NOTES for Ti1 6:1-10

Turning to the topic of social relations, Paul especially emphasizes that unity of faith must not become a pretext for bad faith when social obligations are involved (vv. 1-4). Evidently, Christians who owned Christian slaves treated them not as slaves are usually treated, but as brothers, and it is possible that some of these slaves began to think such treatment gave them the right to neglect the duties imposed on them by their position. The apostle, as is clear, was a decisive opponent of such behavior. He does not think that unity of faith and a shared spiritual life free a person from the responsibility he bears as a member of society; he only required that a person's fulfillment of social obligations not contradict the Torah and not destroy the Christian's spiritual life.

For Paul, however, this abuse of spiritual relationships turns out to be only one particular case of another, more general spiritual problem: using spiritual relationships and spiritual life in general for the sake of profit and for achieving various goals of this world. The apostle defines this kind of practice as "love of money," which he decisively condemns (vv. 9-10). And the point here, as is clear, is not that the acquisition of earthly goods is evil in itself, and not even only that abusing spiritual relationships is inevitably accompanied by violation of the Torah, but that such behavior entails the destruction of the system of priorities needed for life in the Kingdom, about which the Savior Himself spoke with perfect clarity: first the Kingdom, and then everything else; it will be "added." In every other case, the one who seeks the Kingdom loses it.

In practice, this means what Paul writes to Timothy: a person has nothing to acquire and store up here; in our still untransfigured world there is nothing that has value in itself, and everything here is only a means for acquiring the Kingdom and bearing witness to it. If a person has what he needs to live, that is enough for him to solve the Christian's main task; to seek more means being distracted from the main thing by the secondary, from the goal by the means (vv. 6-8). And Paul urges Timothy not to forget the main thing and not to let others forget it, so that the Kingdom may remain for every Christian the goal and meaning of life.

What the apostle means, by saying that to be godliness with contentment is a boon to the faithful? And is it easy? At first sight it can seem that it is not so difficult. Godliness people (at least, the outside) and of more very content are more than enough in the religious environment. Here is, they are usually content, particularly, only for themselves and their Godliness. Hardly Paul wanted to say something similar, otherwise, his sentence would sound probably a little bit differently: godliness with self contentment is great gain. However the apostle said nothing like that. However, it succeeds easily and without effort to the fallen man to be always content only of himself.

Certainly, it sometimes happens also here to try hard, but such efforts usually bring to people only joy. But here is, even if to be content not with oneself, but with somebody or something else, succeeds for us, it is only for certain time. Then there is a natural question: how and of what can we be content always? And for what godliness is here? Of course, if we understand it in a purely religious sense, it is really for nothing.

Besides: it is in particular the self-contentment of religious character, when man with pride and self-contentment looks at his godliness and is proud of it, that the Savior condemns unequivocally (it is enough to remember the parable of the publican and the Pharisee). In a certain sense such "godliness" religious self-contentment can be considered as the direct opposite of what Paul says (although its external manifestations sometimes call back the manifestations of genuine humility and godliness). But for a genuine contentment, apparently, is needed all the same in particular a genuine humility. Also, however, as for a genuine godliness, properly spiritual, and not religious.

In fact, true humility supposes indeed, above all, the refusal of one’s own will and full surrender to the will of God. It does not mean, of course that all the reasons for discontentment (often, by the way quite reasonable) will disappear from our life, but, in any case, they already will define no more our spiritual state: because, this affair is now at the first place God’s, and only after ours. The only reason for discontentment in such a state of things can be for us only our sins, which prevent us from walking on the way of righteousness. But this is also, by God’s help, repairable.

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.

Paul speaks of greed, of striving for profit and wealth, as one of the most serious spiritual problems. Strictly speaking, the Savior says the same thing, reminding us that it will not work to serve both God and mammon. The issue here is not only that striving for profit and wealth often forces a person to violate a whole series of commandments given by God. The issue is also that a person who has made wealth and profit the goal of life acquires a rather peculiar view of those around him. He is surrounded not by neighbors, but by competitors.

Or by partners, but this does not change the essence of the matter: dividing those around him into partners and competitors fundamentally changes neither the general picture of the world nor the attitude toward others. And one or another social order, one or another social structure, determines nothing here by itself. Paul, for example, calls slaves to treat their masters precisely as masters, even when they are Christians, and then doubly so, as masters. For when you treat a person as a brother, you no longer perceive him either as a competitor or as an "oppressor." And class struggle is in essence nothing other than competition, only collective and relying on large masses of people.

With truly brotherly relationships it becomes impossible - not because all social problems are solved at once or all contradictions disappear, but because in such relationships they can be solved outside the traditional paradigm of "partners - competitors." This, strictly speaking, is what the apostle calls Christians to, and what he advises Timothy to train his fellow believers in. And not even because the alternative almost always turns out to be social struggle, sooner or later inevitably leading to war and bloodshed, but because in every other case a person becomes a servant of mammon, not of God.

Of course, there is a certain necessary amount of what today we would call social goods, without which one cannot live; Paul does not dispute this. He says only that one should not chase after more, after what one can fully do without but does not want to do without because others, those who are richer, can afford it. A person who has stepped onto the spiritual path, and all the more onto the Christian path, cannot chase wealth, not because it is destructive as such, but because while chasing it, it is impossible to follow God. This is what the apostle reminds Timothy of.

What the apostle means, by speaking about the love of money, because of which many have erred from the faith and received many problems in life? It is of course hardly about the fact that somebody sold literally his convictions. It is rather about another thing: about the material well-being, which becomes an end in itself. Actually, the Savior Himself said that we cannot serve God and Mammon at the same time. But what had been said was it insufficient, and among the Christians even in the first generations there were those who wished to try? It is of course not very probable, that someone in sound mind and in good memory would have begun to experiment on himself such an experience. The problem is in another thing: often it occurs by itself.

Apparently, the economic life, the economy in general represents a system of auto-organization, which tends to grab people and subjugate its laws. And not only that in the fallen world it constantly gives failures, but also in more and suppresses completely the freedom of man, if only this man allows it to have a power over his soul. Certainly, the apostle calls not at all to the total poverty, he speaks only about the limitation of needs by a certain reasonable limit, of which it is impossible to go farther.

But here is the problem, that the man whose soul already was under the power of what Jesus calls Mammon, is not in the state to stop. Today in the world many is said about drugs, but to the look not of the modern world (particularly in its part, which we traditionally call Christian) it becomes obvious that the money is the main drug for it. Money, as the drug, is necessary for him already not for a defined purpose, but as an end in itself.

But what became too obvious today, was in a certain degree natural to the fallen world in all the times. It is appropriate to individuals, quite as to the whole communities. And even the Church in its history turned out, regrettably, not to be at all free of it. Although the problem here is not even in the wealth as such, but rather if it (or, more exactly, the desire to preserve it and keep) defines the whole life of man or of the society.

If yes, then we can really forget about the Kingdom. Even if everything justifies itself (like it often happened and is happening in the life of church) with references to the good of the Church and to the necessity of solving the tasks and the problems being in front of it. Indeed, the only task as for the Church and as for every Christian is the witness about Christ and the Kingdom. If that is not, no task is necessary, or important. Even the most significant and ambitious.