The life and work of St. Paul

THE FIBST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY 657
thoughts since otherwise the former rule might have led to a self-denial still
1 more rigid, and even injurious to health it is far too natural and spontaneous,
too entirely disconnected from all that precedes and follows it, to hare
occurred to any imitator. An imitator, if capable of introducing the natural
play of thought to which the precept " Keep thyself pure " is due, would have
been far more likely to add and especially hi an Epistle which so scrupulously
forbids indulgence in wine
"
to all Church officials And, in order to
promote this purity, take as little wine as possible, or avoid it altogether." 2
He then passes to the duties of slaves. 3 Their conversion is not to be
made a plea for upsetting the social order, and giving any excuse for abusing
the Gospel. Christian masters are still to be treated as masters, and to be
served all the more heartily "because all who are partakers of this kindly
service are faithful and beloved." Here again he reverts to the false teachers
who had perhaps perverted the truth of Christian equality into the falsehood
of socialism to denounce their inflated ignorance and unwholesome loquacity
as the source of the jealousies and squabbles of corrupt men, who look on
religion as a source of gain. 4 A source of gain indeed it is when accompanied
with the contentment 6 arising from the sense of the nakedness of our birth
and death, and the fewness of our real needs, 6 whereas the desire of wealth
breeds the numerous forms of foolish desire which plunge men into destruction
and perdition. For all evils spring from the root of covetousness, 7 which
has led many ito heresy as well as into manifold miseries. The Apostle
appeals to his son hi the faith to flee these things: to pursue 8 righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness ; to strive the good strife of faith ;
to grasp eternal life, " to which also thou wert called, and didst confess the
good confession before many witnesses." He most solemnly adjures him, by
Christ and His good confession before Pontius Pilate, 9 to keep the commandment
without spot, without reproach, till the manifestation of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which He shall show in His own seasons, who is the blessed and only
Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone hath immortality,
1 Rom. xiv. 2. Plutarch speaks of an ooiw Ayvia (De Isid. et Osvr, 6).
2 Ver. 1723.
8 Some have fancied, with very little probability, that the topic is suggested by the
mention of those whose good works cannot be finally hid, but are little likely to be noticed
in this world.
4 Gal. iii. 28. The recognition of the existing basis of society is found throughout
the Epistles (1 Cor. vii. 21 ; Col. iii. 22, &c.).
5
avTapia, self-sufficing independence (2 Cor. ix. 8 ; I'hil. iv. 11). Of. Prov. xiv. 14,
"The good man shall be satisfied from himself."
Phil. iv. 1113.
^
pi'a need not be rendered "a root," for it is a word which does not require the
article but St. Paul does ; not, of course, mean that it is the only root from which all
evils spring, but the root from which all evils may spring.
So Diogenes Laertius calls it
" the metropolis of all evils " (Vit. Diogen. vi. 50 ; and Kilo, De Spec. Legg. 346, calls it
op^TjTijpioi' irav-rtav iropavofujfxaTwi' (cf . Luke Xll. 15 21). J^
8 timtt, EirtAaoG.
9 There is an obvious allusion in the KOXTJ opoXoyia of Christ to that of the previous
verse, but in the latter instance it seems to mean the faithful performance of the will of
God even to death.
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