From time to time you've seen me write that some teaching or even some teacher was particularly heretical. There should be no room for doubt in your mind that my declarations are not based upon something as ridiculous as personal dislike or even of jealousy. I reserve that judgment for someone who falls within the Biblically defined parameters of a heretic. The Bible calls them false teachers among other more derogatory names. They are individuals who through varying motivations from ignorance on one side of the spectrum to greed or worse on the other side teach with an eye on their own self promotion rather than upon Christ and the Glory of God.
I would like to have you turn back to 1 Timothy again this morning. As we enter the home stretch on this brief letter we will encounter heretics, greed, and some final exhortations.
1 Timothy 6:3 provides two tests of orthodoxy or correct doctrine. First does the teaching your hearing line up with Paul's teaching? Second do the results of the teaching generate both physical and spiritual wellness? Failing either of those tests - the teaching if not the teacher can be labeled heretical.
In the passage in front of us Paul describes for us not only how to identify heresy by it's content but also by it's effect as well as probing the depths of it's frequent motivations. It is my intention this morning to see in this text not merely the identification of Heresy, that is too small a purpose for the text. My greater hope is that each of you will be able to discern the way towards truth as we identify the marks of error.
Our reintroduction to 1 Timothy begins in this passage. There is little to no need to do any review because much of the purpose of this last chapter is to repeat and review so much of what has gone before. Allow me to quote from commentator William Mounce at length because he so appropriately sums it up this portion of the book.
"The opponents [in Ephesus] are teaching a different gospel, their teaching is not healthy, and they are ignorant, foolish, and given to speculations and arguments over words instead of preaching the message about Jesus Christ. The opposition has arisen from within the Ephesian church, not from without, and the opponents knowingly have given themselves to the error, thus causing self-inflicted wounds. Their motivation is tainted, desiring not only the respect of being teachers of the law but also money. Their teaching is devoid of almost any content and is rather a babbling about words. Consequently Paul cannot provide a point-by-point critique of their theology; instead he draws attention to their wicked behavior as evidence of their error, showing the strong connection between theology and ethics. A theology that produces improper behavior is poor theology."1
By looking at these false teachers we rapidly learn to mark them first by what they teach and what they reject.
Their very first mark is that they advocate or stand up for a different doctrine. In context it is both understood and assumed that there is a doctrinal foundation laid and some of the Ephesian false teachers are going against it.
This is a common thread throughout the new testament. In Romans 16:17 we are warned to “keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.” (NASB) The principle is extended to the Galatian church in Galatians 1:6-8 “
I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!” (Ga 1:6-8, NASB95)
Those are powerful words – He is clearly enough saying that if anyone teaches a different gospel they should go straight to hell. But underneath them is the simple concept that once the gospel message is taught it becomes THE authoritative standard of doctrine by which every other doctrine must be measured.
As far as applying this principle to life it's actually pretty easy. Discernment is a faltering skill in our culture – especially among Christians. But discernment starts with making the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ – the foundation of his substitutionary atonement and salvation by grace through faith – taking that doctrine and making it the first line of defense. Every book you read, every study you embark on – every religious conversation should begin with the gospel of Jesus Christ being the foundation grid by which you determine if someone is teaching heresy or not. If that book or that person or that teacher is trying to pass off something different from the gospel of Jesus Christ your task is to turn away from them.
Your need to discern doesn't end with the gospel it just begins there. The Bible contains much more teaching than the gospel of salvation but every teaching it does contain stems from that foundational truth. Therefore every accurate doctrine will accurately reflect the good news that God sent his Son to earth so that he might live a perfect life as a human being. His perfect life was exchanged for our sin upon the cross where he became the sacrifice both for my sin and yours.
As if it's not enough to dredge up a different gospel they also actively argued against sound doctrine. (1 Tim 6:3b)
The rest of the verse spells out quite specifically that two sets of sound words are in mind. The first set is called “sound words...of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That word “of” could either mean the words that Jesus spoke in the gospels or more than likely it means “the words which speak of Jesus Christ”. The second group being the gospel itself and the new testament teachings about him which guide towards godliness as a result of salvation.
If you go back to the first chapter of Timothy (1:4,6) you can see that the false teachers in Ephesus were paying attention to myths and endless genealogies, and had turned to fruitless discussion. They replaced the solid teaching with myth and legend (1:4).
As a result they generated a lot of heat and noise but they were not generating Godly lives: Which after Doctrine is the surest test of teaching.
The problem isn't that they weren't living in accordance to what they were teaching, they were. There was a direct correlation between what their mouths taught and what their lives caught. Their life itself evidenced itself in godlessness and greed.
We might think it doesn't have to be this way, but beyond question almost invariably there is little distance between heresy and sinful behavior – and that stems from the reality that false teachers by virtue of ignoring the full gospel, patently disagree that following Christ should lead to godliness.
"The two phrases “sound words about Christ” and “teaching according to godliness” are synonymous, the first emphasizing the content of the proclamation and the second the effects of the proclamation."2 Throughout the book of 1 Timothy, sound teaching has been the measure by which behavior is measured. (1 Tim 1:10; 4:6)
The judgment of these men is that despite the fact that they think they are the pinnacle if intelligent, they are merely arrogant and they really are in fact ignorant.
Here at home I saw this in the Baccalaureate this past spring. The youth pastor from FCC told the students that it didn't matter how they lived, they just needed to know that God loved them. That was the lie - and it didn't agree with sound doctrine, it didn't agree with doctrines that would guide towards godliness it agreed with the sinful desires of humanity. That was heresy.
Farther away, you might have been aware of a huge so called revival down in Lakeland Florida which lasted over a hundred days and was broadcast around the clock on some cable and satellite networks. The speaker, Evangelist Todd Bentley claimed dozens of people raised from the dead – and by all appearances miracles of some origin were happening in Lakeland. The blind were seeing, the deaf were hearing and more.
There was a cloud around Bentley however, his credibility was questionable from the start. Now Bentley announced not only the end of the Lakeland visits but the end of his marriage as well.
As one author wrote, “From the first week of the Lakeland revival, many discerning Christians raised questions about Bentley’s beliefs and practices. They felt uneasy when he said he talked to an angel in his hotel room. They sensed something amiss when he wore a T-shirt with a skeleton on it. They wondered why a man of God would cover himself with tattoos. They were horrified when they heard him describe how he tackled a man and knocked his tooth out during prayer. But among those who jumped on the Lakeland bandwagon, discernment was discouraged. They were expected to swallow and follow. The message was clear: “This is God. Don’t question.”.”3
If only they had just paid attention to the gospel they had first heard, they would not have fallen prey to deception.
Grady's article continued with stern warning “Many of us would rather watch a noisy demonstration of miracles, signs and wonders than have a quiet Bible study. ...
A prominent Pentecostal evangelist called me this week after Bentley’s news hit the fan. He said to me: “I’m now convinced that a large segment of the charismatic church will follow the anti-Christ when he shows up because they have no discernment.”.”4
The problems which Paul addressed regarding heresy, heretics and run of the mill false teachers who talk a good talk aren't new, and they certainly are not gone.
God's precious gift to you and to me to keep us from falling into the error either of teaching or following error is the process of discerning between good and evil by simply comparing what we hear and read to what the Word of God says.
Let the word of Christ dwell in YOU richly.
Amen.
1William D. Mounce, vol. 46, Word Biblical Commentary : Pastoral Epistles, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002), 334.
2William D. Mounce, vol. 46, Word Biblical Commentary : Pastoral Epistles,
Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002), 337.
3source: Grady, J. Lee. , Life After Lakeland: Sorting Out the Confusion -
Fire In My Bones. http://fireinmybones.com/index.php?col=081308~Life+After+Lakeland%3A+Sor...
4source: Grady, J. Lee., Life After Lakeland: Sorting Out the Confusion -
Fire In My Bones. http://fireinmybones.com/index.php?col=081308~Life+After+Lakeland%3A+Sor...
There are three characteristics that are consistent across every person I've ever known who was looking for a fight.
1) Some if not all of them Just liked to argue.
2) They believed at some level that they might be wrong and thus were prepared to duke it out from the start, no matter what the issue.
3) They had a much higher view of themselves than they merited. People who do not know them might well describe them as arrogant after meeting them.
Last time we talked about the identifying marks of a heretic; while this week we are going to look at a few more identification marks which pretty well double up to show us some of what motivates them. So in order to help refresh your memory: a heretic:
teaches a different doctrine,
disagrees with sound teaching,
and as a result rejects godliness which the gospel should invariably produce in the life of a true believer.
By rejecting the scriptures they embrace ignorance never examining the end result of their obstinacy. Proverbs 21:16 says, “A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.” The end result of heresy is death. Thus it is nothing to be trifled with.
If you return to 1 Timothy 6:4 we step into their motivation.
And chief among them is that they love controversy. They just love to argue.
He states that such a person, “...has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth...” (1 Timothy 6:4-5)
That word Morbid translates "sick". He has a nauseating tendency towards controversy. This doesn't apply to someone who is honestly searching for truth and is asking hard questions to get there. There's no loss there. These are people who enjoy the controversy.
I used to work with a man who upon discovering I was a Christian began to bombard me almost daily with some pretty intense questions. He would ask about the resurrection, evolution, divorce and remarriage, and topic after topic. I would answer his questions to the best of my ability and whenever I got near to nailing him down he would shift his position like a politician in a church pew.
Finally in exasperation I asked him one day, "Be honest with me, do you want the answer to your questions or are you just looking for something to argue about?" To his credit he paused long enough to give an honest answer and said, "I guess I just want to argue." I told him to come back when he wanted to learn something I was done wasting my time.
What do you do with someone like that? Titus 3:10 tells us to “Reject a factious man after a first and second warning,” (Tit 3:10, NASB95) So rebuke him once, rebuke him twice and then cut them off.
Back in Timothy, these false teachers that we are warned against they love to argue and as a result they leave a stream of chaos behind them.
Look at this list of the result of their passion for controversy. Envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, constant friction... Compare that to 1 Timothy 1:5, “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless discussion...” Here Paul sums it up with “constant friction...”
1 Timothy 1:7 defines them as wanting to be teachers of the law but they don't even understand what they're saying, neither do they understand the issues at all.
Discord and chaos follow these false teachers. Think of the reasons. Some want to argue against them as they must. Others will argue for them as they can. All of their arguing is joined in by others with a comparable ignorance to their own. The pooling of ignorance does about as much good as sending a corrupt politician to Washington to fix the corruption.
It's also apparent from the first chapter (1:4) that the teaching of the heretical opponents created lots of discussion; but activity is an insufficient measure of accuracy.
In the process of creating chaos they not only create problems, they also prevent any true Spiritual growth from happening. Having rejected the pure gospel they display their ignorance and develop a wrongheaded desire to argue over words and to speculate about things not relevant to crafting Love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1:5) Having gone astray from those things the only natural result is strife, arguing, slander, evil suspicions, and the like.
A wicked man with a bible is still wicked. In this instance the fool who rejects sound doctrine is "deprived of the truth". That's quite a picturesque phrase. It literally instructs us in the dangers of rejecting the gospel in that the gospel will literally be taken away from you just as the truth is taken away from these men.
At any rate they demonstrate that they don't know the truth by their behavior. By their persistence in rejecting the truth they are then robbed of it.
They may be ignorant and they may be arrogant but it appears that the greater motivator is often nothing more than the idolatry of common greed.
1 Timothy 6:5 ends their indictment by simply saying that they “suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”
Apparently whatever else they were teaching while it was problematic it wasn't the source of the problem. Their primary motivating factor for teaching, preaching or whatever it was they were doing was because it would make them a profit. As Mounce aptly states, "Behind the opponents’ facade, their supposed intellectualism and false piety, lies the real motivation for their ministry: they want to make money."1
Now if you look back at 1 Timothy 5:17 it becomes rather obvious that Paul is not against the concept of money being involved. He has already said in 1 Timothy 5:17 that elders who do well especially teachers should be doubly paid. But pay must not be the motivation as it was for these false teachers.2
When you begin to consider the ramifications of what these false teachers were doing it is sobering. We are told at the close of the first chapter that a couple of the teachers in question, Hymaneus and Alexander had been handed over by Paul into the hands of Satan. Willfully rejecting the scriptures for any reason is not only dangerous it is eternally deadly.
Let me give you then four reactions that you and I should have to this indictment of these heretics.
The downward fall of the false teachers was marked by their outright rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you cannot testify that Jesus Christ is the Only Son of God, that he lived a perfect life on this earth, that He suffered was crucified and put to death as a payment of the penalty for your sins; and that he was buried in a borrowed tomb, that he was in that tomb for three days and that on the third day He came back to life. If you cannot then testify that You believe that Jesus is Lord, and that you have turned your back on sin in repentance and have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as your own sacrifice; if you cannot confirm these truths – your salvation is a fraud and your soul is in peril. In that case I ask you right now to seek for your salvation.
Every man, woman and child has sinned against God and deserves a heretics' condemnation. Only those who come to God through Jesus Christ with repentance and faith will be saved. If you want to come to Jesus today and let him run your life, don't even wait for me to finish speaking you come up here and accept him.
Assuming then that you've accepted Jesus Christ we move on to another of the distinguishing marks of a heretic: their lives demonstrated no godliness whatsoever. It is no mistake that towards the end of the chapter Paul will give a powerful exhortation to Timothy to pursue Godliness (1 Tim 6:11).
I can do no better than to issue the same call. Flee from sin and pursue godliness. Failure to even desire godliness should be a warning bell to your heart.
Think about your own motivations in your Christian walk. It is always easy to point out sin in the lives of others. But it is always profitable to ask yourself where that sin exists in your own life. There is very often a blind spot however when looking at your own life. So I council you to ask God to show you the blind spots.
And if you say pastor I'm not in ministry – than you've done two things. First you've revealed that you do not understand that your life in Christ is a ministry to others. It is a ministry to your family, and to everyone around you including this church. And second you've isolated where you need to get intentional about your discipleship.
The heretics in Ephesus generated lots of excitement but their fruit was all wrong (1 Timothy 1:4-5).
What is happening to yourself, and to others as a result of your discipleship?