False Teachers and Contentment (1 Timothy 6:2-10)

Welcome & Announcements

Josh Dickson will be preaching February 26th, 2023, during the Sunday AM Service; he will also be teaching Discipleship Groups on March 8th, 2023.

Pastor Daniel and Natalie will be out of town February 24-25 and March 8-11. In addition, Pastor Daniel will be out of town February 28-March 1 until the evening service. In case of emergency, please contact a deacon.

Pastor Jordan Alturas of The Fellowship Church (State College, PA) will be preaching March 12th, 2023, during the Sunday AM Service.

Starting March 1, 2023, our service times will be different—there will no longer be a 9am Discipleship Group hour on Sunday mornings and our AM Worship time will start at 10:45am. Wednesdays will still start at 7pm (utilizing the Answers in Genesis curriculum) with a light dinner served at 6:45pm through the Bible Study hour—everything on Wednesdays will be moved into the Activity Room.

Giving Reminder

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Preaching of God’s Word (1 Tim 6:2-10)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to 1 Timothy 6:2-10.

As you turn there, let me explain what exactly is happening as we start getting closer to the end of 1 Timothy. Paul is starting to wrap up his letter and as he wraps up his letter he’s basically giving multiple commands or encouragements to Timothy and in some cases, he reiterates what he’s already told Timothy, like in today’s passage. Paul returns to the issue of false teaching within the church of Ephesus, but the difference this time is that he speaks at length about the sins of a false teacher and contrasts what a false teacher desires with the truth.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to look at it in two parts: (1) False Teachers (2b-5) and (2) Being Content (6-10). Now, I will admit that these two sections look like they’re not talking about the same issue but let me assure you that vv. 6-10 exist as a contrast of vv. 2-5; or in other words, part of the reasoning for vv. 2-5 is simply because the assertion of false teachers in vv. 6-10 is false but I’ll explain that more as we dig into the passage. Paul calls out false teachers and what they do before encouraging what he claims is great gain, godliness with contentment. This evening, we’ll be warned again about false teachers before being reminded to seek being like Christ and to be content.

Prayer for Illumination

False Teachers (2b-5)

1 Timothy 6:2–5 (ESV)

Teach and urge these things. 3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

Paul starts this section of the passage with the encouragement for Timothy to “teach and urge these things.” Or we might put it like this, Timothy ought to focus on and emphasize certain teachings within the church.

The first question that we have to ask is what exactly is Paul telling him to emphasize?

Some think that it has to do with the previous chapter in which Paul gave Timothy various commands concerning interpersonal relationships, some think that it’s probably what Paul’s about to say in vv. 3-10. And they base these ideas primarily on assumption—they’re making educated guesses based on the context.

Personally, I think Paul is referring to everything that he’s spoken about throughout the whole letter—the issue of false teachers, the need to emphasize the Gospel, qualifications for elders and deacons, the proclamation of truth, and the instructions given concerning interpersonal relationships; and my reasoning for that is simple: Paul is now wrapping up his letter—how do people typically wrap things up? By reiterating the main ideas, which he does, starting with false teachers.

So, Paul, as he starts wrapping up his letter, reiterates that Timothy needs to teach these things and urge these things.

This gives us the impression of a sense of immediacy or urgency—meaning, this is not something that Timothy ought to shirk, he needs to do this and he needs to be firm on these things.

To the extent that Paul speaks of the character of someone who chooses not to teach these truths and chooses to teach a different doctrine that doesn’t agree with God’s Words—those who choose to speak words that don’t agree with godliness.

In vv. 4-5, he describes this person with a whole series of ideas (and quite frankly) they aren’t flattering words.

Let me utilize Paul’s words to describe this sort of person to you:

One who teaches a different doctrine “is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.” Meaning he’s prideful and boastful and yet, he actually doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And I think we can all think of someone who is like this.

Someone who teaches things that don’t agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus “has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words.” Meaning he likes to argue with people and he likes to debate with people to the extent that he’ll argue with people about minute details like what a specific word might mean.

Because of this desire to argue and bicker and fight with others, there will be “envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

Or put differently, when someone who is teaching false things chooses to dig into their false teaching, he will have an unhealthy desire for arguing, bickering, and fighting with believers.

And that unhealthy desire will cause him to seek the authority of an elder—he’ll be envious, it will cause him to try to divide God’s people. He will slander people within the church and cause people to become suspicious. He will cause constant friction among people who don’t already know the truth and know it well.

Why exactly does he do all this? Because of the end of v. 5, “imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”

What exactly does this mean? It means that the reason for their deception, for teaching false things, for causing division and envy, and slander within the church is selfishness.

False teachers view Christianity as a way to get something for themselves—in our modern-culture, the prime example of this is found on TV channels like TBN where supposed pastors and televangelists make millions of dollars peddling a false gospel—they’re driving around in Rolls Royces, flying billion dollar airplanes, and living in houses worth millions claiming to preach Christ when they’re really preaching a fake gospel that leads people to hell. Why do they do it? They do it for the fancy car, the airplane, and the houses. They do it for the wealth and prosperity. They do it because they think the can make a quick dollar.

But a false teacher doesn’t always teach false things for financial gain—some do it for power, for authority, or even something that you might have never considered; some false teachers do it for friends—to be liked. Those who preach the Gospel and teach the truth will always be disliked by most people; those who teach and preach false things, will tend to be liked by most people.

False teachers teach false things for money, for power, for authority, for friends, and really for anything—and they do it because they don’t actually believe in Jesus, they do it because they want something and they see Christianity as a great opportunity to get what they want.

How Paul describes a false teacher in this section of 1 Timothy is actually rather simple—he describes them as people who want something and they utilize Christianity, they use the name of Jesus to try and get that something. In particular, probably because of the context of 1 Timothy in Ephesus, he focuses in on the issue of false teachers utilizing Christianity for materialism—for money or for objects. We see this focus conversely in vv. 6-10. Let’s look at those verses:

Being Content (6-10)

1 Timothy 6:6–10 ESV

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

In contrast to the false teachers who continuously want things like money and objects, power, and authority. Paul makes a simple but potent statement, “godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.”

False teachers want to utilize Christianity and the name of Jesus for their own gain but the reality, according to Paul, is that “godliness with contentment” is true gain, whereas the gain that the false teachers receive is actually not genuine gain.

Or in other words, though those who teach false things to obtain money, materials, objects, or even friends think that they have great gain in this life, that’s precisely the point—that their gain is only temporary or momentary and eventually they’ll lose all that they’ve gained.

What is actually great gain is “godliness with contentment.”

Or we could put it a different way—learning to be like Christ, to be conformed in the image of Jesus and learning to be content with what God has already given you is far greater than any materialistic mindset that you could have.

What false teachers do with Christianity is that they utilize false teachings that sound Christian to manipulate people to make themselves rich, to get material possessions and to be powerful and authoritative.

And they develop within themselves this sense that they’re so great because of their amassing of riches.

But the reality is, that simply learning to be like Jesus and being content with what you have is far greater.

Paul says in v. 8, “if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”

If we just have what we need, that’s really enough—you don’t need a really nice house or a fast car or any number of other things. You just need clothing to stay warm and food to stay fed.

Now, you might question why exactly Paul is emphasizing this point but the reasoning is rather simple—that idea of being content with what you have and what you need is contrary to how false teachers act—they always want more.

It’s also contrary to how most false teachers teach—most of them teach that people ought to pursue prosperity, wealth, and health—that people should gain authority and power when the reality is that the Bible teaches the exact opposite.

False teachers manipulate people into thinking that the most important part of life is to be prosperous and health but the truth is that the most important part of life is Jesus.

Jesus is the most important aspect of life, which is why he bolsters his statement concerning godliness with contentment with v. 7, “for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.”

This statement here is something that I think we all agree with in word but we don’t always live like it in deed.

Or in other words, we say that we realize that we can’t take anything into eternity with us but then we stockpile our homes or we buy the nicest car we can or we become miserly and don’t spend anything just to make sure we’ll always have the money that we need.

When the reality is that the Bible says we need to be content with what we have with the realization that anything we own on this side of eternity won’t continue into eternity.

Paul then ends this section of Scripture with a firm indictment against those who would rather seek riches in vv. 9-10, “those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

Paul ends this section by reminding us of the sins that accompany the love of temporal riches over the love of Jesus—meaning, loving money rather than Jesus is a significant problem.

He writes to Timothy that those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and into snares—and they continue in senseless and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

It’s a vivid image of what happens when someone desires these sorts of things in life over desiring Jesus and it’s described in a way that ought to strike fear.

Now, let me clarify, that what Paul says here isn’t that someone who is a Christian cannot be wealthy—meaning being wealthy in and of itself is not a sin.

There are plenty of people today who are wealthy and also devout Christians just like there were people in the Bible who were wealthy and devout believers—like Abraham, Lot, Job, David, Solomon, even into the New Testament, Lydia, Dorcas, Barnabas, and Philemon.

There’s nothing wrong with being wealthy and you can certainly be wealth and be devout in your faith—Paul is not condemning wealth.

He’s condemning the love of wealth.

He’s condemning the idea that you ought to seek wealth and prosperity as a Christian, he’s condemning the false idea that Christianity is all about seeking money, materials, and items rather than Jesus.

And he makes the argument plan and simple, that those who seek money, who seek material possessions, those who seek really anything other than Jesus will find themselves sinking deeper and deeper into ruin and destruction.

I can’t help but to think of Vanity Fair in The Pilgrim’s Progress, a place put intentionally on the path to the Celestial City to trip people into sin and debauchery and riotous living.

The love of money acts like Vanity Fair does in Pilgrim’s Progress, where you enter into the place and you get distracted with all the lights, the games, and the entertainment and you don’t even realize how far in degradation that you’ve gone until it’s too late.

The love of money can distract and it can entertain but money isn’t the point of life nor is seeking material possessions or authority and power.

And when people get caught up in pursuing money and riches rather than Jesus, they fall into sin and as they continue in their sin they run into ruin and destruction.

It pulls people away from faith in Jesus and it causes pain and suffering and disillusion.

The reality is that for those who love wealth, the pursuit of material possessions and riches, or really anything more than Jesus, the reality is that they’re idolaters worshiping the creation rather than the Creator; and since they’re falling into idolatry worshiping the creation rather than the Creator, they’re going to continue falling deeper and deeper and deeper into all kinds of evils and sins. It’s really not hard to imagine this happening—we can just look at those in our modern-day world that are absolutely rich and wealthy. Some are indeed believers in Jesus and they’re following Jesus to the best of their ability—people like the Greenes who own Hobby Lobby or the Cathys who own Chick-fil-A; but the reality is that the majority of those who are wealthy and prosperous aren’t devout believers in Jesus Christ, they’re complete unbelievers and they live their lives in utter sin.

And in their pursuit of prosperity or wealth, they continue further and further into sin and degradation—people like the celebrities that we see on TV or the politicians that run our country, or even some authors or writers. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t take having riches and wealth to fall into this cycle of sin and degradation because it’s the simple love of riches and wealth and really anything more than Jesus that causes the person to fall into sin. Again, not that money is the issue, it’s that love for money, riches, and wealth that leads further and further into sin.

Matthew Henry, “We see here the evil of covetousness. [of those] who place their happiness in wealth, and are eager and determined in the pursuit. Those that are such, give to Satan the opportunity of tempting them, leading them to use dishonest means, and other bad practices, to add to their gains.” (Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997) 1 Ti 6:6)

But remember, this is all in the context of those who teach false things—thus, the implication here is that what false teachers do by teaching false things in such a way that amasses them a fortune is sinful not just because of their false teaching but also because of their desire for riches over Jesus. It also implies that those who follow their false teaching in hopes that they’ll also obtain riches are sinful because they’re choosing riches over Jesus. As Shai Linne says in his song False Teachers, “if you come to Jesus for money, then He’s not your God, money is [your god].” (Shai Linne, Fal$e Teacher$, Lyrical Theology Part 1: Theology, 2013)

Which brings us this evening to our application and our application is actually rather simple because as I mentioned earlier, Paul is reiterating some of the same ideas that he started his letter with.

Application

So, as Paul wraps up this letter, he takes a moment to emphasize that Timothy needs to teach and urge certain things—proper doctrine, right theology, the Gospel, proper leaders and servants within the church, and how people within the church ought to interact with each other. In fact, Timothy is to be on the look out for people who teach things that don’t agree with the Gospel and really all the teachings of Jesus Christ because those sorts of people are causing controversy and quarrels and envy, dissension, slander, and evil suspicions—they’re causing constant friction amongst the people of the church. And according to Paul, one of the ways that you can tell someone is a false teacher is two-fold and that’s where our application is: (1) false teachers are teaching false things to gain something and (2) false teachers are teaching false things that encourage loving something more than Jesus.

One of the quickest ways to tell of someone is a false teacher is by checking their lifestyle. Now, again, just because someone is rich doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re sinning or that they’re a false teacher but use some common sense and discernment as you try to decide if someone is a false teacher.

For instance, if the person who you’re listening to happens to be driving a Lamborghini and every few months he buys a new house. If he’s walking around in designer clothes that cost hundreds and maybe even thousands of dollars, if he is more concerned about going to the fanciest restaurants and the nicest hotels then there are some reasons here to question whether he’s actually teaching truth.

Or, if every time he teaches anything, he utilizes it as an opportunity to fund raise or to claim more power or authority in the community or in the church, those are some reasons to question whether he’s actually teaching truth.

In other words, if you’re looking at the pastor of a church and you start to notice that he’s more concerned with his lifestyle or his wealth or his control or power or authority, you need to take a closer look with greater discernment at what he’s teaching because it’s probably not true.

If, as you listen to someone, you realize that everything he says or even if it’s just a vast amount of what he says promotes himself rather than Jesus, you need to take a closer look with greater discernment because that is a significant red flag.

One way to tell if someone is a false teacher is by checking their lifestyle—after all, Jesus says you will know false teachers by their fruit.

You need to check their lifestyle and see if in their lifestyle they point you to Jesus or they exalt themselves.

Another way is to simply check what they’re preaching and teaching with the Words of Scripture—Paul says that someone who teaches false things teaches doctrines that don’t agree with “the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness.”

If someone’s teaching or preaching doesn’t line up with Scripture (even if it just seems like a minor detail), he’s a false teacher who understands nothing and yet, he thinks he knows it all.

In the case mentioned in 1 Timothy, it seems that part of what the false teachers are teaching has to do with gaining riches and prosperity on this side of eternity because Paul’s answer to that is to teach that “godliness with contentment is great gain.”

Or in other words, is the person preaching pointing you towards Jesus or is he pointing you to money or to health or to really anything other than Jesus, he’s a false teacher teaching false things.

You need to be careful with who you listen to; you need to check what is being preached and what is being taught—really, what you’re soaking in week after week with the Words of Jesus Christ.

That includes when you come here, to Grace & Peace, check everything you hear and everything you’re being taught with the Words of Scripture.

And this includes when you’re listening to the radio, when you’re watching TV, and when you’re visiting another church, check everything you hear and see with the Words of Scripture.

When watching someone preach or listening to someone’s sermon, you need to be discerning.

If, as you listen to them, you realize that they aren’t pointing you to Jesus, if they’re not teaching the things that Jesus taught, or if what they’re saying doesn’t line up with the Bible—stop listening to them, stop supporting them, stop being friends with them.

Consider 2 John 1:10-11 “10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting, 11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”

John makes the claim that if you know someone is teaching false things and you still listen to them, you still support them, and you’re still friends with them, you’re participating in their sin.

Or put differently, if you know that the person you’re listening to or watching is teaching false doctrine and you still continue to listen or watch that person—you’re committing sin.

You are not allowed to just passively listen to people who teach, you have to actively listen to preachers and teachers and you need to be checking them with the Word of God.

Put simply, Paul, as he starts wrapping up this letter, tells Timothy to be watchful of those who teach false things. He tells him to watch for people who (1) teach anything contrary to Scripture or (2) in their teacher point to anything other than Jesus as the goal or the point.

What this means for us, today, is this—you as a believer need to be careful about what you listen to and what you watch when it comes to preaching and teaching. If what you hear doesn’t line up with Scripture or if what you hear doesn’t point you to Jesus, you need to reject it and you need to stop listening to that person—to do otherwise is simply sin.

Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Requests

Our Prayer Requests for this week include:

Melissa Bush — Let’s remember to give thanks that Melissa is back to regular health after a bout of Covid.

The Bubb Family — Please continue to pray for their family as they grieve the loss of their son. Please pray for the Miller’s as they practice a ministry of presence to support the Bubb family.

Sean Herbst — Addiction

Pray for Alexus (Tom and Raenelle’s great niece) — she is currently in Pittsburgh to determine if she is a candidate for brain surgery. Be in prayer through all this.

Caleb Miller — Medical

Reagan N. — Diagnosed with a tumor of the brain. Pray for doctors to have wisdom.

Alan Wisor — Medical

Pray for the church’s building fund

Pray for Mikael and Zuzanna Romer, missionaries in Poland. Specific Needs:

Pray for the end of the Russo-Ukranian War (and for the salvation of both Ukrainians and Russians)

Zuzanna is currently pregnant

Their church needs to relocate buildings—pray that they find a suitable location.