6 All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. 2 Those who have believing masters should not show them disrespect just because they are fellow believers. Instead, they should serve them even better because their masters are dear to them as fellow believers and are devoted to the welfare [Or and benefit from the service ] of their slaves.
False Teachers and the Love of Money
These are the things you are to teach and insist on. 3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Final Charge to Timothy
11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, 21 which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith.
Grace be with you all.
NOTES:
The notes include these quotations from the New American Bible (Revised Edition) NAB with our own commentaries in [open close parenthesis]
6:1–2 Compare the tables for household duties, such as that
of Col 3:18–4:1. Domestic relationships derive new meaning from the Christian
faith.
6:1 Our teaching: this refers to the teaching of the Christian
community.
6:2b–10 Timothy is exhorted to maintain steadfastly the
position outlined in this letter, not allowing himself to be pressured into any
other course. He must realize those false teachers can be discerned by their
pride, envy, quarrelsomeness, and greed for material gain. 1 Tm 6:6 is rather
obscure and is interpreted, and therefore translated, variously. The suggestion
seems to be that the important gain that religion brings is spiritual, but that
there is material gain, too, up to the point of what is needed for physical
sustenance (cf. 1 Tm 6:17–19).
6:6 Contentment: the word autarkeia is a technical Greek the philosophical term for the virtue of independence from material goods
(Aristotle, Cynics, Stoics).
6:11–16 Timothy’s position demands total dedication to God
and faultless witness to Christ (1 Tm 6:11–14) operating from an awareness,
through faith, of the coming revelation in Jesus of the invisible God (1 Tm
6:15–16).
6:11 Man of God: a title applied to Moses and the prophets
(Dt 33:1; 1 Sm 2:27; 1 Kgs 12:22; 13:1; etc.).
6:17–19 Timothy is directed to instruct the rich, advising
them to make good use of their wealth by aiding the poor.
6:20–21 A final solemn warning against the heretical
teachers, with what seems to be a specific reference to Gnosticism, the great
rival and enemy of the church for two centuries and more (the Greek word for
“knowledge” is gnōsis). If Gnosticism is being referred to here, it is probable
that the warnings against “speculations” and “myths and genealogies” (cf. especially
1 Tm 1:4; Ti 3:9) involve allusions to that same kind of heresy. Characteristic
of the various gnostic systems of speculation was an elaborate mythology of
innumerable superhuman intermediaries, on a descending scale (“genealogies”),
between God and the world. Thus would be explained the emphasis upon Christ’s
being the one mediator (as in 1 Tm 2:5). Although fully developed Gnosticism
belonged to the second and later centuries, there are signs that incipient
forms of it belonged to Paul’s own period.
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