1 Timothy 6:3

After instructions for servants and their masters (1 Timothy 6:1–2), Paul turns to anyone who would “teach otherwise”. The verb is heterodidaskaléō, “to instruct differently”. It concerns the content of the teaching: new or foreign doctrine that departs from the core truths of the faith handed down by the apostles. In naming what such a teacher refuses, Paul sets out the marks of the teaching Timothy is to hold to. It is wholesome, it is the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is “according to godliness”.

To consent is to agree with a teaching and submit to it. The man Paul describes knows the healthy words and sets himself against them, so his refusal is deliberate opposition to sound doctrine.

Timothy was Paul’s protégé and a leader in the church at Ephesus, a large and wealthy city of Asia Minor, full of philosophical schools, mystery religions and Jewish traditions, some of which had made their way into the church. These verses describe the false teachers’ character, and other parts of the letter show what they were spreading: fables and endless genealogies that led to empty talk (1 Timothy 1:3–7), legal rules such as forbidding marriage and certain foods, and speculative ideas, perhaps already touched by early Gnostic thinking. Paul warns Titus against the same foolish disputes (Titus 3:9). The church was young and still setting down its teaching and practice, which left it open to anyone who wanted influence through a show of learning. In this chapter Paul traces such teaching to pride and, in the end, to greed.

Verse 4 begins with the root of the trouble. “He is proud” translates typhóō, a verb that literally means to envelop with smoke, and figuratively to puff up with self-conceit. The picture is of a man wrapped in the fog of his own importance, unable to see clearly or to receive what God shows him.

He is also “knowing nothing”. The verb is epístamai, to understand, joined with mēdeís, “nothing”. These teachers may have had a great deal of information and enjoyed complex debate. What they lacked was a true grasp of the gospel, and Paul ties that lack to their pride. Pride makes a person self-sufficient and resistant to what God reveals, while humility receives it, so their arrogance left them ignorant of the very things that matter for godliness. Their show of learning and their ignorance belong together.

“But”, allá, turns from what these men lack to what they spend themselves on. “Doting” is noséō, from nósos, sickness. It means to be sick, and by implication to dote, to have an unhealthy craving for something. Paul sets it against the wholesome words of verse 3. The true teaching is healthy, and the man who rejects it is sick, with a diseased appetite for argument.

What he craves is “questions and strifes of words”. The questions, zḗtēsis, are controversial or speculative inquiries. “Strifes of words” is a single Greek word, logomachía, literally “word battles”, a disputing about trifles. It describes arguments that are contentious and unproductive, fixed on minor points and mere wording while the substance of the truth goes untouched. Paul tells Timothy elsewhere to avoid foolish and ignorant disputes (2 Timothy 2:23–25).

The phrase “whereof cometh” is the preposition ek, “from” or “out of”, with the relative pronoun hós, “which”, and the verb gínomai, “to come about”: out of which come. Paul then lists what such arguing breeds in a church. “Envy”, phthónos, is resentment of the success or gifts of others. “Strife”, éris, is contention and quarrelling. It shares the English word with “strifes of words”, though the Greek word is a different one, and the verse shows the arguing over words turning into open quarrelling between people. “Railings”, blasphēmía, are abusive speech, slander and vilification. “Evil surmisings” joins ponērós, evil, with hypónoia, suspicion, and means malicious guesses about the motives of others.

Every one of these attacks the love and unity of the body of Christ. The list belongs with Paul’s works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19–21) and with James’s contrast between earthly wisdom and the wisdom from above (James 3:14–16). The sentence runs on into verse 5, where “perverse disputings” close the list.

“Perverse disputings” translates paradiatribḗ, made from para, “beside” or “amiss”, and diatribō, to rub through or to spend time. Its sense is a misuse of time, a meddlesome and irritating wrangling. It describes the constant friction of people who keep rubbing against each other in arguments that are out of place among God’s people.

They are the disputings “of men of corrupt minds”. The verb is diaphtheírō, to rot thoroughly, to ruin, and here it is applied to the mind, noûs, the understanding itself. Their judgment is spoiled at its source, so they are unable to grasp or value the truth, and their inward state shows outwardly in their quarrelling.

They are also “destitute of the truth”. The verb aposteréō means to despoil or defraud, so the truth, alḗtheia, has in a sense been taken from them. More likely they have abandoned it themselves, and they are left spiritually poor, without a foundation in God’s revelation.

The heart of their error is that they suppose “that gain is godliness”. To suppose, nomízō, is to deem or regard something so. “Gain” is porismós, a procuring or acquiring, and by implication money-getting. They treat godliness, the same eusébeia as in verse 3, as a way to make a profit, and they take prosperity for the measure of devotion to God. Their religion is a means to an end, and the end is money. The idea that wealth showed divine favour was common enough in that day, and some may have seen the growing church as a new way to profit, perhaps by selling special knowledge or spiritual services, or by using their influence. Paul warns Titus about men who teach for dishonest gain (Titus 1:11), and Peter speaks of false teachers who exploit people with deceptive words (2 Peter 2:3).

The passage ends with a command to Timothy, and through him to the church: “from such withdraw thyself”. The verb is aphístēmi, to remove oneself, to stand off or depart. Paul gives a firm instruction to separate from these men and their influence, because their corrupt minds and their love of gain can lead others astray and spoil the gospel itself. It protects Timothy, and it protects the believers in his care, who could easily become the prey of men making a business of religion. Paul gives the same kind of instruction elsewhere, to avoid those who cause divisions (Romans 16:17) and to withdraw from any brother who walks disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:6).

Everything verse 4 says about the false teacher is the opposite of Christ. They are proud, and he “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:5–8). They know nothing, and in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). They dote on battles over words, and he spoke with authority and grace, words of eternal life (John 6:68), and showed us the Father (John 14:9). They breed envy and strife, and he prayed that his followers would be one (John 17:20–23) and gave his life to reconcile people to God and to one another. James describes the wisdom that comes from above as pure, peaceable, gentle, and full of mercy and good fruits (James 3:17). In Christ we have the cure for pride, ignorance and division.

These verses give the church a way to judge every voice that claims to speak for God, in any age when religion is sold as a road to wealth or learning is put on show. The questions are whether a teaching agrees with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and whether it makes people godly, and a teacher’s success, cleverness or wealth answers neither. God has given his people healthy words, and through them he keeps his church well, so that sound teaching and holy living grow together. The same warning reaches our own hearts, since pride and the love of gain are able to draw any of us into quarrels about words. Where Christ’s words are honoured, the fruit is humility, peace and contentment, and the gain that comes with godliness is the gain he gives.