Avoid (Good News Translation “Keep away from”) translates a verb that appears only here and in Titus 3.9, and refers to the act of keeping oneself from being involved in something. Another way to express this is “Do not listen to.”

For godless see comments on “profane” in 1 Tim 1.9, where it refers to people. The Greek word itself refers either to a thing or a person that has no relationship or connection with God whatsoever. The verb form (that is, “to profane”) refers to the act of taking something that is dedicated to God and making it unacceptable to God. For godless chatter see comments on 1 Tim 6.20. The expression is plural, indicating not one but many occurrences of the event. Such in the expression such godless chatter represents the effort to do justice to the definite article that goes with godless chatter, which if translated literally would be awkward. However, such also may be misleading, for it may give the impression that Paul has just mentioned godless chatter in the immediately preceding verses, when in fact this is not the case. Many translations do not try to represent the definite article, but in many languages, the definite article is very important in this case. Godless chatter as in 1 Tim 6.20 may also be expressed as “worthless (or, silly) discussions that show no reverence for God.”

For here has the sense of “because,” marking the reason why godless chatter should be avoided. It will lead people into more and more ungodliness is literally “they will greatly increase ungodliness,” with “they” referring either to godless chatter or to people, with no indication of who they are. Some interpreters see irony here, since the word for “increase” can also mean “progress”; these people are therefore making progress but on a downward rather than an upward direction. An argument in favor of godless chatter as the subject is the fact that the expression is plural and is therefore the logical antecedent of “they.” An argument in favor of people as the subject is that “their” in the next verse seems to have the same antecedent as “they” in this verse, and it makes more sense to read “their” in verse 17 as referring to people rather than to godless chatter. But regardless of the conclusion we draw, what comes out rather clearly is that godless chatter affects people adversely. We therefore need to ask the question, among whom will ungodliness increase? Possible answers are: (1) people in general (compare Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version “It only leads people farther away from God”); (2) Christians; and (3) those who engage in godless chatter, particularly the false teachers, but not limited to them (compare Revised English Bible “those who indulge in it,” New American Bible, Revised “such people will become more and more godless,” Translator’s New Testament “those who practice it”). (1) seems the more likely interpretation.

Ungodliness is not the same word as godless but translates a combination of “godliness” (for which see 1 Tim 2.2) and a negative prefix. Some translations take “godliness” here to mean “religion”; for example, New Jerusalem Bible “they only lead further and further away from true religion.” Others take it in a moral and ethical sense, describing Christian behavior; for example, Revised English Bible “will stray farther and farther into godless ways,” Translator’s New Testament “go on to even worse irreverence,” Phillips “lead further and further away from Christian living.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• Don’t listen to worthless (or, silly) discussions that show no reverence for God. Such talk causes people to go further away from God.

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