Page 19 - Pastoral Epistles student textbook

What is false doctrine?

False doctrine is anything other than the truth.
Some people add to the Gospel. Others create controversies though strange ideas or
legalistic requirements. Then there are those who claim to have some special
knowledge regarding faith or God or both. All these people should be kept from
leadership positions within our churches because they will create controversies with their false
doctrine.
During the early years of the church – as well as today – false doctrine has attacked the foundation of
our faith. Some attacks come from outside the church, but others come from within the church.
Paul told Timothy to stay in Ephesus and command certain men not to teach false doctrines.

When we talk about false doctrines we are not talking about areas of personal concern and personal
conviction. There are things that each believer is free to decide on his or her own. But false doctrine
occurs when truth is set aside and replaced by personal feelings etc.
If we become grounded in the truth, then false teaching can be stopped before it spreads.

If we are not grounded in our faith, we become the person Paul describes in Ephesians 4:14.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown
here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of
people in their deceitful scheming.

How do you know that what you believe is the truth?
Paul comes right to the point at the beginning of this letter. The reason he wanted
Timothy to stop these false teachers from continuing in the teaching of the false
doctrine was love.

1 Timothy 1:5. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a
good conscience and a sincere faith.
Paul was concerned about the church and he knew and understood the dangers of allowing false
teachers to continue.
1:6-7. The False Teachers.

6 Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to
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be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they
so confidently affirm.

In Acts 20:25-31 Paul is talking with the leaders of the church at Ephesus a few years earlier.

Acts 20:25-31. “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about
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preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that
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I am innocent of the blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you
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the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy
Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought
with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you
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and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort
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