Finale on False Teachers

1 Timothy 6:2b-5

Immanuel – 1/18/26

          Since August 10^th, we’ve been soaring on the heights of 1 Timothy. Two truths have been the jet fuel propelling us, which we find in 3:15.

The first truth propelling us: the church is the household of God. God dwells in human hearts – hearts that trust him for life. Immanuel means “God with us.” He is with us, and we are the living temple of God. The church is the household of God.

The second truth propelling us: the church is the pillar and buttress of the truth. God is the source of all truth. His word is the standard of truth. We followers of Jesus are the keepers of truth. The church is the pillar and buttress of the truth.

          These are the two truths propelling us through 1 Timothy. In 6:2b, Paul begins our initial descent, preparing to land the plane. He will reiterate many things we have heard already, summarizing, and often adding a bit of punch.

          Today Paul returns to his polemic, his argument against the false teachers which so plagued the Ephesian church. Paul unashamedly works to cut down their dangerous false teachings – dangers he makes painfully clear in our passage today.

          Listen to Paul’s pivot as he shifts into polemic mode and prepares to land the plane.

Read vs 2b-3

Teach and urge these things. Certainly, Paul is referring to everything in chapter 5 on the theme of honor. Honor every person in the church. With certain groups, special honors should be given – like to widows or elders. “Timothy, teach and urge the church to honor one another.”

But really, Paul is exhorting Timothy to teach and urge everything he has written about in the entirety of his letter: on prayer, appropriate hierarchy, healthy leadership, the practice of godliness, and gospel truth. Don’t let any slip. Don’t forget. “If the church is to be the household of God, the pillar and buttress of the truth, Timothy, teach and urge these things!” The church needs Timothy’s teaching and urging. The church needs the teaching and urging of pastors who will preach Paul’s words – all of God’s word!

          But notice how Paul says “teach and urge these things.” Teaching is not enough; urging is imperative. Urging is encouraging, commanding, insisting. In his second letter to Timothy, on this same idea, Paul turns the dial all the way up.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

                                                                                      -2 Timothy 4:1-2

          Hear how dramatically Paul places urging before the teaching? Yes teach, teaching is so important, but you must urge. In other words, Paul wants Timothy to preach – with all didactic skill and persuasiveness, that the hearts of men and women would be drawn into Christ and flung from Christ as lights in the world.

Let me make a distinction between a teacher and a preacher. A teacher aims at the head. A preacher aims at the heart. Certainly, there is overlap between the two, but the teacher’s primary job is to help you know the word. The preacher’s primary job is to help you obey the word.

This is why one of Immanuel Baptist Church’s highest values is faithful, biblical, preaching of the word of God. It is why this pulpit, whether it’s me or someone else, is treated with the utmost care and respect. It’s not comedy show. It’s not story time with pastor. It’s God’s word that is taught and urged.

And when we see other churches – around the corner or around the world – with these same values, we are happy to support them in whatever ways we can! We want to see every church with a pastor who teaches and urges the church to know and obey God’s word! Because the church is the household of God, the pillar and buttress of the truth!

Thus, any preacher or teacher who deviates from “these things” poses a real threat to the church.

Read vs 3

          Timothy is in Ephesus because of false teachers. He has come to course correct and rid the ship of its rats. When Paul says, “If anyone teaches a different doctrine,” in Ephesus, there are specific people whom Paul has in mind. In 1:20 he named two of them: Hymenaeus and Alexander. Yet Paul phrases it in such a way so it applies to any church at any time.

          If any teacher or preacher teaches a different doctrine than Paul’s, which do not agree with the words of Christ, nor teaching that accords with godliness…

          With words like that, Paul is asserting his authority as an Apostle of Jesus Christ. Jesus chose Paul, and supernaturally called Paul to be one of his Apostles. Thus, Paul’s words carry the authority of Christ’s words. And Paul’s words are words that lead to godliness. Anyone preaching or teaching in contradiction to the Apostle Paul is an enemy of Christ, and godlessness will be the result.

          This is exactly where Paul goes next.

Read vs 4-5

          I wonder if you caught the if-then statement. If anyone teaches a different doctrine…then he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. The word Paul uses for conceited also carries connotations of mental illness. Think of a mental illness like narcissism or antisocial personality disorder. Someone who wants to teach or preach in the church, yet contradict Paul, Jesus, and godliness, is mentally ill.

          They understand nothing. The aim of Paul’s charge is love that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith (1:5). False teachers are too conceited to understand this. Their teaching does not come from a place of love, and they care little about the hearts, conscience, and faith of the listeners. When Paul says they understand nothing, he equates them with fools.

Listen to how the Bible talks about fools:

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

                                                                             -Proverbs 18:2

Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool.          -Proverbs 28:26

The lips of a fool consume him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness.      -Ecclesiastes 10:12-13

          Paul’s polemic is scathing. Indeed, anyone teaching a different doctrine than Paul is a fool, trusting in their own mind, expressing their own opinions, knowing nothing but their own evil madness. The character of false teachers is marked by conceit and foolishness.

          Then Paul says such false teachers are ill with delusional obsessions over controversy and semantics. Rather than spending themselves talking about Scripture, and what leads to godliness, false teachers would rather talk about controversial things. Modern so-called churches are filled with these, obsessed with talking about new revelations, or unverifiable miracles, or gender roles, or LGBTQIA+ issues, or all kinds of controversial issues.

Additionally, rather than sound doctrine, false teachers wants to battle over words. Even in our day, so many teachers twist the meaning of Paul’s words to fit their own cultural preferences and proclivities. Books are written over phrases and words, and their conclusions are so often twisted.

The actions of false teachers are marked by controversy and semantic debates.

          Then Paul lists five effects false teachers have on a community.

          The first communal effect of a false teacher is envy. Envy is not just wanting what another person has, it’s craving it: craving to have their influence, their wealth, their knowledge, their relationships. Perhaps you do not envy the exact car they have, but envy would have you go out and buy a fancy one for yourself so you can finally feel like you’ve arrived. Envy is a driving force behind materialism. Envy is a driving force behind chasing status.

          Two verses from now, as he does in so many places, Paul preaches contentment (1 Timothy 6:6). False teachers create a community infected with envy.

          The second communal effect of a false teacher is dissention. Dissention in a community means arguing, strife, contentious disagreement, and so on. Where there is envy, will there not also be dissention? And when teachers love controversy and quarreling over words, dissention is a natural outcome.

The aim of Paul’s charge is love (1:5), and he preaches unity in the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). False teachers sow dissention and create fractures in the church.

          The third communal effect of a false teacher is slander. From the Greek, “slander” could also be translated as “malicious talk.” It’s a broad category of speaking. It includes slander, gossip, abusive language, manipulative language, and all forms of destructive verbal expression.

In chapter 5, Paul called the church to honor one another. A false teacher will foster a community ready to tear anyone down who disagrees with them.

          The fourth communal effect of a false teacher is evil suspicion. If a church is infected with envy, dissention, and malicious talk; won’t people be looking suspiciously at one another, constantly questioning motives? “Do they really care about me?” “Do they mean what they say?” “What do they want from me?”

          Paul says love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7); but false teachers foster a community of no trust, where people begin to look suspiciously at one another.

          The fifth communal effect of a false teacher is constant friction. In some ways, this is a summary of the preceding four communal effects of false teachers. No peace is to be had in such a place. Relational problems will abound. People will be annoyed with one another, lack patience, constantly judging and feeling judged.

          Paul longs for peace to guard hearts and minds (Philippians 4:7). False teachers create a community of constant friction.  

Again, the five communal effects of false teachers are envy, dissention, slander, evil suspicions, and relational friction.

          Then Paul moves from communal effects of false teachers to personal effects of false teachers: from what will happen in the church to what will happen in you – if you listen to false teachers.

          The first personal effect of false teachers is depraved thinking, or corrupted thinking. When gospel truths are twisted, and the word of God is corrupted, clear thinking is the first casualty. Our society is exhibit A. We don’t know if a unborn baby’s life is sacred, or that men cannot have babies, or that the offers of materialism are empty.

          Paul calls for Christians to be transformed by the renewal of their minds (Romans 12:2). False teachers twist the truth and corrupt Christian thinking.

          The second personal effect of false teachers is deprivation of the truth, or having the truth stolen away. If false teachers know nothing, as Paul said in verse 4, then how could they possibly impart any truth? They cannot. They are fools who teach in contradiction to wisdom. And not only are they unable to impart truth, they actually steal away the truth. Biblical truth is replaced by preferences, or following your heart, or opinions on whatever approach works best, or on the delusions of their own mind.

          In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he says all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). False teachers destroy the truth and have nothing substantive to offer in its place.

          The third personal effect of false teachers is imagining that godliness is a means of gain – or looking at godliness with suspicion. People who are unable to think clearly, robbed of the truth, it is no surprise they will look at godliness with suspicion. They will see a faithful man of God preaching the truth and say he is only in it for the money, or the influence, or he has some twisted compulsion to seek people’s praise. In other words, people who listen to false teachers lose any ability to perceive godliness. If godliness is God-centeredness, they have been so far flung from God that they do not recognize the things of God, even if they are right before their eyes.

          In 1 Timothy 4:7, Paul said train for godliness. False teachers destroy even the ability to recognize godliness.

The three personal effects of false teachers are corrupted thinking, loss of truth, and suspicion towards godliness.

          Conceited and foolish false teachers, stirring controversy and quarreling over words, sowing envy dissention, slander, evil suspicion, and relational friction; corrupting thinking, stealing the truth, and casting suspicion on godliness. They trample on the household of God and tear down the pillar and buttress of the truth. If Christ’s words are the words of life, such teachers offer an anti-life.

In next week’s passage Paul will offer a better way, a way of life filled with godliness and contentment.

          But can’t you see why Paul is so aggressive towards false teachers? They must be cut down, and churches that embrace false teachings must be avoided and denounced. The anti-life they promote is killing people.

          America has long rejected biblical truths. All over our country churches have adopted false teachings. Consequently, churches everywhere have died. They’ve become buildings gutted of godly believers; and too many have been transformed into mosques and temples and Airbnbs.

           A society that embraces false teachers is a society filled with corrupted thinking, has relativized truth, and looks suspiciously towards the things of God. This is our society. May it never be our church!

          May it be our ambition to partner with other churches that hold fast to the truth, with faithful preachers teaching and urging sound doctrine and the gospel of grace. Such churches are treasures, and so should we treasure them! And I am unashamed to say that Utica City Church is one such church!

What should we know? False teachers are conceited and foolish. They destroy the community of the church and the lives of individuals. They offer an anti-life.

What should we believe? Proclamation of God’s word is life! Holding fast to sound doctrine. Treasure the words of Christ and cherish churches that faithfully teach and urge these things!

What should we do? Immerse yourself in God’s word. How can you spot what is false if you do not know what is true? Be suspicious.

Paul spoke of evil suspicion sown by false teachers, but there is a healthy suspicion. If you see a teacher quarreling over words and stirring controversy, be suspicious. If pride and foolish behavior mark a leader, be suspicious. If the people following a leader are diseased by malicious talk, dissention, a lack of truth, and so on, be suspicious. Paul speaks these words so we will be wiser, and suspicious of anything propagating the anti-life.

Contained in that fruit offered by Satan was the anti-life. Hell, by definition, is the anti-life. Let’s rescue those from the anti-life with faithful gospel proclamation and truth spoken in love. Let’s be ambassadors of reconciliation! And as we will see next week, let’s strive to be people who are content.