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The apostle gives a reason for his exhortation to godliness.

II. THE SUPERIORITY OF GODLINESS TO ANY MERE BODILY EXERCISE. "For bodily exercise profiteth to a small extent."

1. The allusion here is not to the ascetic discipline already noticed, because:

(1) Though it might apply to the more developed austerities of later times - flagellations, pilgrimages, and weary vigils - it cannot fairly apply to the disuse of marriage and of certain kinds of food. There is no bodily exercise implied in such a quiescent habit or aspect of life.

(2) It is impossible to think that the apostle should even concede that such austerity was profitable to the smallest extent, for he is opposed to the whole idea of it.

(3) Besides, this was not the immediate subject in hand, which was the excellence of true piety.

2. The allusion is to the gymnastic training which occupied so much of the time and energy of the Greek youth. It was profitable for the healthful development of bodily life, but by its very nature it was both temporal and temporary in its results and its rewards.

II. THE GROUND OF THE SUPERIORITY OF GODLINESS. "But godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." It has the profit and the promise of a double life.

1. It has the profit and the promise of this present life.

(1) There is the promise of length of days. "The wicked live not half their days."

(2) There is the prophetic promise that they "shall inherit the earth."

(3) There is the profit

(a) of a good name,

(b) of riches and honor; for they will want no good thing.

(4) Godliness is profitable for all things included in the scheme of a holy life.

2. It has the profit and the promise of the life to come.

(1) This does not signify that it merits eternal life, but that it is essentially connected with it in the Divine scheme of salvation.

(2) Thus godliness is "great gain" for the whole life of man in the next life. It involves the highest blessedness of man.

(3) Happy is the man whose future is provided for as well as his present.

III. CORROBORATION OF THE APOSTLE'S ASSERTION RESPECTING GODLINESS. "Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation." It was a truth of universal acceptance among Christian people, because, in spite of all the drawbacks of a persecuting time, it had been happily realized in their checkered experience. - T.C.

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KJV: For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

WEB: For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now, and of that which is to come.