Many pulpits preach without the kind of clarity that is needed to strengthen the Church. They do not address what is contrary to God’s truth. Their teaching will compromise the truth and teach things that will weaken the Church.
If a person has been called to teach, how they teach the word will have certain distinctives. A primary distinctive is to not allow accepted cultural norms to dilute the truth and present the Gospel in a compromising way that supports sins within the Church. This kind of compromised teaching focuses on increasing attendance, filling the offering plate, and making the hearers comfortable. The Church becomes an event, not an expression of the Ekklesia.
When Paul wrote to Timothy, he referenced those whose teaching “is contrary to the truth” (I Timothy 1: 3). Paul told Timothy he would have to challenge those whose teaching created falsehoods describing their teachings as a waste of time, meaningless speculation, and creating religious myths that do not help people live a life of faith.
Paul said, “The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith” (vs. 5). He went on to describe some issues that do not help people experience a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a genuine faith.
The teachers who promote and teach such things will destroy people’s faith affirming a life that becomes ungodly and sinful. These teachers consider “nothing sacred and defile what is holy” (vs. 9). Paul described a list of some things that were being allowed that would lead to confusion about what is sacred.
Paul described these teachers as people who gave license to those in the Church to continue a life of sin. They are people “Who kill their father or mother or commit other murders. The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God” (vs. 10-11). Paul’s comment about “anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching” is what he was warning Timothy about.
What we teach should be those things the Lord entrusted to us that will build people’s faith, not help them deconstruct their faith to such a degree that they will tolerate increasing evil within our churches.
The purpose of Paul’s instruction and Timothy’s teaching was to teach what is pure, clear, and genuine. That teaching can appear unloving to those who have abandoned the truth of Scripture, but to those following the teaching of God’s truth, it will affirm what is right, true, and sacred. Those three things should be the goal of our teaching, not a descending acquiescence to those things that compromise God’s truth.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
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