NOTES for Ti1 6:1-10
1 Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. |
2 And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. |
3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; |
4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, |
5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. |
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. |
7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. |
8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. |
9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. |
10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. |
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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.
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Readings for 1 September 2025
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