What do the apostle's words mean: "to be godly and content"? Content with what? One's own godliness? Other people? Everything in the world? And what, in fact, is godliness? The corresponding Greek word, as well as the Hebrew word it implies, means first of all...
What do the apostle's words mean: "to be godly and content"? Content with what? One's own godliness? Other people? Everything in the world? And what, in fact, is godliness? The corresponding Greek word, as well as the Hebrew word it implies, means first of all what we sometimes call fear of God.
Of course, one can fear God for different reasons. Many fear Him only out of fear of punishment, whether in this life or after death. The corresponding Greek word suggests rather what we today would call sacred awe, the awe caused not by fear of punishment but by the presence of Someone infinitely higher and better than any person, even the most wonderful one, who moreover loves us as no human being can, although we do not deserve such love at all; in God's presence this becomes especially clear.
It is not accidental that the Greek word translated as "godliness" corresponds to a Hebrew word whose meaning is connected with the concept of merciful love, a love that is always ready to do more for a person than he deserves. Without such love of God for the human person none of us would have any hope of salvation, and without our answering love for Him the Kingdom would be closed to us forever.
Such godliness, inseparable from love and sacred awe, can be considered the foundation of spiritual life. But no human being will be able either to acquire or to preserve anything like it if his life is accompanied by constant discontent. The corresponding Greek word means "self-sufficiency."
The issue is not such self-sufficiency in which a person needs no one except "his beloved self": neither God nor people. It is the ability to be content with what one has, without attaching special importance to it, what the apostle expressed in another of his letters with the words, "I know how to live in abundance, and I know how to live in need."
Even before Christ came into the world, such a skill was considered a necessary condition of righteous life; otherwise a person's righteousness would depend on his material situation. For Christian life this was all the more necessary: here, in any circumstance and condition, the Kingdom had to be first, and only then everything else. Thus the apostle describes in two words everything necessary for Christian life and for salvation.
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6:1 Let servants under the yoke - Of heathen masters. Account them worthy of all honour - All the honour due from a servant to a master.Lest the name of God and his doctrine be blasphemed - As it surely will, if they do otherwise.
6:2 Let them not despise them - Pay them the less honour or obedience. Because they are brethren - And in that respect on a level with them. They that live in a religious community know the danger of this; and that greater grace is requisite to bear with the faults of a brother, than of an infidel, or man of the world. But rather do them service - Serve them so much the more diligently. Because they are joint partakers of the great benefit - Salvation. These things - Paul, the aged, gives young Timotheus a charge to dwell upon practical holiness. Less experienced teachers are apt to neglect the superstructure, whilst they lay the foundation; but of so great importance did St. Paul see it to enforce obedience to Christ, as well as to preach faith in his blood, that, after strongly urging the life of faith on professors, he even adds another charge for the strict observance of it.
6:3 If any teach otherwise - Than strict practical holiness in all Its branches. And consent not to sound words - Literally, healthful words; words that have no taint of falsehood, or tendency to encourage sin. And the doctrine which is after godliness - Exquisitely contrived to answer all the ends, and secure every interest, of real piety.
6:4 He is puffed up - Which is the cause of his not consenting to the doctrine which is after inward, practical religion. By this mark we may know them. Knowing nothing - As he ought to know. Sick of questions - Doatinglyy fond of dispute; an evil, but common, disease; especially where practice is forgotten. Such, indeed, contend earnestly for singular phrases, and favourite points of their own. Everything else, however, like the preaching of Christ and his apostles, is all "law," and "bondage," and "carnal reasoning." Strifes ofwords - Merely verbal controversies. Whereof cometh envy - Of the gifts and success of others. Contention - For the pre - eminence.Such disputants seldom like the prosperity of others, or to be less esteemed themselves. Evil surmisings - It not being their way to think well of those that differ from themselves in opinion.
6:5 Supposing that gain is godliness - Thinking the best religion is the getting of money: a far more common case than is usually supposed.
6:6 But godliness with content - The inseparable companion of true, vital religion. Is great gain - Brings unspeakable profit in time, as well as eternity.
6:7 Neither can we carry anything out - To what purpose, then, do we heap together so many things? O, give me one thing, - a safe and ready passage to my own country!
6:8 Covering - That is, raiment and an house to cover us.This is all that a Christian needs, and all that his religion allows him to desire.
6:9 They that desire to be rich - To have more than these; for then they would be so far rich; and the very desire banishes content, and exposes them to ruin. Fall - plunge - A sad gradation! Into temptation - Miserable food for the soul! And a snare - Or trap. Dreadful "covering!" And into many foolish and hurtful desires - Which are sown and fed by having more than we need. Then farewell all hope of content! What then remains, but destruction for the body, and perdition for the soul?
6:10 Love of money - Commonly called "prudent care" of what a man has. Is the root - The parent of all manner of evils.Which some coveting have erred - Literally, missed the mark. They aimed not at faith, but at something else. And pierced themselves with many sorrows - From a guilty conscience, tormenting passions, desires contrary to reason, religion, and one another. How cruel are worldly men to themselves!