1 Timothy 6:5 · World English Bible
constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.
Vivāda: Quarreling Vivāda is disputing as a sport. The friction never wears itself smooth, since each side is guarding a position and wanting the last word, so all that rubbing gives off heat and no light.
From the Buddhism reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
BUDDHISM
Vivāda: Quarreling Vivāda is disputing as a sport. The friction never wears itself smooth, since each side is guarding a position and wanting the last word, so all that rubbing gives off heat and no light. Around Timothy in Ephesus these were quarrels with a wage attached: the argument was the product, and a settled question would have put the disputants out of work.
Kilesa: Defilement Kilesa is the stain that spoils a mind at its source. Corrupt here goes deeper than bad conduct, because greed has gotten into the thinking itself, so the teaching leaves the mouth already tainted, the way water from a fouled well comes up dirty in whatever bucket you lower. Such men can quote a text correctly and still poison whoever drinks.
Avijjā: Ignorance Avijjā is the dark that keeps things from being seen as they are. Destitute is the exact word: they handle sacred language all day and own nothing of what it points at, like the cowherd who counts another man's cattle and goes home with none. Their poverty holds through any amount of doctrine, since seeing has to be done firsthand, and no count of someone else's herd makes it yours.
Lābha-sakkāra: Gain and honor Lābha-sakkāra is the profit, status, and good name that gather around religion. Supposing godliness is a means of gain is swallowing a baited hook: the bait is food, which is why the fish takes it, and the line comes attached. Timothy gets the word gain handed back a sentence later with contentment inside it, a profit nobody pays you and nobody can take.
Pāpamitta: Bad company Pāpamitta is the companion whose company drags a person down. Withdraw yourself passes no sentence on them, it is ordinary caution, since a leaf that has wrapped rotten fish keeps the smell, and long hours in that friction leave a man arguing in his sleep. Distance is the cheapest protection available, and it is offered here ahead of any counterargument.
Buddhism lens
Whose company leaves me sharper and more suspicious than I was before it?
When the real thing fades, the show of it steps forward to take its place. Ceremony grows loudest exactly where the substance has gone.
Spend your hours with someone covered in soot and you will carry some of it home. Keeping distance is not a judgment on them, it is ordinary care for yourself.
What you give in order to get something back returns only something that fades. The act done for the reward is bound to the reward and shrinks to its size.
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Buddhism