1 Timothy · chapter 6 of 6
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1 Timothy 6 teaches that slaves should honor their masters, denounces false teachers who use godliness as a means of gain and affirms that godliness with contentment is great gain, while the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Paul calls Timothy, a man of God, to flee evil, pursue righteousness and fight the good fight, and gives instructions to the rich so that they may be generous.
The last chapter gathers the final themes of the letter: work and authority, the danger of money and the perseverance of the minister. Paul returns to the false teachers of chapter 1 and shows their root: the desire for gain. Against it he sets simplicity, generosity and hope placed in God.
Paul asks that slaves regard their masters as worthy of honor, so that the name of God may not be reviled, and that they serve believing masters all the better. Anyone who teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ is puffed up with conceit, with a craving for quarrels about words that produce envy, strife and evil suspicions, and he imagines that godliness is a means of gain.
But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and cannot take anything out; with food and clothing we will be content. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, a snare and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils, and some, by longing for it, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
But as for you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession before Pontius Pilate, Paul charges him to keep the commandment unstained until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will display, the blessed and only Sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords. The rich are charged not to be haughty or set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on God, and to be generous and rich in good works. Paul closes by asking Timothy to guard what was entrusted to him and avoid what is falsely called knowledge.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world and will take nothing out, so food and clothing are enough to be content. Paul invites us to measure life by what lasts, not by what we accumulate.
The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by longing for it some have wandered from the faith. Paul does not say money is evil or that it is the only root, but that loving it displaces God and wounds the one who loves it.
Timothy must fight the good fight of the faith and take hold of the eternal life to which he was called. The Christian life is a struggle, but it is fought with the certainty of having been called and of having confessed Christ before witnesses.
The rich are commanded not to be haughty or to trust the uncertainty of riches, but God, and to be generous and rich in good works. Paul does not condemn wealth itself: he subordinates it to God and to service.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: That it is great gain. — 1 Timothy 6:6
Answer: We brought nothing and can take nothing out. — 1 Timothy 6:7
Answer: The love of money. — 1 Timothy 6:10
Answer: Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness and gentleness. — 1 Timothy 6:11
Answer: Before Pontius Pilate. — 1 Timothy 6:13
Answer: Not be haughty or trust in riches, but trust God; do good and be generous. — 1 Timothy 6:17-18
The question of this chapter is what we count as gain. A group can talk about what it would look like to live content with food and clothing, in a culture that invites us to want more. It can help to write down three things to thank God for without comparing ourselves with anyone.
Paul does not only warn those who want to get rich, but gives those who already have resources a path: generosity, good works and hope in God. Anyone, with much or little, can choose a concrete way to share this week. And the call to fight the good fight reminds us that this is done with perseverance and with our eyes on Christ.
With the warning about money, the call to fight and the final blessing, the first letter to Timothy ends. Paul will keep encouraging his coworker in a second letter, written from prison and near the end of his own life.
No: it says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Money itself is a resource that can be used for good or ill. The problem is making it the object of trust and desire, which leads to wandering from the faith and to suffering.
Paul instructs those who lived as slaves in the first century so that their conduct would not discredit the gospel. He does not present slavery as an ideal or justify it. In other letters, such as Philemon, he teaches that in Christ the slave is a brother, which undermines the logic of slavery.
It probably refers to a supposedly superior knowledge that some taught in Ephesus, with speculations foreign to the gospel. Paul asks Timothy to avoid it and guard the deposit, that is, the apostolic truth entrusted to him.