Verse 1
Doctrines of devils; corrupt and wicked doctrines.

Verse 2
Seared with a hot iron; hardened to sin.

Verse 3
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.

Verse 7
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.

Verse 8
Bodily exercise; the training of the body to privations and hardships, as specified above.--Godliness; holiness of heart.

Verse 10
Who is the Savior of all men; inasmuch as he offers salvation to all.

Verse 12
Let no man despise thy youth; that is, let your life and conversation be such that they will not.

Verse 14
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.

Verse 15
Thy profiting; thy spiritual advancement and welfare.