PROSPERING FROM FALSE TEACHING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

1 Timothy 6:2b-5

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

False teaching was a big problem in the Ephesian church and this is why we find the Apostle Paul addressing the matter in his first letter to Timothy, his missionary partner and pastor in Ephesus. The Christian church was just getting started and it was of critical importance that the sanctity of the Gospel be preserved.

Here’s what Paul writes at the end of verse 2 through verse 5:

These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

As we look at today’s passage drawn from the opening verses of chapter 6, we find Paul exhorting Timothy to “teach and insist” on “godly teaching” using “the sound instruction” of the “Lord Jesus Christ”.

This was to counter those who taught otherwise, those Paul labeled as having “an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words” which would tend to indicate they were trying to twist the scriptures to suit their agenda.

What was that agenda?

The scriptures tell us in the final words of this passage as we find the false teachers were most interested in using the matter of godliness to promote “financial gain”. In other words, the main interest of these teachers wasn’t carrying out the Great Commission of Jesus and making disciples of all nations. Rather, they saw ministry as a business, one they could use to profit and prosper off of. You could say that they sought to better their worldly life instead of seeking to expand and build the kingdom of God. It’s little wonder that Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, warned people that they couldn’t serve God and money simultaneously (Matthew 6:24). 

Now perhaps this was one of the first instances of what we would refer today as “prosperity pastors” and Paul goes onto highlight the dangers associated with the false teachers who he labeled as “conceited” and understanding nothing. For rather than breed the unity in Christ under Jesus, the Head of the church, as the scriptures demand, these false teachers would end up causing “envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction” between the people they would gain the trust of, people who had been “robbed of the truth” and even encouraged to follow the lead of the false teachers and seek to financially benefit from their religiousness.

When we look at the life of our Savior, the One who all pastors and teachers are to emulate, we should never lose sight of the fact that He didn’t come to get rich off of the people He came to save. Rather, He surrendered and sacrificed everything to ensure the salvation plan of God, His Father and ours, was accomplished. Jesus set aside all that He had to deliver us from the eternal damnation of Hell and ensure we could one day enter Paradise with Him and the Father forever.

In other words, He, in His perfect richness, became poor, suffering unimaginable pain while bearing our transgressions, so that we, impoverished and doomed by sin, might gain the greatest wealth, a share in the inheritance of Heaven. All a person needs to do is believe in Jesus as Savior.

Friends, one need only look at the lifestyle of a pastor to see where they land in regard to this message and the scriptures that it is drawn from.

Is the Pastor storing up great treasures on earth or focused like Jesus was on storing up treasures in Heaven?

As we are looking at associating with any church, we should consider who is leading and ensure they are committed to the Gospel, not their personal prosperity

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.