and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
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?
How the quarrelling starts
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:
Hamilton SmithSuch 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:
Leslie M. GrantBut 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.
What the last clause says
The older King James wording, "gain is godliness," reverses the Greek. One commentator settles the grammar:
William KellyThere 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:
F. B. HoleThe 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.
An old accusation
The idea that nobody serves God for nothing is not new. Satan raised it long ago about a man named Job:
Hamilton SmithThe 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.
The respectable version of the same error
Few people today would say out loud that religion should pay. So the error changes clothes:
F. B. HoleSo 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.
"From such withdraw yourself"
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:
G. V. WigramThe 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:
Leslie M. GrantTimothy 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.
Summary
- 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.