1 Timothy 6:6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But godliness The genuine fear and love of God, and obedience to his will; with contentment The inseparable companion of vital piety; is great gain Brings unspeakable profit in time as well as in eternity, and indeed is the only true abiding gain; for all other gain is perishing. For we brought nothing into this world But were thrown naked upon the indulgent provision which our gracious Creator has been pleased to make for us; and it is certain Whatever treasures insatiable avarice may amass; we can carry nothing out But must, in a little time, return to the dust, stripped of all. To what purpose then do we heap together so many things? O let us remember one thing is needful, and let us, above all things, take care to ensure that. And having While we continue in this transitory and uncertain life; food and raiment Or food and coverings, rather; the word σκεπασματα comprehending not only clothes, but lodgings; (it signifies indeed coverings of every sort;) let us be therewith content And not seek, with restless solicitude, the great things of this world, which are often of short continuance, and of a precarious as well as an unsatisfying nature. But they Who, not content with these; (which are all that a Christian needs, and all that his religion allows him to desire;) will be rich Who desire to be so, and resolve to use every means in order thereto; fall Headlong; into temptation Or trial, frequently great, peculiar, and distressing; and a snare Which entangles them in sin and misery; and into many foolish and hurtful lusts Or desires, which have no reason whatever in them, and which not only sink men below the dignity of their nature, but prove the occasion of much further mischief, yea, drown men in destruction here, and eternal perdition hereafter. “In this admirable picture the apostle represents men who are actuated by the desire of riches, and with the lusts excited by the possession of them, as pursuing, to the utmost verge of a precipice, those shadowy phantoms which owe all their semblance of reality to the magic of the passions, which riches, and the desire of them, have excited in their minds; and as falling into a gulf, where they plunge so deep that they are irrecoverably lost.” For the love of money Commonly called prudent care of what a man has; is the root Or source; of all Of every kind of; evil Of sin and misery consequent thereon, in various respects. “The pernicious influence of this vice hath been taken notice of, and painted in striking colours, by moralists and poets, even among the heathen. But none of them have drawn the picture with such skill and effect as the apostle hath done in this and the preceding verse; where he hath set forth, in the strongest colouring, and with the fewest words, the deformity of the passion, and the evils which it produces, both in the bodies and in the minds of those who indulge it.” Macknight. Which, while some have coveted after Greek, ορεγομενοι, reaching out to, or eagerly coveting; have erred Απεπλανηθησαν, have wandered far from the faith, or have wholly missed the mark. Indeed they aimed not at faith, but at something else; and pierced themselves through Or all round, as περιεπειραν properly signifies; have stabbed themselves, as it were, from head to foot on all sides, so as to be like a person wholly covered with wounds; with many sorrows Arising from a guilty conscience, tormenting passions, desires contrary to reason, religion, and one another. How cruel are worldly men to themselves!