Theodoret writes, “The Apostle called Jewish teachings old women’s myths: not the Law, but the false reinterpretation of the Law and the untimely keeping of it.”
Saint Chrysostom also sets forth the reason for such a name. “What myths is he speaking of here? Jewish calculations and observances? Does he call these myths? Yes, either because they are invented, or because they are untimely. What is timely is useful. What is untimely is not only useless, but harmful. Moreover, imagine if a man in his twentieth year clung to his nurse’s breasts. To what degree would he be worthy of ridicule for untimeliness? You see that he calls this both unclean and old-womanish. He calls it so partly because it has grown old, and partly because it forms an obstacle to faith.”
But Oecumenius allows that perhaps here the Apostle means “both Hellenic ravings and the ravings of the heretics of that time. For words such as the following tales of the Greeks truly resemble the empty words uttered in delirium by old women: Zeus had intercourse with Hera; Ares committed fornication with Aphrodite; Hephaestus was cast down from heaven.”
It is very likely that the teachings of the liars were taken partly from the Jews, partly from the Greeks, and partly drawn from other Eastern religions. Since believers, in the very act of coming to faith, reject all that, there is no need after coming to faith to occupy oneself with it any longer.
Therefore the Apostle writes not “refute,” as though disputing, but “refuse.” “By this he shows that it is necessary to avoid this completely. His words have this meaning: do not even take upon yourself the labor of ever entering into conversation with them, except perhaps in the case when you foresee some harm from our seeming to refuse discussion with them because of our weakness,” says Saint Chrysostom.
By “piety” the Apostle means life in the spirit of the Christian faith. Although this life embraces not only the proper relation to God, which is piety in the strict sense, but also every kind of struggle and the whole circle of good deeds, nevertheless Christians preserve these two sides, or parts, for God’s sake and dedicate them to Him. Their life is wholly “hidden with Christ in God,” Col 3:3. Therefore the Apostle called the whole life according to faith “piety.”
“Train yourself in piety,” that is, exercise yourself “in pure faith and righteous life; dispose yourself toward the best conduct. For piety consists in this,” says Saint Chrysostom.
“It is zealous concern for a life pleasing to God, united with right faith,” says Oecumenius.
What the Apostle wishes to suggest here is contained in the word “train.” “Train,” γυμναζε, means exercise yourself in the works of Christian piety, so as to become a skilled doer of them, just as athletes exercise themselves in various bodily movements in order to acquire habit and skill in them.
The body is capable of very dexterous movements, but it must be accustomed to them by exercises. So also the believer, after baptism and the reception of grace, is capable, that is, both ready and strong, for every work and struggle in the spirit and according to the demand of the holy faith. But in order to do all this properly and fruitfully, he must exercise himself in such works.
Yet the athlete first practices various bodily movements alone and separately, only by way of example, while later these movements will be useful to him in practice. The Christian athlete directly enters not into examples, but into real works, and by performing them trains himself to perform them in the best way.
Therefore “train yourself” means: do not let pass any occasion in which you can perform a work according to the spirit of your faith. Or even more: seek out such occasions, so that you may more quickly become established in the works according to our faith, and then without labor show yourself before God and men as “a worker who has no need to be ashamed,” cf. 2 Tim 2:15.
Experience has already shown that such self-training is necessary for acquiring perfection in life. It must be training in every respect, both in how to conduct one’s outward affairs, or keep one’s behavior, and in how to keep in order the varied movements that arise within.
Zealous exercise in both is always crowned with success, that is, with habit in a life pleasing to God, both inward and outward. This perfection does not come of itself. One must train oneself. This is so for every believer, and all the more for the pastor of the faithful. Therefore it was not superfluous to say even to Saint Timothy, “Train yourself in piety.”
THEOSIS