If any man teach otherwise. — Without confining the reference strictly to what had just been taught respecting the duty of Christian slaves, there is little doubt but that some influential teaching, contrary to St. Paul’s, on the subject of the behaviour and disposition of that unhappy class was in the Apostle’s mind when he wrote the terrible denunciation contained in these three verses against the false teachers of Ephesus. Schismatic and heretical preachers and writers in all ages have sadly hindered the progress of true religion; but in the days of St. Paul, when the foundation-stones of the faith were being so painfully laid, there seems to have been a life-and-death contest between the teachers of the true and the false. In this passage St. Paul lays bare the secret springs of much of this anti-Christian doctrine. There is little doubt but that at Ephesus there existed then a school, professedly Christian, which taught the slave who had accepted the yoke of Christ to rebel against the yoke of any earthly lord. Hence the indignation of St. Paul. “If any man teach otherwise,” different to my interpretation of the rule of Christ, which bids us bear all with brave patience, with loyal fortitude.
And consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. — The Apostle, no doubt, was referring to well-known sayings of the Redeemer, such as “Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s,” or “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” or “If any man will follow me, let him take up his cross daily, and follow me;” “But I say unto you, resist not evil,” “Love your enemies, pray for them which despitefully use you.” It was upon such sublime sayings as these — no doubt, current watchwords in all the churches — it was upon the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount that St. Paul based his teaching and grounded his advice to the slaves in the flock of Christ. But the false teachers, who would be Timothy’s bitterest and most determined foes at Ephesus, would not consent to these “wholesome words,” though they were the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To the doctrine which is according to godliness. — These self-willed men, in consenting not to the sublime words of Christ, at the same time refused to acquiesce in the doctrine which insisted upon a holy life: for Christian truth is inseparable from purity, single-heartedness, self-forgetfulness, brave patience.