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Friday, March 21, 2025

Today's Passage : Today's Passage: Warning Against False Teachers

Bible Verse:1 Timothy 1:3-7 (NASB)

"As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere [or non-hypocritical] faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions."

Message: There are many reasons people pervert the Gospel and teach nonsense, or even evil. Sometimes they just want something new. Sometimes they want to convince people of some doctrine in order to make money. Sometimes they want others to think they have special knowledge, or special powers. Sometimes, they fairly innocently think that their brain knows something—using logic or personal insight—that the Gospel neither states nor implies. Let’s examine an early and primary perversion of the Gospel, which likely motivated Paul to write these words to Timothy: Gnosticism. “Gnostic” actually describes several different religions that people invented in the centuries after Christ’s death and resurrection. It is still around today. I don’t know why people believe this nonsense, but they do. I suspect some of it might have to do with disgust at the hypocrisy of earthly churches. Some people reject the Gospel because they react strongly to an individual who has God in his mouth but Satan in his heart. They fail to see that it is the person, not the Word, which is hypocritical. Others have a need to feel important, and the secret knowledge claimed by the various Gnostic sects meets this need. One of the biggest red flags, in life as well as in religion, is a person who claims to have special or secret knowledge. Quack medical gurus and fraudulent investment schemes use this the same way as false religious prophets. The worst of them add a claim that their knowledge has been somehow suppressed by powerful people. If you get a sales pitch from anyone who claims to have special or secret knowledge, run the other way! Early Bible illustration of
Paul driving Gnosticism from the church. Paul driving Gnosticism from the church. Many of the Gnostic sects claim that their writings are secret or special books written by Christ or by some person who lived and witnessed Christ’s life. They share certain characteristics, and it is these shared characteristics that cause them to be grouped together as “gnostic.” They claim that matter is evil and spirit is good, and that God, who is spirit, cannot be involved in molding matter. Because this causes insurmountable problems with the Bible, they say that there are various levels where spirit and matter are combined. The God of the Old Testament, called YHWH or Jehovah or simply “Father,” is one of these levels of being that lie between spirit and matter. Jesus is another such intermediate level; most gnostics place Christ higher than God the Father. Christ could not, however, be divine, because he had flesh. As you may have guessed by now, all of the Gnostic sects claim to have secret knowledge known only to special persons. Basically, you need to learn a set of passwords to rise through the various spheres of holiness and find salvation. Some heresies are theologically harmless. Throughout the ages, there have been a lot of nit-picking philosophical or theological points that have little or nothing to do with actual salvation through the great and powerful grace of Jesus Christ. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? But although they are theologically harmless, these speculations harm the church, because they are fruitless and turn our eyes away from our true mission and ministry. Christ commands the church to be fruitful, and indeed, fruitfulness is a sign of the Holy Spirit. But Gnosticism is not Christianity at all. By denying that one is saved by faith in Christ, as the revealed son of God, Gnosticism points the way to hell. You don’t need to know a secret to be saved. God has given all people the opportunity of salvation by proclaiming his Word openly and widely, so that all people might know it and be saved.