1 Timothy 6: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul closes his letter to Timothy with instructions for slaves toward their masters, then warns against teachers who argue endlessly and treat godliness as a way to make money. He contrasts the craving for wealth with contentment, and charges Timothy to pursue righteousness and keep the command until Christ appears. He tells Timothy how to instruct the rich, and ends by telling him to guard what has been entrusted to him and avoid what is falsely called knowledge.

Claim by Claim

1. 6:1
   • Slaves who are under a yoke should regard their own masters as worthy of all honor.
   • The reason for this is so that the name of God and the teaching are not blasphemed.
2. 6:2
   • Slaves who have believing masters should not look down on those masters.
   • The reason they might look down on them is that the masters are brothers.
   • Such slaves should instead serve their masters all the more.
   • The reason is that those who benefit from their good service are believers and beloved.
   • Timothy is to teach these things.
   • Timothy is to urge these things.
3. 6:3
   • Some may teach a different doctrine.
   • Some may not agree with sound words.
   • The sound words are those of our Lord Jesus Christ.
   • Some may not agree with the teaching that accords with godliness.
4. 6:4
   • Such a person is puffed up with conceit.
   • Such a person knows nothing.
   • Such a person has a sick craving for controversies and battles over words.
   • Out of such controversies come envy.
   • Out of them comes strife.
   • Out of them come slanders.
   • Out of them come evil suspicions.
5. 6:5
   • Out of them come constant frictions among men whose minds are corrupted.
   • These men have been robbed of the truth.
   • These men suppose that godliness is a means of gain.
   • Timothy is to withdraw himself from such men.
6. 6:6
   • Godliness with contentment is great gain.
7. 6:7
   • We brought nothing into the world.
   • We can carry nothing out of the world.
8. 6:8
   • We have food and covering.
   • With these we will be content.
9. 6:9
   • Those who want to be rich fall into temptation.
   • They fall into a snare.
   • They fall into many foolish and harmful desires.
   • Those desires plunge men into ruin and destruction.
10. 6:10
    • The love of money is the root of all evils.
    • Some have reached out for money.
    • Those who did so wandered away from the faith.
    • Those who did so pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
11. 6:11
    • Timothy is addressed as a man of God.
    • Timothy is to flee these things.
    • Timothy is to pursue righteousness.
    • Timothy is to pursue godliness.
    • Timothy is to pursue faith.
    • Timothy is to pursue love.
    • Timothy is to pursue endurance.
    • Timothy is to pursue gentleness.
12. 6:12
    • Timothy is to fight the good fight of the faith.
    • Timothy is to take hold of eternal life.
    • Timothy was called to that eternal life.
    • Timothy confessed the good confession before many witnesses.
13. 6:13
    • Paul gives Timothy a charge in the presence of God.
    • God gives life to all things.
    • Paul gives the charge in the presence of Christ Jesus.
    • Christ Jesus testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate.
14. 6:14
    • Timothy is to keep the commandment without stain.
    • Timothy is to keep it beyond reproach.
    • Timothy is to keep it until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15. 6:15
    • Someone will display that appearing at its own proper times.
    • That one is blessed.
    • That one is the only Sovereign.
    • That one is the King of those who reign.
    • That one is the Lord of those who rule.
16. 6:16
    • He alone has immortality.
    • He dwells in light that cannot be approached.
    • No human being has seen him.
    • No human being is able to see him.
    • To him belong honor and eternal might.
    • Amen.
17. 6:17
    • Timothy is to charge those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant.
    • They are not to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches.
    • They are to set their hope on the living God.
    • God provides us all things richly for enjoyment.
18. 6:18
    • The rich are to do good.
    • The rich are to be rich in good works.
    • The rich are to be generous in giving.
    • The rich are to be willing to share.
19. 6:19
    • By doing so they store up for themselves a good foundation for the future.
    • The purpose is that they may take hold of eternal life.
20. 6:20
    • Paul addresses Timothy by name.
    • Timothy is to guard what has been entrusted to him.
    • Timothy is to turn away from profane empty talk.
    • Timothy is to turn away from the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge.
21. 6:21
    • Some have professed that knowledge.
    • Those who professed it have missed the mark concerning the faith.
    • Grace be with you.
    • Amen.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

6:1

"Under the yoke" is a stock phrase for slavery; a yoke is the wooden bar laid across the necks of oxen to harness them to a plow or cart. The people in view are household slaves in Roman cities, who might be doctors, teachers or estate managers as well as laborers, and who were legally their masters' property. "Blasphemed" here is not cursing: it is the ordinary Greek word for being insulted or badly spoken of, and the worry is how the message looks to outsiders.

6:2

"Partakers of the benefit" is ambiguous in the Greek and translators divide over it. It may mean the masters are the ones who benefit from their slaves' good service, as this rendering takes it, or it may mean that master and slave alike share in the benefit of God's kindness. Either way, the argument is that shared faith is a reason to serve better rather than a license to serve worse.

6:3

"Wholesome words" translates a Greek word meaning healthy, the opposite of diseased; the same word lies behind "sound doctrine" elsewhere in these letters. The medical picture carries straight into the next verse, where the rival teacher is the one who is sick.

6:4

"Doting about questions" does not mean being fond of them. The Greek verb means to be ill, and "doting" in older English meant being unsound in mind. "Strifes of words" is a single compound meaning word battles, quarrels over terms rather than substance. "Railings" means abusive talk, and "evil surmisings" means suspicions that read the worst possible motive into what others do.

6:5

The King James "supposing that gain is godliness" reverses the Greek, which says these men regard godliness as a means of gain, a way to make money. Older English allowed that word order; modern English does not, so the phrase now reads backwards.

6:6

"Gain" is the same commercial word for profit used in the previous verse. The sentence turns the opponents' calculation around: godliness is indeed profitable, but the profit is contentment rather than cash. "Contentment" was a well known term in Greek moral philosophy for self sufficiency, the state of needing nothing from outside yourself.

6:8

"Raiment" simply means clothing. The Greek word behind it means covering, and some take it broadly enough to include shelter as well as clothes.

6:9

"They that will be rich" does not mean those who are going to become rich. In 1611 English "will" often meant want or intend, so this means people who are set on getting rich. The "snare" is a hunter's trap, the kind set for birds or small game.

6:10

The Greek has no "the" before "root" and says "all kinds of evils" rather than evil as a whole. The claim is that love of money is a root from which every sort of evil can grow, not the single source of everything bad. The familiar King James wording is stronger than the original.

6:11

"Man of God" is a title used in the Hebrew scriptures for Moses, Elijah and the prophets; applying it to Timothy places him in that line. "Patience" in the King James normally means endurance, holding up under pressure, not calm waiting. "Meekness" means gentleness, a settled refusal to throw your weight around, not weakness or timidity.

6:12

"Fight the good fight" is athletic language rather than military: the noun is the Greek word for a contest at the games, the word behind our "agony." "Profession" here and "confession" in the next verse translate the same Greek word, a public statement of allegiance said out loud. The many witnesses may point to Timothy's baptism or to a formal commissioning.

6:13

"Quickeneth" is old English for gives life. Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea from about AD 26 to 36, and he conducted the hearing at which Jesus was sentenced to death. Naming him fixes the event in public, secular history and makes Jesus' own declaration one given under direct threat.

6:14

"Without spot, unrebukeable" is two Greek adjectives that grammatically attach to the command but in sense describe the person keeping it: unstained and beyond criticism. "The appearing" translates epiphaneia, a word used in the Greek world for the visible arrival of a god or the state visit of an emperor.

6:15

"Potentate" is an old word for sovereign or ruler. "King of kings, and Lord of lords" was the grand official title of Persian and other eastern emperors, a way of saying highest of all rulers; here it is taken off them and given to God. Verses 15 and 16 read in Greek like a piece of liturgy or a hymn, which is why the language is so formal.

6:16

"Power" here translates a word closer to dominion or sovereign might than to ability. The statement that no one has seen God echoes the Hebrew scriptures, where no living person can look directly at God and survive.

6:17

"Highminded" in 1611 English meant arrogant, roughly the opposite of the modern sense of noble or principled. "Uncertain riches" renders a phrase that literally reads "the uncertainty of riches," meaning the unreliability of wealth itself rather than an unknown amount of it.

6:18

"Willing to communicate" means ready to share. "Communicate" in the King James means to have something in common with someone, not to talk. "Ready to distribute" means open handed in giving.

6:19

The image combines two pictures: storing up treasure, and laying a foundation. "Against the time to come" means in preparation for the future, an older use of "against." Some early manuscripts end the verse with "the life that is really life" rather than "eternal life."

6:20

"Science falsely so called" is one of the most misleading phrases in the King James. "Science" in 1611 meant knowledge of any kind, with nothing of the modern sense of laboratory research; the Greek word is gnosis. "That which is committed to thy trust" translates a legal and banking term for a deposit left with someone for safekeeping, to be returned intact. "Profane" means unholy or irreverent rather than obscene, and "vain babblings" means empty chatter.

6:21

"Grace be with thee" is a standard closing, matching the way ordinary Greek letters signed off with a word of good wishes; grace means undeserved favor. Some early manuscripts have a plural "you" here instead of the singular "thee," which suggests the letter was expected to be read aloud to a whole congregation and not to Timothy alone.