1 Timothy 1:3-7 -- Top 10 things about false teachers, part 1

To catch up on our adventure through 1 Timothy, click here and read from the bottom post up.

1 Timothy 1:3-7 (NIV):

"As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work—which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm."

From this passage we pick up on 10 statements or facts about false teachers. Let's start looking at these:

1. False teachers teach false doctrine. (v. 3)

Duh! OK, this one may seem obvious. But the point here is this: I may occassionally say/write/blog something that's not quite right, but it's just a little mistake here and there. That does not make me a false teacher. I can be easily corrected if I am wrong. (False teachers are not easily corrected.)

We are talking about a trend here, not an isolated incident.

And it goes beyond "right" or "wrong" doctrine. I think there are some "grey" doctrines. Someone once said, "Where the Bible is silent on a matter, you go and do likewise." In other words, if the Bible as a whole is not clear on a matter and it is a grey area, don't make it a black and white issue.

This brings us down a rabbit trail, but I think it's an important rabbit trail. Many times a false teacher is not teaching a bad doctrine as opposed to a good doctrine. They are teaching a grey area doctrine as though it were black and white. These issues can be subtle.

It is easy to prove a false teacher wrong if they are teaching something that is clearly wrong. It's harder to correct a false teacher who is teaching a grey area as though it's black and white, although it is possible. The hard part is proving it to the false teacher. Especially when they think they can point to chapter and verse to support their claim (although someone else could also point to chapter and verse to prove the opposite). We call that proof-texting, by the way. Proof-texting is starting with an idea of your own and then picking and choosing certain verses (out of context) that seem to support your idea. Of course, you also have to discard certain verses that don't seem to support your idea.

Next time we'll look at some more of these top 10 things about false teachers.