Page 17 - Pastoral Epistles I & 2 Timothy, Titus

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 the 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 be teachers
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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 preaching the
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kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the
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blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep
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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,
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savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own
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number, men will arise and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them. So be on your
guard! Remember that for three years, I never stopped warning each of you night and day with
tears.

 There is nothing wrong with being a teacher. Teaching is good because it helps our people understand what is
right and what is not right (truth and lies) and helps us come to understand the gospel. But Paul is talking about
people who “want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about.”

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