks to exalt self by these endless questions, and it must lead to "envy". The proud man can put up with no rival. The flesh strives against the one it envies. So envy leads to strife, and striving against another leads to "injurious words" about him. When a man learns that "injurious words" have been spoken about him, "evil suspicions" and "constant quarrellings" follow. Such is the evil crop that arises from envy. There is no greater power for evil among the saints of God than the allowance of envy in the heart.
Another writer names the cause. The quarrelling comes out of what these men already are:
But they are skilled at manipulating and wrangling — noisy quarreling — because their minds are corrupted. The truth is foreign to them. They are empty, yet they hold that material gain is godliness.
The older King James wording, "gain is godliness," reverses the Greek. One commentator settles the grammar:
There need be no question about the last clause. Even apart from the next verse and the context, the Greek phrase here will not carry the meaning the authorised version gives it. The Greek article requires "that godliness is gain," not the reverse.
So these men are not calling wealth holy. They are treating holiness as a business plan — godliness held as a means to profit. The next verse answers that inversion:
The truth is that God, not gain, is the end of godliness. Yet the Apostle adds a striking word: "godliness with contentment is great gain." To walk as in the presence of the living God, with simple trust in His goodness and a contented heart, is very great gain of a spiritual kind.
The idea that nobody serves God for nothing is not new. Satan raised it long ago about a man named Job:
The motive behind such men is earthly gain, so they hold that "gain" is the end of piety. In other words, they teach that Christianity is only a way to improve our condition and add to our worldly advantage. From the history of Job we know that this is a suggestion of the devil. Job was a pious man who feared God. But Satan asks, "Does Job fear God for nothing?" His vile suggestion is that no such thing as godliness exists. If a man professes piety, it is not that he fears God or cares for God. He simply knows it pays and works to his worldly advantage.
Few people today would say out loud that religion should pay. So the error changes clothes:
So here was an outbreak of "the leaven of Herod" — a deliberate move to make Christianity a matter of worldly profit. Today the leaven of Herod is hard at work. Many are quite ready to condemn the idea that personal or private gain is the end of godliness. Yet they would loudly applaud the idea that SOCIAL gain is the end of godliness. "Other-worldliness" they detest. "This-worldliness" they delight in. For them, religion is nothing more than an easier, more comfortable world, built on better social conditions and world peace.
Older Bibles close verse 5 with a command to withdraw. The ESV leaves it out. Commentators differ over whether the words belong there. One judges the clause a later addition (William Kelly). Another says the sense stays the same with or without them:
The words "from such withdraw yourself" are not in the better manuscripts. The word used is APHISTEEMI — "withdraw, depart from, refrain from." Adding it would not change the sense.
Either way, the instruction has a narrow target:
Timothy is told to withdraw from such men. He must not give them the satisfaction of an argument; he is to leave them alone. Paul means the teachers of these things, not those they might mislead — for the sheep need protection.
- Pride starts it. Pride cannot bear a rival, so it fights over words. Envy, strife, slander, suspicion and constant friction all grow from that one root.
- Corruption spreads it. Corrupt minds drive the arguing. The truth is foreign to these men, so their teaching is empty.
- Gain replaces God. The Greek says they hold godliness to be a means of gain. The correction is that God, not profit, is the end of godliness.
- Satan authored it. "Does Job fear God for nothing?" is the same charge — that nobody worships God except for what it pays.
- Withdrawal answers it. The remedy is not to win the argument but to leave the teachers alone and protect those they would mislead.
But piety with contentment *is* great gain.
Paul has just described people who treat religion as a business. They imagine that being religious is a way to get rich. Here he takes their own word "gain" and turns it back on them. So what counts as real profit? And why must contentment go with godliness?
The idea Paul is answering is that a person is only godly for what he can get out of it.
The truth is that God, not gain, is the goal of godliness. Yet the Apostle strikingly adds, "godliness with contentment is great gain." To walk as in the presence of the living God, trusting His goodness with a contented heart, is very great gain of a spiritual kind.
Some translations use the word "piety" here. It points to a settled attitude toward God, not a religious pose.
Piety is confidence in the living God we know. That confidence leads the believer to walk in the holy fear of God through every circumstance of life. It recognises and honours God. So it is the very opposite of a show of holiness that seeks to exalt self.
Another writer spells out what that looks like day by day:
Now godliness means being conscious of God. It means living under the eye of God. It means having God as the trust and the glory of our hearts. Godliness like that, with the contentment that flows from it, is great gain.
Paul does not praise contentment by itself. Pagan writers already praised it, and praising it is not the same as living it.
Contentment on its own is not enough. By itself it would be no more than a heathen idea. In fact, plenty of pagan writers put it beautifully. But we may fear this was more what they could see a man ought to be than what they actually lived out day by day. The Stoics, who used such language most, were hard men rather than happy ones.
So the two words come in a fixed order, and the second grows out of the first.
Contentment alone could not be this great gain, for it would then be something the flesh glories in. Godliness must come first, and be the root cause of contentment. Paul was himself a true example of this.
Contentment like this rests on who does the giving — and the withholding. One writer has just pictured a polished knife put out of reach.
Earthly possessions are like that polished knife. If someone else has them, it is so they may be used for the glory of God. If God puts them beyond your reach, it is because they would hurt you if you had them. So let your heart be happy and contented. God is your Father, and He knows what is best for you. "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?"
Paul goes on to name the opposite of contentment. The danger is not the size of a bank balance but the direction of the will.
Wealth has its snares, as the Apostle shows a little later. But owning wealth does not necessarily ruin the soul. What ruins it is the "desire to be rich," and this word "desire" carries the idea of purpose. The danger is that the believer, instead of being content to earn his living, may set himself with purpose of heart to be rich. So riches become an object instead of the Lord.
This is not a theory to admire but a question to answer about your own ambitions.
I have to ask myself — and this time we cannot dodge these practical questions — am I going to be content to accept what God allots me as coming from His hand? Am I willing not to make it my great aim to become something other than I am, or to reach higher or greater things than I have? If so, that is great gain.
- Gain reversed. The false teachers made godliness a way to get rich. Paul answers that God, not gain, is the goal of godliness — and then calls godliness with contentment the great gain.
- Root first. Godliness comes first and produces contentment. On its own, contentment is something the flesh boasts in. Pagan writers praised it and were hard rather than happy men.
- Confidence, not pose. Godliness is confidence in the living God, carried into every circumstance. It is the opposite of a show of holiness that exalts self.
- Withheld in love. Contentment rests on the Father's wisdom. What He puts out of your reach, He keeps back because it would hurt you.
- The one thief. Owning things does not cancel the gain. Setting your purpose on being rich does, and it makes riches the object instead of the Lord.