A DIVISIVE DEMEANOR AND DOCTRINAL DEPARTURE

Hatefulness and heresy are partners in crime. The one who deviates from the faith will also potentially divide the flock. Both are deadly viruses that can infect a church until it becomes sick, or even dies! 

These make mountains out of molehills while failing to embrace the fundamentals of the faith. Instead, they take a text out of context and use it as a pretext for some theological novelty they want others to embrace. Such preach that they have received some new insight—often in a “dream,” or “vision.”  What they do is package error as enlightenment. 

Paul brands such arguments as unprofitable and useless and tells us to avoid these erroneous teachings and the evil teachers themselves —unless they repent when confronted. 

To platform such and have prolonged discussions is to elevate the doctrinal deviant to the same status as the true teachers. Immersing your mind in the study of heresy is to contaminate your own thinking. You cannot walk through a coal mine without inhaling some black dust. Do you want to drink just an ounce of chicken manure stirred in your coffee?  

For a period of time, I had a section of books in my library as examples of false teaching, but I have since thrown them away. I never read them, but what if someone saw them, and it piqued their curiosity?  Or after I died, what if someone got hold of them and wondered if I subscribed to those errors as those books were found in my library?  They went where such teaching belongs—in the trash!

At best, the study of false teaching and striving with false teachers is a waste of precious time better spent immersing oneself in the study and of Scripture and proclamation of it. A bank teller can detect counterfeit money, but not because they spend hour after hour studying counterfeiters and their craft. Rather, they handle real currency continually and thus when a forgery comes their way, they spot it right away.

Study the Scriptures. Listen to and learn from faithful men. “New” truth is likely ancient error repackaged.  Don’t waste time sorting through garbage. Toss it and turn to the Truth.

THE SUBTLETY OF THE WAYWARD

 

The devil is a roaring lion seeking to strike fear into his prey, but is also a sneaky snake that crawls in and waits in the darkness before injecting its fangs of false doctrine into the victim. This is how the serpent attacked Eve—first to doubt the accuracy of the Word of God with a question, “Did God really say?” and then to deny the authority of the Word of God with a contradiction, “No!  You will not die...” (Gen.3:1,4). 

In the prior letter, Paul set the order for the church—that men were responsible to be elders and teach doctrine in the church (1 Tim.2:11-15). The culture is increasingly feminized—masculinity is under attack—and this spirit is growing in the church in the name of equality. 

Of course, there is equality of dignity among men and women.  Neither sex is to be valued above the other. Yet, while there is no difference in dignity and worth, there is a difference in duty and work. We have different roles. The elders of the church are to be men who are the gatekeepers of sound doctrine while the women are to be the homemakers of young disciples. Women have a different role in the church and men have a different role in the home—neither less essential, but not identical.  

The warning here is to beware counterfeits like Jannes and Jambres who opposed Moses with their fake miracles (Ex.7:10-13).  Such frauds exist in Christendom today—offering the promise of miracles—bait that is wrapped around the poison of heresy.  We ignore this uncomfortable teaching to our own peril.

CHRIST’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE FALSE SHEPHERDS

In the Bible, any leader of God’s people might be referred to as a shepherd—whether it be a prince, prophet, or priest.  In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees had taken the position of being spiritual shepherds in Israel.  Jesus calls them, “hirelings,” or as the ESV renders it, “hired hands.”  It was a labor to perform and not a love to pursue.  They were about prestige, power, and possessions.

In contrast, we see Jesus as FAITHFUL RATHER THAN FAITHLESS.  A good shepherd would be loyal to the flock when a predator attacked, but a hired hand would leave the flock to save their own skin.  I think about so many so-called shepherds today who are fleecing the sheep for their own benefit rather than feeding the sheep for the flock’s blessing.  They get on TV and tearfully plead with poor widows to help fund their ministry and feed the needy, while they live in luxury.  What a contrast to Jesus, who was a giver and not a taker!

Another way to describe the contrast is SACRIFICIAL RATHER THAN SELFISH.  Jesus would lay down His life for the sheep.  The hired hands run for their lives.  Jesus described His mission in Mark 10:45, “For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”  Here is a strategic difference: the Good Shepherd loves the sheep for He has paid a price—a ransom for them—His own life.

Look at what Jesus says about these hired hands:  “But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.” (John‬ ‭10:12).  Every one of His sheep are precious to Jesus.

Do you love the church?  That is His flock.  How do you respond when called to serve the sheep?  If you are a leader, do you do it in love?  Be careful how you criticize one of Christ’s sheep and how you treat them. The Good Shepherd is watching!