The use of the gymnastic term leads Paul to compare physical exercise with spiritual exercise. Training is the noun form of the verb “to train” in the previous verse. This training or “exercise” is described as bodily, referring to the actual activity of exercising the body in order to stay fit physically. This kind of exercise, Paul grants, is of some value. Some interpreters claim that the verse is not affirming the value of athletic training; it is in fact downgrading physical exercise and depreciating its value. In this case the expression would be rendered “of little (or, slight) value.” Some others, however, understand the verse as affirming the importance and worth of physical exercise, although recognizing that this importance is slight when compared to the exercise that leads to godliness. Translators are urged to follow this second interpretation, as both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have done. Other translation models are “Training (or, Exercising) the body is of some value (or, use)” or “If you exercise your body you will get some benefit, but….”

The last part of the verse then affirms the value of spiritual exercise. Actually the text says godliness here, but it seems obvious from the context that it is not godliness in itself that is being discussed but the exercise that leads to godliness, hence Good News Translation “spiritual exercise” (see also Phillips “bodily fitness … spiritual fitness”). Thus spiritual exercise and the spiritual fitness that results is of value in every way, that is, its value is not limited, because it is useful both for the present and for the future. Another way to express this is “But if you train your heart, that will be beneficial in every way.” Holds promise … for life is literally “having promise of life,” with “life” understood as that life that God has promised, hence “abundant life,” life in all its fullness, practically equivalent to “eternal life.” The sense of the passage seems to be that through spiritual exercise people can obtain that kind of a life that God has promised to give. And this life starts now; it is for the present. But it is also for the future; in fact, it does not cease with death, but it is also for the life to come. The present puts focus on the physical life, life in this world, whereas the life to come puts focus on existence beyond death. In either case spiritual exercise and spiritual fitness play an important role. An alternative translation model for this final part of this verse is “If you train your heart, that will be beneficial in every way, because right now and in the future you gain the life which God has promised.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .