DUNCAN/False teaching and the love of money

Please turn to 1 Timothy 6:3-10. In this letter to Timothy,  Paul has been setting down the pattern and the principles for ministry and life together in the local church that he expects to see worked out in every Christian congregation in every time and in every culture. And in this particular passage, he is addressing the issue of false teaching again. First, in verse 3, Paul provides a description of the characteristics of sound doctrine. Secondly in verse 4, he addresses the character of false teachers. Thirdly, in verses 4-5, he describes the results of false teaching. Fourthly, in verse 5, Paul addresses one of the key motivations for false teachers. Fifthly, in verse 6, he contrasts the real gain that Christian godliness brings with the false gain that false prophets suggest. Finally, in verses 7-10, Paul issues a warning against one of the key roots of evil in the lives of men and women.

I. Sound Doctrine is in Accord with the Teaching of Jesus Christ and Leads to Godliness.

In verses 3-4, Paul contrasts sound doctrine with false teaching. These false teachers were claiming that they had received revelations from God which even the apostles had not received. They asserted that Jesus had communicated to them by the Holy Spirit certain truths which were key to the blessed life which had not been revealed to the apostles.  So they were coming as the mouthpieces of the Holy Spirit to tell the Christian church truths which they had never heard before. In response, the Apostle Paul says, “My teaching, by contrast, is the old, old story. I have absolutely nothing new to tell you. What I have to tell you is what Jesus had to tell you.” Sound doctrine is in accord with Jesus’ teaching, in accord with the apostles’ teaching, and it leads to godliness. It doesn’t lead to speculation. It doesn’t lead to divisive argument. It is productive of a life which is in accord with God’s Word.

 II. False Teachers are Prideful, Ignorant, and Preoccupied with the Obscure. 

In verse 4, Paul says that false teachers are conceited, understand nothing, and display a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words. They want to have a special standing and esteem and authority and control over believers, and so they cook up their own teaching. But because they make up their own teaching, they show that they really do not understand Christianity. Though they profess to be smarter than everybody else, they really do not understand the rudimentary truths of the grace of the gospel revealed in the Word of God. And furthermore, they fixate on controversial questions and disputes about words. They become overly focused on some tiny little truth off to the side, that is probably not even a truth, and they attempt to spread their false teaching constantly. Thus, Paul says false teachers are prideful, ignorant despite what they may claim, and they have an unhealthy interest in the obscure.

III. False Doctrine leads to Personal Ungodliness and Corporate Division.

In verses 4-5, Paul also says that false teaching results in “envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant frictions between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth.” Paul says that false teaching will always lead to dissention, wrangling about words, evil suspicions, and strife amongst the brethren. In other words, false teaching leads to personal ungodliness and to corporate division. Paul warns us here about false teachers who claim to have seen a truth that nobody else understands. Unfortunately, false teaching destroys Christians, leads them away from the church and divides congregations. 

IV. False Teachers are Motivated by a Desire for Material Gain. 

In verse 5, Paul says that false teachers “suppose that godliness is a means of gain.” Paul is saying they are motivated by a desire for material gain. They believe that they are going to obtain material wealth through the truth of Jesus Christ and the gospel. Paul’s words are also relevant for us today. The most common false teaching in churches in the English-speaking world today is the false teaching that God wants you to be physically healthy and materially wealthy all the time; and that if you’re not, it’s because you don’t have enough faith or you haven’t made the commitment to the secret teaching of whoever it is that’s teaching that particular message. However, Paul wants to make it clear that is not what Christianity is about.

V. The Gospel brings the Gain that comes with Contentment.

In verse 6, Paul says, “But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment.” We live in a materialist consumer culture that values life based on the bottom line. What the “health and wealth” teachers are teaching is not radical at all. It is totally conformed to the whims and trends and desires of this world. What is really radical is what the Apostle Paul is saying, because it is what Jesus taught. The gospel does bring great gain, but it is not the kind of gain that the false teachers are talking about. It is the kind of gain that comes with contentment, because the gospel involves believers who have become by grace disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, taking up their cross and following Him, dying daily to sin and to self, living for Christ, and serving one another. Paul is saying that when the gospel takes hold of you, and you are able to believe in the kind and tender lovingkindness and mercy of God, you will be able to rest in His provision like you have never rested before, no matter how much or how little you have.

VI. Guard Your Heart Against the Love of Money. 

In verses 7-10, Paul calls us to guard our hearts against the pernicious love of money. Specifically, Paul says “the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.” This reminds us of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus to ask Him how he could have eternal life. We are told in the Gospels that he went away sorrowing when Jesus told him to sell everything that he had and follow Him “for he was one who owned much property” (Matthew 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30). It is heartbreaking to see that his contentment and his satisfaction was in those things. We think of him wandering away from the faith. There he was, standing in front of his God and Savior, and he left Him because he had chosen to serve mammon rather than God. In this passage, Paul not only gives us words whereby we can detect false teaching, but he searches our own hearts to see if we love God more than we love things. May we pray that God, by His Spirit, would help us to love Christ, to love His kingdom, and to seek Him first and then let God add the other things.