What is the meaning of 1 Timothy 6:21? Which some have professed “Which some have professed” (1 Timothy 6:21) points to people in the Ephesian church who openly claimed possession of a superior “knowledge.” Paul has just labeled it “irreverent chatter and the opposing arguments of so-called ‘knowledge’” (v. 20). • Professing, in this setting, is not genuine confession of Christ but an intellectual display that puts human speculation over God’s revealed Word. • Similar warnings appear in Titus 1:16—“They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him,” and in 2 Timothy 2:18, where false teachers “have deviated from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already occurred.” • Paul reminds Timothy that talk, however lofty, must line up with the “sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 6:3). Anything else is empty profession. And thus swerved away from the faith The result of empty profession is tragic: it causes people to “swerve” or deviate from the straight course of the gospel. • 1 Timothy 1:6 uses the same imagery: “Some have strayed from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion.” • 1 Timothy 4:1 states the danger bluntly: “In later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits.” • Hebrews 3:12 warns believers to guard their hearts so that none “turns away from the living God.” For Paul, “the faith” is the fixed, objective body of truth revealed in Scripture (Jude 3). Swerving from it is not a minor detour but a departure from the gospel that saves. Grace be with you all Paul closes with a benediction, praying that God’s undeserved favor will rest on every believer in Ephesus. • This grace equips Timothy to guard the deposit entrusted to him (2 Timothy 1:14) and enables the church to stand firm amid false teaching. • Elsewhere Paul ends with a similar plea: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Romans 16:20; Ephesians 6:24; 2 Thessalonians 3:18). • Grace is both the foundation and the sustaining power of the Christian life, the remedy for the pride that fuels empty profession and the strength that keeps believers on course. summary 1 Timothy 6:21 contrasts two paths. Some loudly claim a knowledge that contradicts Scripture, and their empty words pull them off the roadway of saving faith. Paul urges Timothy—and all believers—to cling to the revealed truth and to rely on God’s ever-present grace, the one safeguard that keeps hearts anchored to Christ. |
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