Teachers & Teaching Matter

1 Timothy 1:3–4 – Teachers and Teaching Matter

AI: Paul gave Timothy a charge to forbid False Teaching and Speculations.

SP: Teachers and teaching matter.

1 Timothy 1:3–4: As I urged you when I was in Macedonia, remain at Ephesus

so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship [good order] that is from God.

Intro

We’ve been ratcheting down on an issue Paul encountered in the first century that we still encounter today, which is this: There is a reason the church today looks so much like the world; it’s because there is so much of the world in the church. Last week, we closed by exploring some of the pertinent problems Ephesus was encountering. The congregation was struggling through two major issues:

1. False teaching/speculations

2. Cultural tensions/syncretism.

Today, I’d like to explore the first of those two. Three strands of false teaching were circulating in Ephesus and elsewhere.

I. Jewish Legalism

II. Ancient Gnosticism

III. Inner Light Mysticism.

Teaching and Teachers Matter

1 Timothy 1:3–4: As I urged you when I was in Macedonia, remain at Ephesus

so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship [good order] that is from God.

I’ll delve deeper into these two verses later when we work through the letter, but

let me point out a couple of things. First, the word, “charge” (παραγγελίαν),

means an “order” or directive (TDNT, 762).[1]It points to the seriousness of the

matter. Paul went straight to teachers and teaching as the first order of priority.

Second, he mentions “different doctrine,”which should not surprise us. But he also mentions any teaching which “promotes speculations.” We will look at this word more carefully at a later time, but Paul is not merely concerned with false teaching. He also is concerned with any teaching that cannot be grounded in the words he breathed-out in Scripture. Logic, observation, theory, etc. are not propositional truth and invite mixture of error.

Paul did not go into detail as to all of minutia of the false teachings circulating in Ephesus. Timothy already knew the issues. While we may not know the specifics, we do know in general, it was Christ plus something. Rev. Jim Gables notes three broad, but undeveloped, heresies which were spreading in the first century.[2]Each heresy exalted “Christ plus something.”

Jewish Legalism. 1 Timothy 1:6–7: Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. In an earlier letter, Galatians, Paul referred to these teachers as the “circumcision party.”[3] Later, they came to be called “Judaizers” ( Ἰουδαϊκῶς) because of a term Paul uses in Galatians 2:14 (Ἰουδαϊκῶς). They required born again Christians to live according to certain OT laws, rituals, and customs.[4]In their way of thinking, it showed a lack of appreciation for the entire OT. Paul wrote this same congregation a few years earlier. He stated in Ephesians 2:14, “For he himself [Christ] is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace. Judaizers built up a wall by adding “Christ plus works of the law.” Paul said Christ fulfilled the law.

Ancient Gnosticism. Gnosticism was not fully developed, but it was beginning to take shape when Paul wrote. You can hear the gnostic influence in verse like 1 Timothy 6:20: Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called ‘knowledge.’ Gnosticism eventually developed into a complex religion rooted in a “higher” or “secret” knowledge. It taught all reality is divided between (1) spirit and (2) matter. Spirit is good. Matter is evil. Therefore, God could not have created the world because it was made of matter. Rather, a chain of intermediary spirit beings must have created all matter. Rev. Gables states:

In such a belief system, Jesus was simply one of the higher emanations. He was one of the good emanations, or angels as they were called, in contrast to the bad emanations or demons. These demons formed the barrier between God and man. Only through an understanding of this prayer knowledge, coupled with help from the good angels, could a person break through this barrier to commune with God. Thus angels were the objects of worship because their help was essential for salvation. . . . This knowledge was known as the ”secret” knowledge that transcended the knowledge of Christ in the gospel.[5]

This insipient Gnosticism added “Christ plus ‘secret’ knowledge.”

Inner Light Mysticism. Mystical experiences such as visions, dreams, or “inner light” revelations were thought to be vehicles by which God conveyed special information to special people from the spirit world or from God directly. Paul may have alluded to this in 1 Timothy 4:1–2, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teaching of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.” The reason mystical experiences are so alluring is they exalt the person as “super spiritual” and authoritative. For those who were vying for speaking positions, such direct revelations carried as sense of authority. In Paul’s letter to their sister congregation, Colossians, a few years earlier Paul declared such individuals as deceived and “puffed up.”[6]In 1 Timothy 6:3, Paul says something similar: 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, 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, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means for gain. Inner light mystics added “Christ plus mystical experiences.”

One final point is important to note. In each of these strands of heresy, the thing that made them so difficult to combat is they all “made room” for Jesus. This is what makes them so deceptive. It took a skilled doctrinal student like Timothy—who knew Jewish theology and Greek theology—to wage the good warfare. Why? Because the difference was not one of terminology. It was one of emphasis. Rev. Gables frames it beautifully:

It is important to understand that the heretics did not believe they were opposed to Christ, they just refused to give him the preeminence. It was Jesus plus special knowledge. It was Jesus plus legalistic rules. It was Jesus plus mystical experiences. The result was the gospel was being replaced with either non-biblical or extra-biblical traditions.

One thing noticeably missing from Paul’s letter is doctrinal correction. He calls attention to the general principles of their false teaching. Yet, apart from a passing comment here or there,[7]he never stops to correct their doctrinal errors. There is a reason for this. Timothy knew the correct doctrine already. He traveled with Paul and co-wrote several of Paul’s letters.[8]Paul went another route in 1 Timothy. He put in place leadership polices (1 Tim. 2:8–3:13) and discipleship policies (1 Tim. 4:13–16) that would make it difficult for false teachers to gain a foothold.

Timeless Principle

Pay careful attention to teachers and their teaching.

Present Age Use

Most times, when false teaching creeps in, it creeps in through the teaching ministry of the congregation. Rarely is it a teacher comes in teaching a false doctrine outright. More often, the false teaching enters through “speculations.” These “speculations” introduce a dangerous precedent, that I will explore those in 3 sermons when we come to those verses in the meat of the exposition.

However, this passage has caused us to think through, “How are we developing teachers at FBCS?” Often, because we all are so busy, it has been something like, “So and so needs a co-teacher. We need to find someone. We need to find someone quick.” We now are thinking through, “How can we be more deliberate about (1) identifying those with the gift of teaching and (2) providing them with the training to rightly divide the Word of God so we don’t drift into false teaching on the one hand or speculations on the other?” During Covid, I taught through a master’s level course on Biblical Interpretation. Pastor Buck recently found those and uploaded them onto our app. We are thinking this might be a good place to start. Again, we want to take 1 Timothy to heart and make changes to align ourselves more closely to what is revealed in it. Two questions:

1. For teachers: am I staying true to what is written?

2. For teachers: am I staying away from speculations?

3. For listeners: am I listening critically so that I detect:

a. truth from falsehood?

b. certainty from speculation?

[1] TDNT, vol. 5, 762. [2] Rev. Jim Gables, a retired pastor and mentor of mine, had the most concise summation. Much of what follows comes from his unpublished notes on nearby Colossae, used by permission. His sermons, which sprang forth from those notes, are accessible online. [3]See Galatians 2:12. [4]Paul uses the word, Ἰουδαϊκῶς, which is used only once in the NT, Galatians 2:14. It means to live according to Jewish customs. [5]Jim Gables, from his notes on Colossians. [6]Colossians 2:18. [7] 1 Timothy 1:8–11; 3:16; 4:2. [8]Timothy co-wrote 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 2 Corinthians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians.