The True End of Instruciton.

Introduction:

Have you ever walked into a room and forgot why you were there? Well, while it is easy to get distracted and lose sight of your original goal in the physical sense, we know this is dangerous in a spiritual sense. If the enemy of the church cannot lead us into morality he will certianly work to distract us from our primary aim.

Context:

Last week we took some time to refresh our memory as to who Paul is and how he was brought from judaim and leading the way in persecution to then encountering Christ, repenting and being appointed a precher of the gospel and a missionary to the Gentiles. He met Timothy on his first misisnary journey and then at the begining of his second journey, after the decison at the Jerusalem council, Paul take Timothy with him.

And we see that Paul has left Timothy in Ephesus as he went onto Macedonia. And we learn of the reason Paul wanted Timothy to remian, namely that teachers have gone off track and they are trying to pull others off track with them. Paul, with a true love of the churches and a discernment given him by the Lord Jesus, see the danger for these young churches.

APPLICATION: Let us learn from Paul what it means to show love and care. No on likes to offend another, or like to engage in conflict, but for Paul to remain siilent at this point would have been to leave the church and timothy vulnrable to a real threat!

Illustraiton: If you are outside and you notice a bear cross the road and heading towards your neighbours yard, and as you look you see that their young children are playing in the yard. Would it not be unloving to just ignore the situation and keep driving? Would you not call them, or even drive into the yard and try and warn them?

How much more, when we are made aware of dangerous teachings and misguided persons spouting all kids of things that do not accord with the Scripture, with the confessions of the church and true godliness.

Responding to empty talkers:

First we must think about the nature of these persons of whom Paul is speaking. It would be foolish for us to say, “well these were all problems associated with Judaism and so we don’t have to worry about that today” While no doubt, many of the distractons that faced the early church were coming out of Judaism, we must understand that the source of these distactions was not only human but also demoic, and therefore we should assume that while the fruits look different in our days, in regards to false teaching, the root is very much the same and therefore the same method Paul subscribes to root it out is just as effective today as it was back then. But we must take up the ax and chop at the root. This applies in our own lives personally, this applies in homes for you Father’s and mothers, and this applies in the church. There are always going to to be dangerous distratration that we must first reconizne and then remove.

Not to teach - ἑτεροδιδασκαλέω (heterodidaskaleō), vb. teach other doctrine.

Verb Usage

1. to teach divergently† — to teach doctrines contrary to an accepted standard.

1 Ti 1:3 μὴ ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν

1 Ti 6:3 εἴ τις ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖ καὶ μὴ προσέρχεται ὑγιαίνουσι λόγοις, τοῖς τοῦ

Not to heed προσέχω (prosechō), vb. take care; pay attention to. fut.act. προσέξω; aor.act. προσέσχον; perf.act. προσέσχηκεν. Hebrew equivalent: קשׁב (17), שׁמר (15).

Verb Usage

to heed† — to listen, hear, or pay close attention to, and usually respond in conformity. Related Topics: Listen; Heed.