(1) Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will *turn away from the **true faith; they will follow ***deceptive spirits and teachings that come from ****demons.
- *turn away: Greek aphistemi, from which we get our word apostasy.
- Mark 13:22: For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.
- Acts 20:29: I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock.
- 2 Corinthians 11:13-15: These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.
- 2 Timothy 4:3: For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.
- 1 John 2:19: These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
- It does not mean that, as individual, they would have been true Christians; but that there would be a departure from the great doctrines which constitute the Christian faith. The ways in which they would do this are immediately specified, showing what the apostle meant here by departing from the faith.
- **true faith: Implies there is a FALSE FAITH! This would be a faith similar to and derived from true faith, but twisted into something else.
- ***deceptive ... teachings:
- One example is in 2 Timothy 2:17-18: This kind of talk spreads like cancer, as in the case of Hymenaeus and Philetus. They have left the path of truth, claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred; in this way, they have turned some people away from the faith.
- 2 Corinthians 11:15: So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.
- Those doctrines which teach the worship of saints and angel, as intermediaries between immortal God and mortal men, is taught by the Roman church. This was one of the first steps towards that great apostasy, the enshrining of the relics of martyrs, paying divine honors to them, erecting altars, burning incense, consecrating images and temples, and making prayers and praises to the honor of saints departed. This demon-worship is paganism revived.
- In the late 1800's, new cults emerged here in America. Mormonism was born then; Jehovah's Witnesses came into being during that latter part of the 19th century; Christian Science emerged. All of these claimed to be Christian, yet they distorted biblical Christianity.
- If you want to know whether a group you are listening to, or are in touch with, is preaching and teaching true Christianity, ask yourself: "What do they say about Jesus? Who is he? Is he God appearing as man? Did he come in the flesh? Is he the Savior who has in himself accomplished all that God requires for the redemption of humanity?" Ask yourself, "What part does the blood of Jesus play in this teaching? What is said about his Person?" Was he raised from the dead? Is he now seated at the right hand of God? Is he just one of many gods?
- ****demons:
- 1 Corinthians 10:20: No, not at all. I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to participate with demons.
- Ephesians 2:2: You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.
- Ephesians 6:12: For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
- Revelation 9:20: But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk!
- Satan and his demons are the real source of false teaching such as Romanism, Christian Science, Spiritualism, Mormonism (Latter Day Saints), the "prosperity gospel", Jehovah's Witnesses (Watchtower) and other cults, Islam (which is a distortion of Judaism and Christianity), modernism (liberalism) and so many others.
Satan is more than happy to deliver to you whatever false doctrine you'd like! - Behind many so-called ministers and priests is a demon.
- In the pagan world of Paul's day, the departed spirits of the good and the great were exalted to the rank of demi-gods. The pagans invoked their aid. They set apart days in honor of them. In today's Roman church, they ask the aid of dead "saints" and Mary and they offer prayer to them.
- Every doctrine that denies Christ as the Savior of the world, or that places Him in a subordinate position such as that of some kind of lesser god, is demonic. Anything that man does to add to the sufficiency of the work that Jesus Christ fully accomplished on the cross is a doctrine of demons. Our enemy (Satan) doesn’t want his followers to hear the truth so he has devised a message that, if used by enough Bible teachers and pastors, will keep those who belong to him from ever becoming born again. Remember, Satan will lead you as close as possible to the truth without losing you to salvation. Once a person is born from God and becomes a new creation “In Christ”, Satan loses. Satan doesn’t like losing and he will not go down without a fight. How do we stave off the influence of doctrines of demons? We must know God’s word.
- In the 1820's, Joseph Smith claimed that the angel Moroni directed him to the golden tablets, on which was written the Book of Mormon in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Of course, Joseph Smith couldn't read them, so Moroni was nice enough to provide him with some miraculous spectacles that enabled him to translate the plates into English.
- Galatians 1:8: Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.
- We find Satan's first demonic doctrine in Genesis 3 as he deceived Eve.
- The errors came through men in the church, but behind these professing Christians were demonic forces.
(2) These people are *hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are **dead.
- *hypocrites and liars:
- The word hypocrite means "an actor, a pretender." Jesus called people hypocrites for doing the following:
- Claiming to be offering their money to God, when in reality they just wanted to be seen as giving.
- Claiming to be praying to God or fasting for God, when in reality they just wanted to be seen as spiritual.
- Claiming to help someone out of their sin, when in reality the sin that they had not repented of was much bigger.
- Claiming to be righteous, when they were wicked on the inside.
- Honoring God with their lips, when in reality, their hearts were far from Him.
- 2 Timothy 3:5: They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
- Titus 1:10-12: For there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. They must be silenced, because they are turning whole families away from the truth by their false teaching. And they do it only for money. Even one of their own men, a prophet from Crete, has said about them, “The people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals, and lazy gluttons.”
- These people aren't simply deceived, they know that they are teaching lies.
- The word hypocrite means "an actor, a pretender." Jesus called people hypocrites for doing the following:
- **dead:
- seared. Greek kauterziazomai from which we get our word "cauterize".
- The conscience is not an infallible guide. If you violate your conscience and don’t repent, your conscience becomes hardened or callused. If that process continues unchecked, you reach a point where your conscience is "seared". You have grown insensitive to sin. You can lie and not even realize you’re doing it, because your conscience is seared.
(3) They will say it is *wrong to be married and **wrong to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth.
- *wrong to be married:
- Hebrews 13:4: Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
- It is a sign that men have departed from the faith when they will command what God has forbidden, such as saint and angel or demon-worship; and forbid what God has allowed or commanded, such as marriage and meats.
- Why should we be surprised when reading about Roman church priests abusing young children and church leaders covering it up? Wrong thinking leads to wrong morals.
- This sentiment was held by the Essenes, a religious sect among the Jews.
- They despised marriage because they saw sex as evil. God made sexual union for a purpose—the uniting of husband and wife into one flesh in marriage. God uses sexual intimacy to weld two people together (1 Corinthians 6:16). God has a big purpose in mind for sex because he has a big purpose for marriage—something bigger than simply a means for us to get our sexual needs met, have fun, have kids and not have to be lonely.
In Ephesians 5, we learn more of what this bigger purpose is. According to Paul, marriage is to model concretely here on earth what God wants in the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church. Jesus is one with the Father, and he tells us that we can be one with him. We are utterly different from God, but he wants to unite with us (1 Corinthians 6:17). This reality can be uniquely modeled on earth through the union of two different kinds of human beings, male and female. Marriage is a living parable, a concrete symbol, that models for the world the mystical union of Christ and his people. According to God’s original design, marriages have grand, even cosmic, meaning. And this meaning remains regardless of how short we fall of that grand design.
- Hebrews 13:4: Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
- **wrong to eat certain foods:
- Paul may be pointing to the fact that these people were arguing that the Old Testament ceremonial laws had to continue to be observed—the difference between clean and unclean. And Paul may be drawing attention to the fact that the New Testament word of God had made it clear that all foods were now clean to Christians, as Jesus made clear in Mark 7; as God revealed to Peter in Acts 10; and as Paul in Hebrews emphasizes on several occasions. Those old ceremonial dietary laws were no longer binding on Christians.
- Mark 7:18-19: “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)
- Acts 10:15: But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”
- Colossians 2:20-23: You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
- These men come along and they say if you really want to be super-spiritual, you will abstain from marriage. If you really want to be spiritual, you’ve got to wean yourself away from these animal desires. And they come along and they say if you really want to be spiritual, you’ll wean yourself away from the animal desires for food; and, therefore, you will avoid certain types of foods and you will go through certain types of prescribed fasts which they will instruct you in. The idea behind this was apparently that Creation itself was tainted; matter itself was not as spiritual and holy as the spirit world, and so salvation involved escaping from matter. And if you could put to death these animal desires for sex and marriage and food, then you could escape from his material reality of Creation and into the higher world of the spirit. That is a very Gnostic and a very Greek and a very dualistic view of salvation, but it’s not a biblical view of salvation! The fundamental error of these false teachers is that they were setting their own view of the Christian life over the view that God revealed in His word.
(4) Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks.
(5) For we know it is made *acceptable by the word of God and **prayer.
- *acceptable: holy, sanctified.
- **prayer: 1 Samuel 9:13: Hurry and catch him before he goes up there to eat. The guests won’t begin eating until he arrives to bless the food.”
(6) If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed.
(7) Do not waste time arguing over *godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, **train yourself to be godly.
- *godless ideas and old wives’ tales:
- 1 Timothy 1:4: Don’t let them waste their time in endless discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don’t help people live a life of faith in God.
- This seems to refer particularly to the Jews, whose Talmudic writings are stuffed with ridiculous and profane fables. It may also be applied to the legends of the Roman Church.
- **train yourself to be godly:
- Tom Landry, put it, “The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be” (cited by Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life [NavPress], page 18). The key to being a disciplined Christian is to be a motivated Christian. Because eternal issues are at stake, we must discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness.
- The Bible teaches that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and it follows that you should care for it, so that you may serve God with your body and make the faith of Jesus Christ reputable. That said, you can honor God with physical training until you are blue in the face, but Paul still says that spiritual training is more valuable. It is different. It is superior. In sharp contrast against mere physical training, spiritual training has value "for all things."
- When Jonathan Edwards was just 19, he made the following resolution: "Resolved, To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, so that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same." This is the resolve to obey 2 Peter 3:18, "Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
(8) “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”
- Paul alludes here to the gymnastic exercises among the Greeks, which were intended as a preparation for their contests at the public games. They did this in order to obtain a corruptible or fading crown, which was the reward of those who conquered in those games. Timothy was to exercise himself unto godliness, that he might be prepared for the kingdom of heaven and there receive a crown that does not fade away. SO, how do we today train for godliness?
(9) This is a *trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it.
- *trustworthy saying: Verse 8 must have been an early church saying.
This phrase is used 4 times in Paul's pastoral epistles:
- 1 Timothy 1:15: This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.
- 1 Timothy 4:9 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it.
- 2 Timothy 2:11: This is a trustworthy saying: If we die with him we will also live with him.
- Titus 3:4-8: But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.” This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone.
(10) This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the *Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.
- *Savior of all:
- Paul is countering the false teachers (gnostics), who said that salvation is an exclusive thing for those in the inner circle who had “knowledge.” Paul is saying, “No, God wants to save all types of people in every place, from every walk of life. He has provided salvation for all, but it is only applied to those who believe in Christ.”
- If the phrase “the Savior of all people” were seeking to teach universalism, the rest of the verse would have no meaning when it says “particularly of all believers.”
(11) Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them.
(12) Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an *example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.
- *example:
- People can never be biblical leaders and truly mature until they come to realize that God has called them to be examples to others. As the Lord Jesus pointed out, “Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.” (Luke 6:40). In this context, the Lord was showing that one’s true spirituality or godliness (or lack thereof) is revealed in our actions and that such actions will influence others either for good or for evil. Students, sons and daughters tend to emulate their leaders, parents, guardians, teachers, or heroes. The tendency is for us to shy away from this responsibility and reality, but in order to be truly mature and a leader, one must accept this as a reality of leadership.
- We have no choice in being an example of some kind and having an impact on those around us, but we do have a choice in the kind of witness and impact we provide. Someone is going to follow us and be influenced by us. The questions are: Do we know where we are going? Are we providing the kind of example that will enhance their lives, or are we like the blind leading the blind?
- Some people will follow us. In this case, not so much in what we say, but in the way we live—in our priorities, values, and attitudes as well as our actions. If our lives are not what they should be, we become inverted examples who take people away from the Lord and the life He has called them to.
- 1 Corinthians 11:1: And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:6: So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord.
- Ephesians 5:1: Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.
- Philippians 3:17: Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.
- Titus 2:7: And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.
- Hebrews 13:7: Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.
- 1 Peter 2:21: For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.
- 1 Peter 5:3: Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example.
(13) Until I get there, focus on reading the *Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.
- *Scriptures: These would, of course, be the Old Testament, though Peter affirms Paul's writings to be "Scripture".
- 2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
- 2 Peter 3:15-16: And remember, the Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.
(14) Do not neglect the spiritual *gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you.
- *gift: 2 Timothy 1:6: This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.
(15) Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress.
(16) Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own *salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.
- *salvation: Not salvation of the sinner, but being saved from the teachings of demon-possessed men in verses 1-2.
NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is
the New Living Translation.
NOTE: Sources and References are on line at: http://1timothy-study.blogspot.com/2010/12/1-timothy-references-and-sources.html
