Part of the
warning, for a solemn warning it is, is that they do not strive about words to
no profit and with this charge the implication that such strivings can lead to
the ruin of the hearers.
There are
some who have abused what is being said here and tried to argue in good
pragmatic fashion that only those things which have a tangible hands-on value
should be focused on. Some have used this concept to argue against the import
and focus on doctrine. 'Doctrine divides' they insist and to concentrate on such
ideas is to get lost in the abstract and esoteric. What people need is good
practical teachings, things that can be directly applied to their lives.
Focusing on heady theological questions is not profitable.
This is a
distortion of what Paul means. Paul focuses heavily on doctrine. His epistles
generally are split between doctrine (which comes first) and application. And
in the case of Romans we have 11 chapters of heavy doctrine followed by five
chapters of application and exhortation. All applications, our ideas about
Christian living are rooted in doctrine.
Doctrine
which focuses on the person and work of Christ is never a waste of time. Those
that cannot find value in understanding the ways of the Kingdom are unable to
see it. We are not saved so that we can have blissful marriages, profitable businesses
and so that we can learn how to be successful. Sometimes we can enjoy these
things and yet this is not what we are saved for. We are redeemed and
reconciled. We are called to 'know' God and to walk with Him, to learn His ways
and to glorify Him.
Those that
understand salvation as simply a pass to escape hell have missed something
vital to the Christian faith. Questions concerning union and salvation, the Kingdom,
the Church and eschatology are all doctrinal and theological questions which if
rightly understood profoundly affect how we live in this world. Those that cannot
see this are flying blind and will in the end let the world's wisdom and their
own feelings dictate their course.
Paul is
warning about struggles over secondary technicalities and speculative
doctrines. These things produce division because there's no way to reconcile or
resolve the issues. You've gone beyond scripture and you're arguing over
man-made systems and tangling over the ethics that flow from them. Rooted in
man-made systems, essentially philosophical commitments they do not drive us to
Christ, they do not edify.
This theme
will be revisited again and again.
Verse 15 in
the King James begins with the word 'Study' and this is an example of why it's
good to make sure the Bible is translated into the vernacular. Study is an old
word that doesn't necessarily refer to academic bookwork. It can refer to that
but really refers to diligent application toward any end and so it is right
that the NKJV says 'Be diligent'.
Of course it
is right and proper that Christians study the Scriptures and it is indeed a
sign of spiritual vitality and a means to know God. It is a means of growth and
if done in right frame of mind and heart, it is doxological, an act of worship.
But here Paul is exhorting Timothy to be diligent and confident in the business
he's about. There is again this revisiting of shame, and how in suffering and
low-station that we're called to in this life, there is no shame. This does
imply the opposite that we are to be audacious and proud in our bearing or
demeanour. By no means. Our confidence is in a determined, diligent spirit of
meekness willing to suffer insult and injury and yet unyielding and
uncompromising.
Timothy is
told to 'rightly divide' the word of truth. This of course is the flagship
Bible verse for the school of Dispensationalism and they believe it vindicates
their theology of dividing Scripture up into epochs, administrations or
Dispensations beyond the Old and New Covenants. The old scheme had seven
dispensations and each was said to provide a different way or path of
salvation. We happen to live in the Church Age and yet after the 'Rapture' is
the Tribulation and a different salvific arrangement, Jews keeping the law in
order to be saved etc... Historically this school denied that Christ is
the way of salvation in every age, but it has undergone extensive revision and
modification and there are not that many left anymore who adhere to the old
model presented by Scofield.
Paul is not
telling Timothy to divide the Bible according to a Dispensational scheme, one
that is neither in Scripture nor was ever imagined until its creation by JN
Darby in the 19th century.
The
expression to rightly divide or cut a straight path implies the correct
handling of Scripture. It suggests leading the people on the correct and
perhaps even narrow path of Biblical orthodoxy. The Dispensationalists have
read their wild speculative scheme into this text and make it say far more than
it does.
Interestingly
the very next verse is a return to the theme of v.14 as Paul once again warns
Timothy about words, in this case babblings of those who focus on the profane
and idle. What is meant here? It's not always clear but there are some hints
that can help us work out a fuller picture of what Paul is suggesting.
This type of
message which is compared to a wasting disease or gangrene is propagated by men
like Hymenaeus and Philetus mentioned in v17. While we don't know anything
about Philetus, we've ran into the name of Hymenaeus back in 1 Timothy. There
he is delivered unto Satan for his blasphemies. This same character though
excommunicated is still on the loose and making trouble for what we would guess
is the Ephesian church, if indeed Timothy is still there.
Many of the
errors being addressed in the New Testament deal with Judaizing tendencies,
doctrinal positions that try to integrate aspects of Jewish law and/or Old
Testament Theocratic rule into the life of New Testament Christians. Sometimes
it would seem this was mixed with other Hellenistic notions.
In this case
it would seem the error is of the more Gnostic variety. In 1 Timothy we learn
of a group that seeks money and the power or gain that goes with it. We're not
told the details but this somehow ties in with the envy, strife and evil
suspicions reported in 1 Tim 6.4. There is even a hint at some form of social
agitation in the first verses of chapter 6.
The Gnostic
element is more pertinent in 1 Tim 4 where Paul speaks of a teaching that
denies marriage and demands abstinence from certain foods.
Many read
this and think of Roman Catholicism with their priestly celibacy and the
practices regarding meats and Lent and so forth. While those beliefs and
practices are to be condemned I don't know that they flow from the same Gnostic
font as what we're seeing in 1 Timothy 4.
In fact Rome
would probably attempt (and fail) to build a case for Biblical celibacy based on
this very chapter of 2 Timothy as well as some of Paul's statements in 1
Corinthians. It's one thing to choose to remain unmarried in order to serve God
and something else when it is mandated and placed within the framework of a
supposedly holy priesthood.
Many of the
Gnostic groups had real problems with the material and because the Bible
sometimes speaks in a somewhat similar way regarding This Age, it would seem
they were able to exploit and distort there verses and teachings.
Marriage led
to the production of more people and this was something they frowned upon.
Their goals were to break with the physical. The Creation was a mistake, the
result of a cosmic defection and a force of evil. Animal based foods were a
problem for many of them, because you were consuming 'life' or the products of
physical reproduction.
As with the
Greeks in Acts 17 the notion of a physical resurrection was highly problematic.
It was an idea that was repugnant to their overall system and cosmology. Paul may
be speaking of a denial of the Second Coming, or he may be speaking of a teaching
wherein they are denying physical resurrection and insisting on restricting the
resurrection to the re-birth. Since the Bible speaks of a re-birth and a
Kingdom not of this world, it's not too hard to imagine how they could exploit
and utilize these passages to promote their flawed ideas.
This might
have been tied in with some kind of notion of the material life being either
something to wholly deny (asceticism) or something to exploit, or some notion
of both. This ascetic/libertine tension seems to be ever present with the
Gnostic groups.
Some of them
may have had a notion akin to, you're raised from the dead, and this is a sort
of heaven and you make the most of it... an excuse to manipulate and exploit
for those not bound by earthly categories and rules. It was an attitude of
despising the world, not the Biblical despising of the world's system and its
wisdom, but a despising of the world and the people in it that aren't initiated.
It's an attitude of superiority.
In the end,
it's just not clear. It's interesting how the New Testament gives us hints at
what the False Apostles and teachers were propagating but we're never given the
full picture. Was this a deliberate act by the Holy Spirit? It would seem so.
And again it's interesting because when we're left with generalities and not
particulars, it allows these texts to function for the Church in every age.
We know
these groups spent inordinate amounts of time focusing on speculative doctrinal
issues, trying to tease out narratives to apply to history and the spiritual
world.
Thus while
the specific error is not at work in the Church today, there are elements which
are alive and well and function within many established denominations and
certainly within the wider 'spiritual' seeker para-church movement and
especially in the realm of Charismatic theology.
Some
Gnostics embraced almost a hedonism coupled with a notion that you're 'above'
this world. You do what you want and make yourself happy. Others believed it
was their task to discover secret knowledge through certain practices.
Now again
criticism of doctrine is not Paul's goal but there are those who treat doctrine
as a kind of pass-key, or secret knowledge to the ultimate truth. This almost
by definition strays into speculative theology.
There are
many theologians who head down this path, many sub-groups within larger
movements that have almost their own lingo and doctrinal emphases that function
as shibboleths (passwords and secret keys) within the community. There are
Dispensationalists who focus on the profane and endless speculations about
chronology and identifying which country or arrangement belongs to which Old
Testament prophetic passage. What's the Mark of the Beast? Who is the
Antichrist? We're all familiar with this.
These are
not Gnostics but instead represent this bad tendency toward profane and vain
use of words, focusing on speculative concepts which are not edifying.
Many fall
into arguments over arcane theological concepts because they wish to claim the
'true heritage' of their denomination or tradition. Their motives are more
political than an actual desire to know God and his ways. There's a pride in
heritage and in the creation of a perfect system that is intellectually
unassailable. But they are deceived both in terms of motive and in what they
have created.
Further,
profane or godless talk fills our churches with endless focus and attention
being given to finances and politics, forms of gain and power and endless quibblings
over taxes, savings, investments, business strategies, marketing and means to
attain greater influence.
All godless
chatter rooted in a false view of the Kingdom and the nature of the Church in
this age.
These are
unedifying topics that turn the Church away from its call to be content with
food and clothing, to suffer and bear witness to the truth in a world under
Judgment. Paul expanded on this extensively back in 1 Timothy 6.
It's beyond
the scope of this inquiry but much in the realm of speculative theology in the
end is rooted in a quest for some kind of power over others and it's attempting
to form rationalizations and intellectual bridges between the revelation God
has provided and the fallen world that these groups wish to control. The
theology serves to justify, empower and provide idealistic and moral
imperatives for their actions. Even those who focus on specific doctrinal
formulations will tie their philosophical assumptions in with a larger
coherence, a way of looking at the world, a way of reasoning and acting. As
Christians we have a worldview, but much of the teaching that goes by this name
is in fact a speculative philosophical system rooted in a quest for power.
The only
safe path for us is to stick to the text of Scripture and remain in a state of
intellectual humility. This does not mean we can't think and reflect and ask
deep questions but the rejection of speculation is to acknowledge limits that
will frustrate our pride but in the end teach us poverty of spirit and
meekness.
The profane
babblings of Hymenaeus including his rejection of Biblical resurrection was
leading to the overthrowing of the faith...
Overthrowing
the faith of whom? Of the elect in v.10, those that Timothy is charged (v.14)
to remind them of the importance of endurance, suffering and a faithful witness
and loyalty to the Christ of Paul's gospel. I realize that's a problem for some
as Paul is not adhering to the language of systematic theology. Suffice it to say,
Paul uses the term 'elect' in a much more fluid way than our logically ordered dogmatics
will allow.
God's
foundation stands sure. His holy building, the Temple of the Church of Christ
has a sealed foundation. It is marked by God. The building is declared His and
with this truth comes two further applications.
The Lord
knows those who are His.
The world is
full of deception, the Church will be infiltrated, it will be hard to tell
friend from foe. Many a messenger of light is in fact an agent of Satan and yet
we need not fear. Though these warnings are real and to be taken seriously, we
who share in the true enduring faith need not fear. God knows and will preserve
his people.
And one
hallmark is that God's people will be known by their fruits, His people will
depart iniquity and bear the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (See
Galatians 5.22-23)
The false
teachers in their speculations promote pride and strife, they are haters of peace
and show no mercy. They are troublemakers and agitators, almost out of control
in their zeal to the point they are dominated by their passions. They place
their own goals and their own power first and use people along the way.
There are
many ways these things can be distorted. Paul is critical of error, sarcastic
at times, and certainly not afraid to upset people. He identified Christ's
people as peculiar, strange implying non-conformity and indeed zealous, and yet
all of these ideas flow from the gospel of Christ and are of a different nature
and character than the motives and actions of the false teachers like
Hymenaeus.
Paul calls
for endurance and diligence, a confidence and determination to combat these
evils by rightly handling the word of truth. The world invades the Church with
its lies and deception but we need not fear. They will set up their banners in
the midst of our communion (Ps 74.4) but we need not fear.
The False
Teachings so often rooted in power reject the path of suffering and humility
and the type of victory won through this method. They embrace Triumphalism and
promise success and empowerment in This Age through the action of man.
Through some
form of secret knowledge, a system or method, the mastering of the intricacies
of a system or method their adherents discover some kind of key to higher life
and empowerment.
Again this
represents a divergent path, something other than the gospel imperative to take
up your cross (Mt 16.24), deny yourself, quit focusing on yourself and your
desires, passions and aspirations. Quit seeking revenge and justice but walk by
mercy and in gratitude and humility. Live your life as a martyr-witness, learn
the paths of God, and let your life exhibit love flowing from these truths.
Worship God and be obedient.
It is best
summarized by looking at the Beatitudes. The theologies of speculation and
power have little interest in poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, pure
intention, hungering after righteousness instead of gain, showing mercy instead
of wrath, bringing peace and rejoicing in being persecuted.
The Lord
knows those who are His.
