1Let as many as are bondservants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and the doctrine not be blasphemed. 2Those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brothers, but rather let them serve them, because those who partake of the benefit are believing and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.
3If anyone teaches a different doctrine and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, 4he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil suspicions, 5constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.
6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we certainly can’t carry anything out. 8But having food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
11But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses. 13I command you before God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession, 14that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which at the right time he will show, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.
17Charge those who are rich in this present age that they not be arrogant, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy; 18that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to share; 19laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.
20Timothy, guard that which is committed to you, turning away from the empty chatter and oppositions of what is falsely called knowledge, 21which some profess, and thus have wandered from the faith.
Grace be with you. Amen.
The term "Phrygia" (literally, parched, dry, barren) geographically refers to a vaguely defined interior region of central-western part of what is now Turkey, or ancient Asia Minor. The term may lack precise geographical boundaries for two reasons - the geographical limits changed dramatically from the original migration of the Phrygians until biblical times, and the term originally referred to a people, not a place. Josephus alleges that this people group originally descended from Japheth, through his son Gomer and grandson Togarmah (Gen 10:3; cf. Ez. 27:14). According to Herodotus, this people group migrated from Thrace, where they were called Bryges, through the Hellespont, as allies of Troy, into a vaguely defined zone in central-western Asia Minor, where they came to be called Phrygians. The exact era of the original migration is not known, but is before the 12th century B.C. The Phrygian language is similar to Greek. Plato, for example, noted the similarity of Greek and Phrygian words in Plato's Cratylus (401a). Neo-Phrygian clearly utilizes the Greek script.
The Phrygians reached their zenith in approximately the 8th century B.C., with the reigns of Gordion and Midas. Midas is depicted in Greek mythology as having the ears of a donkey, and gifted by the gods to turn whatever he touched into gold, including his own children. Later conquered by the Kingdom of Lydia, the region came under Persian control under Cyrus, through Cyrus' defeat of the Lydian King, Croesus, in 546 B.C. Alexander then took the region in 334 B.C., which remained under Alexander's general Seleucus and his descendants' control until the Peace of Apamea in 188 B.C. where Pergamum, under Eumenes II (197-158 B.C.) as an ally of Rome, took control of the region from Antiochus III. The last king of Pergamum ceded his entire kingdom and territories, including Phrygia, to Rome in 133 B.C.
Phrygia, centered around the Lycus River valley, includes the sites of three nearly adjacent cities significantly named in Scripture - Colossae, Laodicea (Rev 3:14-22), and Hieropolis (Col 2:1; 4:13; modern Pammukale).
Three times the term Phrygia appears in the Bible, in Acts, 2:10, 16:6, and 18:23. Additionally, a subscript appended to 1 Timothy 6:21 appears in the Textus Receptus (upon which the KJV derived, hence its appearance in the KJV) stating that 1st Timothy "was written from Laodicea, which is the chiefest city of Phrygia Pacatiana." Pacatiana refers to Phrygia Prima, whose chief city was Laodicea, in distinction to Phrygia Secunda (Salutaris). These two provinces comprised Phrygia as a whole under the Roman imperial administrative rezoning of provinces under Diocletian in about A.D. 295.
Acts 2:10 describes the presence of Phrygians at Pentecost, hearing in their "own language the mighty works of God." During the second missionary journey (Acts 15:36-18:22), Paul passed through Phrygia and Galatia in Acts 16:6. Paul's third missionary journey (Acts 18:23-21:16) begins with his orderly excursion through "all the regions of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples" (Acts 18:23).
Significantly, there was a thriving Jewish population in Phrygia, making the region a logical missionary target for the Apostle Paul (cf. Acts 13-22), who began church-planting enterprises by preaching Christ in the synagogues (as per Acts 13:15). Even in Obadiah's time (cf. vs. 20), around the time of the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C., Jewish exiles resided in the Lydian capital of Sardis (an Aramaic inscription in Sardis matches the Hebrew transliteration of "Sepharad" of Ob. 20). Josephus reports that Seleucus I (312-281 B.C.) granted "full civic rights" to Jews, and moreover, Antiochus II (261 B.C.-246 B.C.) planted Jewish colonies in Ionia, while Antiochus III (222–187 B.C.) ordered his satrap (regional governor) Zeuxis to allow 2000 Jewish families to settle in Phrygia with free cultivable lands and a tax-free status for ten years. Jews of the region paid their half-shekel "temple tax" to support the Temple of Jerusalem, until it was confiscated by Lucius Valerius Flaccus in 62 B.C. (it was reinstituted under Flaccus' successor). The amount of money confiscated by Flaccus indicates a quite large Jewish population in the region. In A.D. 2-3, even Augustus posted a full declaration of Jewish rights in this part of the Empire in Ancyra, the capital of Galatia. Accordingly, Paul targeted a center of Jewish presence and prosperity in his missionary enterprises (cf. Rom 1:16; 9:3).