Sermon Tone Analysis

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)

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.