1 Timothy 6
1 Whoever is under the yokea as enslaved workers should considerb even their own enslaversc as worthy of being treated with complete dignity so that the name of God and the Teaching would not be discredited. 2 Those who have “faithful”d enslavers should not look down on them, because they are members of the Family, but rather serve them even that much more, because the ones who benefit from their kind action are faithful and loved.
Teach and encourage these things. 3 If someone teaches something different and does not come over to healthy ideas (to the ones of our Lord Jesus Christ) and to the Teaching that is grounded in respectfulness, 4 having been deluded, understanding nothing, but rather having a sick obsession with controversies and arguments, out of which come to be resentment, fighting,e speaking disrespectfully,f acts of harmful suspiciousness,g 5 and constant friction from people whose minds have been corrupted and robbed of the truth, who consider treating people respectfully as being for their own gain. 6 However, treating people respectfully is itself sufficiently great gain.h 7 You see, we brought nothing into the world, so neither can we bring anything out of it. 8 When we have food and shelter,i we’ll be satisfied with those. 9 However, those who intend to be wealthy fall into testing and a trap and many foolish and injurious desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 You see, attachment to money is a root of every sort of harm, by which some who reach for it have been led away from the commitment and inflicted many sorrows on themselves.j
11 However, as a person of God, run away from these things. Instead, pursue living justly, respectfulness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness. 12 Strive for the honorable prize of faithfulness, take hold of the life of the Age for which you were called and for which you acknowledged the honorable acknowledgment in front of many witnesses. 13 I pass on to you—in front of the God-Who-Births-Life-for-All-Things and Christ Jesus who testified the honorable acknowledgment to Pontius Pilate— 14 to preservek the flawless and non-negotiablel directionm until our Lord Jesus Christ is made clearly visible, 15 which the gratified and only powerful one, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will show at the proper time. 16 He alone is who possesses immortality, who resides in unapproachable light, whom no human has seen or can see. To him be honor and agelong power. Amen.
17 Pass it on to those who are wealthy in the present age not to think of themselves as above others or to have placed their hope in wealth because of uncertainty but, instead, in God who richly offers us everything for gratification. 18 Pass on to them to be generous, to be wealthy in honorable actions, to be willing to give freely, inclined to share with others, 19 investing in a noble foundation for themselves for the coming Age, so that they can take hold of what is truly life.
20 Timothy, protect the deposit, turning your back on the normal, empty discussion and incompatibility of what is falsely called knowledge, 21 by which some, those who promote it, have diverged from faithfulness.
May good fortune be with you all.
FOOTNOTES:
a A yoke was a device to attach to farm animals together to coordinate their efforts in pulling a plow. To use it in reference to humans is to use it as a symbol of oppression.
b The Greek word here is hegeomai, which can mean ‘consider.’ However, it is not the word most often used with that meaning in the Bible (that would be dokeo), and on top of that, it is not the primary usage of hegeomai. More common uses for hegeomai are ‘lead the way,’ ‘act as guide,’ ‘take the lead,’ ‘be in command,’ ‘rule,’ ‘guide,’ and finally, ‘consider’ or ‘think.’
c More literally, ‘masters’ or ‘owners.’ Despotes is not the same word usually translated as ‘master’ in the context of enslavement in the New Testament. Much more often, the word used is kurios, which is translated as ‘lord’ in most instances.
d Tradtionally, ‘believing.’ Better translations would be ‘faithful’ or ‘trusting.’ The idea is that these are people who have trusted Jesus and responded with faithfulness to walking the path laid out in Torah and lived out by Jesus. It is translated here with quotation marks to indicate the writer may have meant this statement to be intentionally ironic, since Jesus names himself as the one who liberates people by paying the price to set enslaved people free and that leading people as his followers involves not lording it over others but being servants to all.
e Including verbal arguments, competition, or even battle
f Traditionally, ‘slanders.’ This is the word blasphemia, which in other contexts is traditionally translated as ‘blasphemy.’ It was not a specifically religious term. It referred to slandering, belittling, or speaking disrespectfully about anyone.
g Or ‘acts of speculation,’ ‘acts of conjecture,’ or even ‘conspiracy theories’ or ‘stereotypes’ would be appropriate translations
h Literally, this says, “Respectfulness with self-sufficiency is great gain.” What ‘self-sufficiency’ is referring to is not completely clear. It could be one of three options: 1) the respectfulness being sufficient by itself, not needing anything additional to be worth doing, 2) treating people with respect, as they are valuable in themselves and not for what gain they can provide, or 3) treating people with respect, acting out of self-sufficiency, not needing to use others for one’s own gain. Regardless of which exact understanding of the wording we take, the point of the sentence remains the same.
i Literally, ‘covering’ often used for shelter or protection, sometimes used for clothing.
j Or more literally, ‘stabbed themselves with many sorrows’
k Or ‘watch over’ or ‘maintain’ or ‘keep a close eye on’
l Or ‘undebatable’ or ‘indisputable’
m This seems to refer to pursuing the ways of living described in verse 11.