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In Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy (1 Tim. 1:1-7), Paul warned Timothy about false teachers in the church. He described these teachers as advocates of false doctrines (v3), inventors of fictitious stories (v4), useless talkers (v6), self-appointed teachers of the Old Testament law (v7) and conceited people who did not know what they were talking about (v7). He told Timothy to command them not to continue teaching false doctrines.
Why did Paul tell Timothy to stop the influence of false teaching? He had in mind several good reasons. First, they were involving people in endless and useless controversies which was taking away previous time from the study of God’s word and from during God’s work. Second, they were motivated by their desire to gain power and authority and required people to follow them. Third, the deception of the false teachers was subtle and some had already wandered away from the truth of the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ.
False teaching will always be present in the church and is dangerous. To protect our church from it and from distorted gospels, we should learn what the Bible teaches and remain steadfast in our faith in Jesus Christ. The next important question is: What is the true gospel? Richard Stearns asked the same thing: “Is our faith just about going to church, studying the Bible and avoiding the most serious sins – or does God expect more? Have we embraced the whole gospel or a gospel with a hole in it?” He then answers it in this way, “We are the carriers of the gospel – the good news that was meant to change the world” (2 Cor. 5:20). Belief is not enough. Worship is not enough. Personal morality is not enough. Christian community is not enough. God has always demanded more. When we committed ourselves to following Christ, we also committed to living our lives in such a way that a watching world would catch a glimpse of God’s character — His love, justice, and mercy – through our words, actions, and behaviour.”
Living out our Christian faith privately is not an option. Our Christian faith must be outwardly expressed; otherwise it has a hole in it. Do you have a hole in your gospel?
