Doctrine: False Teaching and the Pastoral Epistles
1 Timothy 1:1-11

    An enterprising little boy set up a lemonade stand. To attract his customers, he painted a large sign that read: “ALL YOU CAN DRINK FOR A DIME.”

    His first customer came along, a businessman, to enjoy a glass of lemonade. He downed his first glass and asked the young fellow for another. The boy asked for a dime. The man protested that he was to drink all he could, for a dime.

    The little boy said, “That, sir, is all you can drink for a dime.”

    Have you ever been swindled based on the fine print? Or a sweet talker? Or an ambiguous word? There is a lot of that going on in the name of Christianity. Since the very earliest days of Christianity, men have been twisting and distorting and perverting the gospel of Christ to make it more pleasing to their own culture. So, this practice is about 2,000 years old. It should come as no surprise that we have people in our day who do not teach Christianity as it is revealed in the NT. Paul had the same issue, as we see in 1 Timothy. 

PAUL’S INTRODUCTION – 1:1-2:

    Notice how Paul begins the letter, saying he is an “apostle of Christ Jesus.” Since he is going to be dealing with false doctrine in his letter, he needs to remind his audience that he is an apostle, with all of the authority that was given to his role. To emphasize that point, he says he is an apostle “according to the commandment of God …and of Christ Jesus.” Some might have argued that Paul could not have had as much authority as the other apostles because he was not among the original twelve. But, he states here that he was an apostle by the commandment of God and of Christ. He wrote and spoke with their authority.

    That is why Paul could say things like: “The things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment” (1 Cor. 14:37). And, “if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame” (2 Thess. 3:14).

STOP FALSE TEACHERS – 1:3-7:

    The main point in this first paragraph is found here in verse 3: “I urge to to instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines.” It is interesting that this phrase “to teach strange doctrines” is all one word in the original language; it is only used one other time, in 6:3. Notice what Paul says about these people in 6:3-5.

    There are certain truths that are central to Christian belief that we must not swerve from. There are commands nonChristians must obey in order to become Christians. There are commands Christians must obey in order to be fruitful in the work of the Lord. These people were teaching something different from that.

    Paul says these men were “straying from these things.” Notice that “straying” carries the idea of slowly moving away from the truth. It doesn’t take long for us to move away from the truth if we just take one small step away from it. These men strayed from the truth, since they turned aside to “fruitless discussion.” Is this question really going to help me get to heaven or not? That’s what is fruitful. 

THE TRUE VIEW OF THE LAW – 1:8-11:

    Paul says the law is good if you use it correctly, if you understand why God gave it to us. God never disparages “law” or commandment keeping in the Bible, nowhere. In fact, God always emphasizes how important it is for us to meticulously keep His commandments in every way possible; to cut off our hand or foot or pluck out our eye if these keep us from keeping the commandments of Christ. If and when we find that we are straying from His commandments, then we need to repent of that behavior and return to showing our love through our obedience. The law is good, if we use it lawfully.

    Paul says the law is given for the lawless and rebellious, presumably to show their evildoing and lead them to repentance, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane. The law condemns the “father-murderers” (one word in Greek) and “mother-murderers” (again, one word in Greek), “murderers,” fornicators (or immoral people), homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, and perjurers, and, in fact, anyone who lives and teaches what is contrary to sound and healthy teaching. The word “sound” here gives us our English word “hygiene.” Good “hygiene” is proper teaching from the mouth of God, found in the Word of God. 

    Let’s dedicate ourselves to the gospel that we might remain faithful to the message of Jesus Christ despite the false teachers we see around us.