1Ti 4 | Abbott | STEP | Doctrines of devils; corrupt and wicked doctrines.

1 Timothy 4

Doctrines of devils; corrupt and wicked doctrines.

Seared with a hot iron; hardened to sin.

Forbidding, &c.; that is, enjoining self-imposed penances and mortifications, as a mode of obtaining the favor of God. There has been, in all ages of the church, a great tendency to this error.

Refuse; reject.—Old wives' fables; nursery tales, which can only please the merest children in religious knowledge.—Rather unto godliness, that is, to moral and spiritual purity, rather than outward sanctity, sought through self-inflicted mortification.

Bodily exercise; the training of the body to privations and hardships, as specified above.—Godliness; holiness of heart.

Who is the Savior of all men; inasmuch as he offers salvation to all.

Let no man despise thy youth; that is, let your life and conversation be such that they will not.

The gift; the ministerial office.—By prophecy; by divine direction.—The presbytery; the eldership, referring to those older than himself in the ministerial work, by whom he was solemnly inducted to the office.

Thy profiting; thy spiritual advancement and welfare.