After the short but
powerful presentation of his credentials
and his greeting to Timothy (1:1-2), Paul
gets straight to the point. There are evidently serious problems in the church at Ephesus, a church that
was established on his second
missionary journey (AD 49-52)[1]
by missionary labours of Apollos in Acts 18:24-28 and by Paul
in Acts 19. It was on this journey, according to Acts
16: 1-5, that Paul met Timothy (then probably only a boy) and his family. Much water was going to flow under the
bridge until about 10 or more years later when
he would write his first letter to Timothy, who at this time had been ordained [2].
At this time Timothy had been serving
the church in Ephesus, as we read in v. 3: “As I urged you when I was going to
Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons
not to teach any different doctrine …”. Paul had left Timothy
in Ephesus whilst he travelled north to Macedonia. Being a young and inexperienced pastor in a
challenging environment is no easy task. I have been there myself when I received the charge from this congregation in
1990. So, in this challenging
situation in which the apostolic teaching
of the gospel is undermined in Ephesus,
what must Timothy do, as he
depends upon the grace, mercy and peace from God?
Here’s what Paul offers by way of counsel :
Charge certain persons from teaching any different doctrine! (v.3)
Different doctrine!
This implies that there is a body of true doctrine which Paul, Timothy
and the New Testament church knew to be the orthodox teaching of Christianity. In Acts
2:42 it was called “the apostles’ doctrine” [3] - a core
of apostolic proclamation and teaching which defined biblical Christianity. It was that
teaching which the Ephesians first heard and which they responded to some 10 or more years earlier,
and which is now being challenged by
this different doctrine[4].
So now Timothy
is encouraged by Paul to firmly take hold of the situation by charging
or commanding [5]
certain persons to stop teaching
doctrine that was contrary to
what they had received. Throughout this
letters to Timothy we here this charge
repeated e.g.
- “command and teach these things” (I Tim. 4:11). “ O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you” (I Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim 1:14).
- “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me….” (2 Tim.1:13).
- “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim.2:2).
The authority of the apostolic Word of God is not to be trifled with. The Bible
and the nature of Christ has been challenged by many unorthodox teachers in the history of the early church, and this
fact gave rise to the wonderful summaries
of the Christian faith in terms of
the Apostles creed, Nicene creed,
Chalcedonian creeds etc. So Timothy
(and Titus in 1:10,11) have a
pastoral duty and authority from God to
command and silence those
that mislead the
church of God with this different
doctrine. We have the same
responsibility today. We must ensure
that the church is fed sound
doctrine, that conforms to the apostolic teaching as we find in in the
Bible.
Now, it is
amazing to see how quickly unorthodox teaching enters the church. In
Acts 20:29 -31 Paul had previously warned the Ephesian elders concerning
the fierce wolves who would not spare the flock, and here we are! It is
happening, and now Timothy was confronted with the damage caused by these persons teaching false doctrines to the
church.
What was the content of their different doctrine? In v.
4 he elaborates. They apparently “devote themselves to myths and endless
genealogies, which promote speculations …”.
In v.6
Paul speaks about them having “wandered
away into vain discussions”, and in v. 7 he mentions that they “desire to be teachers of the law, without
understanding either what they are
saying or the things about which they
make confident assertions…”
Oh how many people you find in the name of the Christian
faith indulging in speculative
doctrines and myths and endless genealogies. This is
very true for Mormonism, a fast
growing false religion also found in Namibia. This cult originated with a man called Joseph Smith. He said that in 1823 an
angel named Moroni had appeared to him. The angel claimed to be the
son of Mormon, the now dead leader of
an American race known as Nephites. The
story goes that two groups, the Lamanites and the Nephites had migrated from
the Middle East to the Americas
between 600 B.C. and 400 A.D. The Lamanites eventually defeated and destroyed the Nephites in battle. All this claims to have
been written down on tablets of gold and Joseph Smith had discovered them and copied them, and the originals disappeared when he had
finished. The detailed account of these myths is now supposedly contained in the book
of Mormon. It is interesting
to note that the Mormons are obsessed with the genealogies of its members
because of their strange doctrine of proxy baptisms for their dead relatives.
Millions of people believe all this and this teaching
has spread it all over the world. “Myths
and endless genealogies” are still alive
on planet earth!
Today we also hear of
stories of people who say that they have gone to heaven and have come
back, and people are
enamoured with their stories,
but in reality this is all meaningless talk
because in the end this produces only speculation and not godliness.
The best-selling story of a
boy's near-death experience in 2015 was
a fake. Alex Malarkey has retracted his story about going to heaven and
returning.Co-written with his father Kevin Malarkey and published in 2010, the
book purported to tell the story of six-year-old Alex's experiences in heaven
after a car accident in 2004, which included meeting and talking to Jesus. Now,
however Alex – who was left quadraplegic by the accident – has written an open
letter to booksellers including the Southern Baptist Convention's Lifeway
business recanting his story and taking aim at other accounts of "heaven
tourism", a genre that includes Heaven
is for Real by Todd Burpo and My
Journey to Heaven by Marvin Besteman….. Alex confessed : "I did not die. I did not go to Heaven. "I said I went to
heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that
I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue
to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source
of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible.[6]
What are the consequences of false teaching ?
Paul says that they promoted
speculations (v.4)
and apostasy since some in the Ephesian congregation had wandered away from a sincere faith and have turned to vain discussion (v.7). Such people who claim such mystic experiences and enlightenment, often set themselves up as
teachers and in
the context in Ephesus some of these
have set themselves as “teachers
of the law” (v.7), but they were the literally
the blind leading the blind, as they lead their followers away from Christ and into
darkness and confusion.
It is in this context that Paul provides us with a helpful understanding of
the use of the law in vv. 8-11. Paul says that the law is good if one uses it lawfully i.e. for the
end to which it was intended to be used by God (v.8). But then there is also
the improper (heterodox) use of the law. Any good thing from God has been and is being abused. That is the nature of the ongoing
Satanic subversion of the truth of God in Jesus. Those false teachers in Ephesus ( the fierce wolves of Acts 20:29,30)
speaking twisted things appeared to be . “teachers of the law” (v.7).
So these teachers of the law with their
mystical and speculative inclinations kept ignorant people in
bondage. That, however is not the proper use of the law and so , in vv. 8-
10 Paul helps Timothy to discern the proper use of the law.
The proper use of the
law
The law defines what
sin is. Paul gives
us examples of what sinners are like and
what they do in vv. 9
&10. The list roughly follows the outline of the 10
commandments. Sinners are lawless and disobedient. They are ungodly and
sinful. They are unholy and profane (irreligious/ polluted). Those are the sins
against God. The next few descriptions
deal with sins against fellow human beings: disrespect for parents, murder, and sexual immorality of all
kinds (homosexuality being explicitly
mentioned),those who enslave
others, and who lie and commit perjury even under oath and so on!
The law of God is made
for such lawbreakers (v.9). The law was given not
to condemn those who have been justified
by grace through faith in Jesus, but the
law was given to judge “the
lawless, disobedient, ungodly , sinners, unholy , profane…”. At the end of
the ages. When the Lord Jesus Christ shall come to judge the living and the
dead, the law will accuse
all such people, while those who
have trusted in Christ and who have
lived in dependence on Him for their
righteousness are freed from
the accusations of the law.
There is much more that can be said about the function of the
law e.g. the fact that the law with its stringent demands is used by God to bring conviction of sin and to drive us to Christ. But
Paul doesn’t say it all here.
Paul is concerned to help
Timothy in his work as a pastor
to people who were being enslaved
by false teachers . False teachers
always lead people away from Christ by
making secondary matters (i.e. matters that are in the Bible … there
are many mysteries ; there are genealogies , there is the law) into primary matters, thereby losing
Christ in the process. Losing Jesus means that
we will easily slip back into our pagan lifestyles with its idolatry
and immorality - all the
things addressed by the law .
So, Timothy is to do
all he can to put a stop to the spread of this teaching, such as mysticism and worthless
speculations on matters like genealogies. He is to stop this tendency by which people become enslaved by a
legalistic framework.
But the work of the pastor does not only consist in dealing with such problems negatively. Timothy must not only teach the
Ephesian church in term of what not to do, but he must also instruct the
church in a positive way. We see this in v. 4.
He talks about that which promotes God’s work, and he says it is “love (for God and man) that
issues from a pure heart and a
good conscience and a sincere
faith “ and in v. 11 he gives us the object of that faith: “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God”. The gospel is Jesus Christ, His person and work , and we
shall see that Paul continues with that theme in 1:12-17, ending with that tremendous doxology in v.17
Myths and genealogies and legalism promote controversies, but God’s work is
promoted by “love that issues from a pure heart and a
good conscience and a sincere
faith“. Timothy was sent to Ephesus to save the church from being
destroyed. His mission was one of love for God and for the church. That was the reason for silencing the
mouths of false teachers, and if Timothy fails to do this then he will not truly love God or the church. Jesus greatest outburst of anger was when He saw the temple of God the House of Prayer abused by unscrupulous marketeers. We too show our love by our zeal for God and for His church. We will never show true love by way of compromising with false teachers and their false doctrine.
So many of our failures are failures to keep the two great
commandments, that is loving God with all our hearts and loving our neighbours as we would love ourselves. (Mark 12 :30,31).
Paul's advice to Timothy is therefore : "Timothy, do your work at Ephesus for God with love for God and for the church . Do this from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith . Do this in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted."
Amen !
[1] Second missionary journey : Acts 15:36-18
[2] 1
Tim 4:14
[3]
See also 1 Cor 15:1-3 ; Rom 6:17;
2Tim 1:13
[4]
Greek : heterodidaskaleō
[5] Greek : paranggelō - para ( besides) & angelō (to
announce) - to pass on an announcement .
[6] http://www.christiantoday.com/article/the.boy.who.came.back.from.heaven.alex.malarkey.says.i.did.not.die.i.did.not.go.to.heaven/46044.htm
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