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.
Supposing that godliness is a way of gain ...  This applies to all who misuse sacred work for secular profit or personal benefit; but the implication is also inescapable that this relates to the slave problem.  If the false teachers were advocating emancipation as a corollary of salvation, then indeed godliness would have been great gain; and there is the strongest possibility that there are echoes of that position here. Turning quickly to the counterpart of his truth, namely, that in one sense godliness is indeed great gain, he wrote the next line  (1 Timothy 6:6).