1 Timothy 6:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Blessed Paul does not even deny that he is their slave, saying, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor 4:5). And again, "Whether Paul or Apollos, all are yours" (1 Cor 3:22). He readily accepts this servitude, because it is not servitude, but better than freedom.

"Whoever commits sin," says the Lord, "is a slave" (Jn 8:34). Thus we happen to be inflamed with pride not from knowledge, but from ignorance. He who knows the teaching according to piety knows better than all how to humble himself. He who is instructed in sound doctrine is not possessed by disease.

Indeed, pride in souls is the same as inflammation in bodies. Just as we do not call an inflamed place healthy, so here we do not call the proud healthy. Therefore a man may know something and yet know nothing. For he who does not know what he ought to know knows nothing.

"But he is diseased with a passion for disputes and word-battles." Thus disputation is a sickness. Where there is no faith, everything is sick. There only a war of words flares up, and nothing more. The more skilled disputant strains to overthrow the other.

Faith is an eye. He who has no eyes finds nothing, but only seeks. "From which come envy, strife, slanders, evil suspicions." That is, harmful doctrines are born from disputes. When we give ourselves to disputes, we begin to blaspheme and to think about God what we ought not.

From this there arises a kind of destructive disease that infects those nearby. This is what the words mean: "evil conversations of men corrupted in mind." For just as sick sheep grazing with healthy ones transmit their disease to them, so these men fill their neighbors with contagion.

Therefore the Apostle cries out to Timothy with a strict prohibition: "Withdraw from such men." And since they considered piety to be gain, he adds: "Great gain is piety with contentment" (v. 6).

For pride comes not from knowledge, but from ignorance. He who rightly understands God's commandments and the teaching of how the God-man Word became man, humbling Himself to the form of a servant (Phil 2:8), will never become proud. Knowledge of external wisdom puffs up, as is said elsewhere (1 Cor 8:1). But knowledge of true wisdom teaches humility of mind.

"But diseased about disputes and word-battles."

He is diseased who occupies himself with useless inquiries and word-battles. The Apostle rightly called such a man diseased. For whoever turns away from healthy food and takes harmful food will certainly fall ill, grow fat, and swell. But such fullness is deceptive, because it is contrary to nature.

"From which come envy."

Because of these word-battles, mutual envy arises among the disputants over superiority in speech and honor.

"Strife."

They dispute for victory, not wishing to be defeated.

"Blasphemies."

In the strict sense, blasphemy means bold and unrestrained words against God and, in general, against everything divine. Thus someone says of God that He is not God, or that He is unjust, cruel, and the like. Likewise, blasphemy against a man is expressed in insolent words and evil speech.

"Evil suspicions."

Wrong and unworthy suspicions and opinions.

Together with defining the chief aim of the false teachers, the Apostle also defines their other traits. These are ignorance of the truth, a passion for disputes and evil speech, and corruption of mind. All this makes them inaccessible to persuasion.

Therefore withdrawal from them must be considered best. By associating with them one may be infected, as people are infected by many diseases, even by madness.

"To be inflamed with pride happens not from knowledge, but from ignorance," says St. John Chrysostom, "because he who knows the teaching according to piety knows better than all how to humble himself."

"Those who have departed from the truth and follow their own thoughts attempt to teach what is improper. From this evil suspicions are born, and from them comes a kind of disease that infects those nearby. For as sick sheep grazing with healthy ones transmit disease to them, so these men fill their neighbors with contagion" (Blessed Theodoret).

"Where there is no faith," says Blessed Theophylact, "everything is sick. There only a war of words flares up, while the more skilled disputant strains to overthrow the other. Faith is an eye. He who has no eyes finds nothing, but only seeks. Disputants attract disciples to themselves, use them, and strive ever more in disputes, so as to draw them to themselves more and more."

"They are corrupted in mind because they are deprived of the truth. As possession of the truth is the health of the mind, so deprivation of the truth is its sickness and corruption. Deprivation of truth produces two evils in the mind: either the darkness of ignorance, or corruption by false belief. Darkness, the deprivation of light, causes numbness and even death. This is a great evil. Yet one may think of the numbed man that he will depart, come to himself, and live again. But one corrupted by false belief gives no such hope. He is damaged inwardly, and therefore can be restored to health only by divine power, especially by grace" (Bishop Theophan).

Proclaim the one truth, and whoever is of the truth will hear you (cf. Jn 18:37). Such is the content of the present apostolic lesson. Who these teachers of other doctrine are, the Apostle does not define particularly. He speaks generally: they teach otherwise and do not consent to the sound words of the Lord and to the doctrine according to piety.

Here one may understand all Christian teaching, both dogmas and rules of life and sanctification through the Mysteries. Whoever departs in anything from the words of the Lord and from the sound doctrine held by the assembly of the pious is a teacher of other doctrine. He is a proud disputant over words, unworthy of communion.

Therefore "these things teach and exhort" (1 Tim 6:2) refers not only to the submission of slaves, but to everything set forth above, without excluding that submission.

The sound words of the Lord are those about which He testified: "All that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you" (cf. Jn 15:15). They are the same as what the Holy Spirit suggested to the Apostles. For He too was to speak whatever He heard (Jn 16:13). Of course, whatever He spoke, He spoke as He heard.

The sound words of the Lord therefore contain the truth hidden in the mystery of the Tri-hypostatic God, brought to earth by the incarnate Son of God, and spread among men through the Apostles by the Holy Spirit. It is sound truth, that is, pure, unmixed, and unalterable.

They are sound because they contain pure truth and because they give health to the soul that receives them. Truth brings health to the soul, while falsehood, even a small falsehood, weakens it and makes it infirm.

The doctrine according to piety is composed of the sound words of the Lord and the revelations of the Holy Spirit. It gathers all the words into one and from all the truths announced by them forms a single whole. It forms one image of contemplation of the work of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, according to the good pleasure of the Father.

The Lord said many things, and the Apostles also said many things by the Holy Spirit. Those who heard and received them laid all things up in their hearts. The heart, like a certain architect, guided by grace, ordered this image of contemplation of the work of salvation. This image contained the doctrine according to piety.

Established under the influence of the Apostles, this image was carried in the hearts of believers out of the apostolic age. It was renewed and preserved by their successors and handed down to the following generations of the faithful. From them, by mutual succession, it has come down to us.

Thus the doctrine according to piety is the doctrine held by the Church, then under the Apostles and now by succession from them.

In Greek it does not say "right faith," but "piety," τη κατ ευσεβειαν διδασκαλια. This is not a departure from the Apostle's original word, but its most exact expression. Piety is the heart's relation to God. Life according to piety is life in the fear of God, for the glory of His all-holy name. Doctrine according to piety is doctrine held through undoubting faith in the word of the God of truth. Such holding of the truth is truly right faith, and it alone is such.