6. The Goal of Biblical Instruction

The Goal of Biblical Instruction

1Ti 1:1-11 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, (2) To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (3) As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, (4) nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. (5) The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (6) Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, (7) desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. (8) Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, (9) understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, (10) the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, (11) in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

The church at Ephesus was being diverted from the goal of the Christian life by some false teachers. They were promoting (any different doctrine that is, non-apostolic doctrines. Apostolic doctrine, as contained in the New Testament (which includes the proper interpretation of the Old Testament), is the only truth for God’s people. But these teachers had turned aside to fruitless discussion centering on myths and speculations about genealogies. Paul had assigned Timothy the difficult task of confronting these men and getting the church back on track. In 1 Timothy 1:3-7, Paul makes the point that ...

The goal of biblical teaching is love in line with God’s truth.

We need to navigate these waters carefully, because we can run aground on a number of extremes. Many shipwreck by saying, “Doctrine just divides people and causes controversy. You can’t know for sure that you’re right. So forget about theology; love is all that matters.” But there is no such thing as biblical love apart from sound theology. Others run aground by assuming a cultural definition of love instead of a biblical one. They think that love means being nice all the time, burying our differences and never criticizing or opposing anyone. But if that’s what Paul meant, he contradicts himself within this chapter.

There are 3 thoughts that help us define Biblical teaching

1. Biblical teaching has been entrusted by God to those who teach and preach; thus they are not free to change the message.

These false teachers were making up their own message, based on Old Testament genealogies. No doubt they were interesting stories otherwise they would have had no influence. But Paul calls them “myths” and contrasts them with “the stewardship of God which is by faith” (v. 4). Most likely these men were teachers of Jewish background who would take names from Old Testament genealogies and make up stories that had no factual basis. Such fables were included in a portion of The Talmud known as Haggadah. This was not only a problem in Ephesus

Tit 1:13-14  This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,  (14)  not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

By way of contrast to these speculations, Paul asserts that “the stewardship of God” is “by faith” (v. 4). The Greek word for “stewardship” means administration or management. The idea is that the gospel message is a treasure entrusted by God to men who will give an account to Him on whether they managed or dispensed it faithfully (see 1 Tim. 1:11). Such a steward of the gospel isn’t free to modify the message or teach whatever he likes or dislikes or what he thinks his audience wants to hear. He is under orders (v. 3, “charge” = “a military command”) from God to proclaim what God has revealed and nothing else. This treasure of the gospel comes to people “by faith.”

In our day, as in every age, there are men who tamper with the apostolic message by all sorts of cultural myths to make it more palatable to people. One flagrant example is Joel Osteen's book is entitled, "The Power of I Am" but it has nothing to do with God. It has to do with you. It has to do with the power Joel says is inside of you. He thinks so little about God that he cannot even see how utterly blasphemous it is to take the name of the Lord, I Am, and use it to prop up his word faith heresy. It is staggering in its arrogance and obliviousness. This book idea came out of the popularity of a sermon he gave by the same title. Oprah loved it so much she used it in her life class series and Joel was happy to come on and pitch it.

The opening premise is that what follows our self-statements that begin with "I am" determine our life. That what follows the words "I am" will "come looking for you." So if you choose to say I am ugly, then ugliness will come looking for you. If you say I am poor then poverty will seek you out. The good news according to Joel is that we get to choose the I am statements that come out of our mouth. So if we say, I am healthy then health will start looking for us. If we say I am blessed then blessing will start looking for us. The principle he claims is at work here is that the positive I am statements "trigger God" to send these things to you.

2. The goal of biblical teaching is love, properly defined. Verse 5

It is the unbiblical definition of love that has crept into the church that says we can’t criticize people like Joel Osteen. If that is love, Paul contradicts himself by telling Timothy to confront these false teachers and by his criticism of Hymenaeus and Alexander (1:20). Our definition of love must encompass all of what Paul (and Jesus) did and taught, not just when they were nice! John, who is called the Apostle of Love was not afraid to call those who corrupted the faith in his epistle liars.

When Paul states, “The goal of the charge is love” (1:5, lit.) it may refer to the charge to Timothy to tell these men to stop teaching false doctrine (1:3). But in light of Paul’s discussion of the Law (1:8-11), and the fact that the Law is summed up in the two great commands, to love God and others, Paul is probably extending the meaning of “commandment” to refer to the whole of biblical teaching. Thus he is reminding Timothy that the goal of God’s commands as contained in Scripture is that we would love God and others. If these false teachers really knew what God’s law was all about, they would be teaching toward that aim, rather than entertaining people with fruitless speculations and discussions.

Paul qualifies or defines “love” in three ways:

A. Biblical love issues from a pure heart.

God, who alone can see what is in every heart, weighs motives. If we act in an outwardly loving way toward someone, but our inner motive is to get something back for ourselves or to use the person for our own selfish pleasure or fulfillment, or to manipulate the person for our own ultimate gain, we’re not loving from a pure heart. Love from a pure heart is love that has been cleansed from all self-centeredness, love that truly seeks the glory of God by seeking His highest good for the person, even if it means personal sacrifice and loss for us.

The only way we can be freed from our innate selfishness to love in that manner is to be inwardly cleansed by God through the cross of Christ, where God’s sacrificial love was supremely demonstrated; and, then, to die to self daily by denying self and walking continually in light of the cross

Luk 9:23  And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

To love from a pure heart requires first that it is a converted heart. Secondly, because we still struggle with the power of remaining sin we deal with the sinful attitudes of our heart.

Mat 15:18-19  But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.  (19)  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

The principle here also applies to our actions.

B. Biblical love issues from a good conscience.

The Greek word for “conscience” comes from two words meaning “knowing together” and refers to that knowledge of ourselves that we share together with God alone. Apart from ourselves, only God knows our thoughts and the things we do when no one else is looking. Everyone stands guilty before God because every person, whether religious or pagan, has violated his own conscience (Rom. 2:14-16). The only way we can have a good conscience is to ask God to cleanse us, based on faith in Jesus Christ who died for our sins and was raised so that we might be right before God (1 Pet. 3:21; Heb. 9:14; 10:22).

Then, having been made right with God through faith in Christ, we live each day by maintaining a clear conscience both before God and before people (Acts 24:16). We do this by confessing all sin, even sins of thought, to God; and by asking forgiveness of those we have wronged. If there is anyone you have sinned against and have not sought his (or her) forgiveness, then you aren’t able sincerely to love that person as God commands. Even if the other person started the problem by sinning against you, and even if he or she has continued to sin against you and has never sought your forgiveness, you cannot be obedient to God’s command to love until you go to this person and clear your conscience by asking his or her forgiveness. Love must stem from a pure heart and a good conscience.

C. Biblical love issues from a sincere faith.

The original phrase means faith without hypocrisy. Again, this term goes below the outward appearance and looks at the heart. Sincere faith is directed toward Jesus Christ and results in loving others because you want to please Christ. Hypocritical faith plays to the audience, ignoring or forgetting that God is watching. You can put on an outward show of faith that looks pious to everyone, but your heart is self-serving. You can act loving to a person’s face, but then run him down behind his back.

Thus biblical love stems from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. That means that at its core, biblical love stems from a right relationship with God and the motive of seeking to please and glorify Him. It means that biblical love has the courage to confront someone who is in error or sin, because such a person is not pleasing God and is not helping others to please God. Thus biblical love, which is the proper goal of biblical teaching, does not mean being sweet and nice to everyone. It means doing whatever you can to help people get right with God through genuine faith in Jesus Christ. Biblical love stems from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

We’ve seen that biblical teaching has been entrusted by God to those who teach, which means that they aren’t free to make up their own stuff. The goal of their teaching must be love, properly defined.

3. “Love” that is not in line with God’s truth is not love.

False teachers often emphasize love and unity at the expense of truth because invariably false teachers don’t want their own sin confronted by God’s Word. They will say, “We need to love everyone and not divide over anything.” They’re tolerant of everyone except the man who confronts sin and serious theological error. They accuse such men of being judgmental and unloving. But sound doctrine always confronts sin because God is holy and He calls His people to holiness. So-called “love” that tolerates sin that God’s Word plainly confronts is not biblical love, no matter how nice it is, because it is not in line with God’s truth.

Since it’s easy to be deceived by false teachers who seem loving, but who don’t love in line with God’s truth, how can we spot them? Much more could be said, but from our text alone, here are five marks of a false teacher:

A. False teachers are often motivated by pride.

Note verse 7: “wanting to be teachers of the Law.” They love a following. They’re filled with so-called “knowledge.” But as Paul states (1 Cor. 8:1), “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” It would be a false conclusion, in opposition to all that Paul wrote, to thus discard knowledge. The point is not to be ignorant and sweet! The point is that knowledge of God’s truth must always result in a change in our thinking and behavior. But false teachers often have an air of pride and they appeal to the pride of their followers: “If you learn from me, you’ll be in the know!”

B. False teachers promote “new” insights supposedly, but not truly, based on God’s Word.

God has revealed Himself in history and in His Word of truth that is based on history. Furthermore, His Word is propositional, that is, it makes statements that can and must be taken in their plain sense. But false teachers come up with “new” insights based on a subjective approach or on reading some supposed secular wisdom back into Scripture, even though it’s unrelated to the meaning of Scripture in its context. These false teachers were taking the historically accurate genealogical lists in Scripture and making all sorts of fanciful applications from them.

C. False teachers use, but misuse, the Bible.

This is how Satan leads God’s people astray. If someone was using the Koran or Book of Mormon, true Christians would immediately put up their defenses. But when someone cites the Bible, it sounds good, especially when the things they say make sense and seem to help you cope with your problems.

That’s how all the unbiblical teaching about self-esteem has flooded into the church. It comes from Carl Rogers, although it originated with Satan in the Garden, when he showed Eve how to build her self-esteem by becoming like God. Now it is pervasive in “Christian” self-help books, which often wrongly teach that the Bible commands us to love ourselves. Others begin with the unbiblical assumption that low self-worth is at the heart of most of our emotional problems and then read this back into the Bible as if the Bible taught it.

Like these spinners of genealogical yarns in Paul’s day, modern false teachers love to use stories to substantiate their teaching. I’ve read about a pastor’s wife who was suicidal. She had tried to trust and obey God, but that “didn’t work.” Then she went to the experts, and they got her in touch with her deepest feelings, and now she’s a happy, well-adjusted woman. It sounds marvelous, but it doesn’t prove a thing, because their counsel is not based on God’s truth.

D. False teachers are dogmatic about their speculations.

Paul calls their teaching “speculations” (v. 4), but then says that they “make confident assertions” (v. 7). It’s possible to sound biblical and to speak confidently, but to be dead wrong. We have gotten Christian Book Distributor catalogs that invariably market some of the modern false teachers by portraying them as the expert authorities on complex problems: “The doctors give you professional help with their proven program.”

Beware of those that emphasize the world’s solutions and opinions to problems over Biblical ones. There was an article in Christianity Today contributed to this unbiblical nonsense when they wrote (2/10/92, p. 28): “Myth: A pastor is competent to counsel his parishioners. Fact: Most pastors are armed with only a meager knowledge of behavioral therapies. A pastor’s calling is, primarily, a spiritual one, helping people to find strength in God’s presence and a sense of divine direction in the midst of difficulty.” They go on to say that pastors need to link up with professionals who can deal with psychological matters. They’re dogmatic that pastors, armed with the Bible, can’t give expert help; but those who dispense the world’s speculations have the answers for your deepest problems!

E. False teachers love arguments but avoid biblical obedience.

These men in Ephesus loved to discuss their speculations, but they didn’t want to confront the sin in their lives (v. 19).

1Ti 1:18-19  This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,  (19)  holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,

Paul calls their discussions “fruitless,” because they didn’t result in more godly lives. False teaching is closely connected with sinful living, because God’s Word of truth is the only source that confronts our sin to make us holy. The word “sound” which Paul repeatedly affixes to doctrine (1:10, 4:6) means “healthy,” that is, doctrine that produces spiritually healthy Christians. Sound doctrine results in sound believers. Speculations that don’t result in godliness are worthless.

Application:

The measure of any teacher and/or preacher is whether the instruction he brings promotes the stated goal in this text. Love that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.