1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
2To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Warning Against False Teachers of the Law
3As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer 4nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work—which is by faith.
1. It is hard to know exactly what these guys were teaching tht ticked Paul off so much, but here are a couple of things we do know.
- whatever they were teaching, it wasn't true. It didn't line up with what the apostles were teaching
- it did not further the Kingdom of Heaven (which by the way is what Christ came to do...this is God's work).
- it was contrary to faith, which suggests that it probably had something to do with works and legalism.
This reminds me again that one of the questions I need to ask in the ministries I am involved in is how does this further the Kingdom? How does this show the value of God? (works are about us, faith is about Him).
5The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. 7They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.
2. Paul's goal in all this, primarily in what he is calling Timothy to do, is love. Question: Does this drive me? Is it out of love for others that I try and motivate, encourage and instruct? Where does this come from? Paul says that it comes from 3 things...
1. a pure heart. David in Psalm 51:10 asked God to create in him a clean heart...I would guess a pure heart is similar, one that is forgiven, renewed.
2. a good conscience. One that is not wracked by guilt and shame. Instead, it has peace, courage, joy. How wicked it is to deal with sin quickly so that I can be free to engage people and God well.
3. sincere faith. Since faith is all about trusting God, my guess is that it is a faith that authentically pursues absolute trust in Christ seen in humility, submission and obedience to His Word. Paul seems to be saying that if these begin to define us, we will be loving others. If these don't define us, we will move into areas of sin and "meaningless talk", what we teach will have no value.
Lord, I pray that I will be a person who will grow in love for others. I ask that You would draw me to Yourself, that I will absolutely rely upon You so that I can be used to lead others to You. Lord, reveal to me when I am engaged in meaningless talk. I love You Lord.
1 comment:
Would sincere faith be the antonym of meaningless talk? Just a thought. From that verse, I want to be sure I know what I am talking about. It seems that sometimes as a youth pastor I'm expected to say something and so I do but, in eternal value, it is often meaningless.
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