he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, 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.
Pride and Ignorance Travel Together
The verse opens with a man puffed up. Commentators tie that swelling to how little he knows.
F. B. HoleThe 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.
Hamilton SmithThe 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.
Narrow Knowledge That Puffs Up
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.
William KellyWe 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.
A Sickness, Not a Study
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.
William KellyListen 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.
F. B. HoleVerse 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.
The Crop That Grows From It
Paul lists four evils that come "out of" these word-battles, and they follow one another in order.
Hamilton SmithThe 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."
Morrish Bible DictionaryIn 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.
The Safeguard
If pride is the root, the answer is not more argument but a truer estimate of oneself.
William KellySelf-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.
Summary
- 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.