Lesson 10 “Masters
and Money” 1 Timothy 6:1-10
ID:
Inductive Questions (Asking the text questions like who, what, where, when,
why, & how?”)
CR: Cross
References (Comparing Scripture to Scripture, understanding the vague by the
clear.)
WS: Word
Study (Understanding definition, theological meaning, and usages in other
passages.)
The WORD: What does the Bible say?
Context: Read 1
Timothy 5:19-6:16 to understand the context. This passage alludes to Job 1:21. Read Job
1:18-22 so you will be familiar with its Old Testament context. Then read 1 Timothy 6:1-10 in a more literal
or more dynamic translation than you usually use.
1. ID: (6:1) What does it mean for bondservants
to count their masters worthy of all honor?
Why are they told to do that?
2. ID: (6:2) How should it change a bondservant’s attitude when
his master is a believer?
3. ID: (6:3-5) How does Paul characterize the teaching of
those who believe that godliness (eusebeia) is a means to
gain (porismos)?
4. ID/CR: (6:6-8) How does Job’s confession reinforce the truth
that godliness with contentment (autarkeia) is a great
gain?
5. CR: (6:9) What often happens to those who desire to be
rich (plouteō)?
6. ID: (6:10) What cautions are given about the love (philargyria) of money?
The WALK: What should I do?
1. We might have expected Paul to say, “Especially honor
masters who are unbelievers so that you can win them to the Lord.” Why do you think that he said the
opposite? Does that change the way you
think about how we relate to believers and unbelievers?
2. Paul tells Timothy to “teach these things.” What resources have you found helpful
teaching about a Biblical perspective on employment and money? Put together a brief sketch of how you
would teach from 1 Timothy 6
on this topic (for your children/grandchildren or a group of your peers).
3. What is the difference between teaching godliness is a
means to godliness and Proverbs
10:22?
4. Verse eight says that we should be content with
adequate food and clothing. What
struggles would you have being content with so little?
5. CSBI: How do you think Paul’s personality and
background impacted the style and content of the pastoral epistles?
How has God used your individual traits and background in your ministry
and witness?
Going Beyond: 1. 1 Timothy 6:6-10 are classic verses on contentment. Pick one or more of them to memorize.
2. What areas of theology are touched on in this passage?
The Bible (Bibliology) God (Theology Proper)
The Father (Paterology)
The Lord Jesus Christ (Christology)
The Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)
Man (Anthropology)
Salvation (Soteriology)
The Church (Ecclesiology)
Angels & Satan (Angelology)
Future Things (eschatology)
THE WORD OF
GOD AND INSPIRATION
Inspiration is the way in
which God gave his Word to us through human authors, but how he did is a matter
not fully understood. In this section of
the Articles of Affirmation and Denial the framers of the document explicitly
deny understanding the mode of inspiration.
But they affirm, as Scripture itself also does (2 Tim. 3:16), that the Bible is
the product of divine inspiration and that this work extended through the human
writers to each section and even each word of the original documents. The process of inspiration did not make the
biblical writers automatons, for their books reveal differences of vocabulary,
style and other matters of variation by human author and another. But inspiration did overcome any tendency
they may have had to error, with the result that the words they wrote were
precisely what God, the divine author, intended us to have.
ARTICLE
VIII: HUMAN AUTHORS
We affirm that
God in His work of inspiration utilized the distinctive personalities and
literary styles of the writers whom He had chosen and prepared.
We deny that God, in causing these writers to use
the very words that He chose, overrode their personalities.
Article VIII reiterates that God’s work of inspiration does not cancel
out the humanity of the human writers he uses to accomplish his purpose. The
writers of Scripture were chosen and prepared by God for their sacred task. However, whatever the process of inspiration
may have been, it does not include the canceling of the personality of the
writers as they wrote. Though the word
is not used in the article, what is clearly in view is a denial of any kind of
mechanistic or mechanical inspiration. Mechanical
inspiration would reduce the human authors to the level of automatons, robot-like machines. An analysis of Scripture makes clear that the
distinctive personalities and writing styles vary from one human writer to
another. The style, for example, of
St. Luke is obviously different from that of Matthew. The literary structures found in the writing
of Daniel differ greatly from those found, for example, in the writing of
James. Men of Hebrew origin tended to write
in Hebraic styles, and those of the Greek cultural background tended to write
in a Greek style. However, through
divine inspiration God made it possible for his truth to be communicated in an
inspired way making use of the backgrounds, personalities and literary styles
of these various writers. The human writers were not machines and ought not to
be conceived of as being without personality. What is overcome or overridden by inspiration
is not human personality, style or literary structure, but human tendencies to
distortion, falsehood and error.
Leader Notes:
WORD:
1-2. This is an important reminder about our
attitudes toward those in authority at work.
It is also interesting to note that while slavery was often different
than what occurred in this country, there is no reason to assume the masters were
always kind and progressive in their thinking.
3. Note that this passage does
not teach about a reward for or gain from being godly and content. Those ARE the rewards. You may want to let the men think about
how/why those two traits go together so well.
5-6. We need to avoid all this being about
somebody else.
WALK:
1. This explores two themes. 1) Let’s get away from a shallow mercenary motivation
of being good just or primarily to entice others to get saved. 2) How is honoring masters central to the
Gospel and Christ’s example?
2. Give each of the men 2-3
minutes (timed) to explain their outline and approach to teaching a lesson from
this chapter. It will be helpful to
think about how they would put a lesson together and get good ideas from the
other men.
4. If this question does not make anybody a
little uncomfortable, we may have missed the point.
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