Focus

“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.” 1 Timothy 1:3-4 ESV

In this exigent passage we learn that Timothy is empowered by God to “charge” unnamed persons not to swerve from the faith.  A few points.

Paul’s authority as an apostle is undisputed.  In today’s error-filled church it’s common for self-promoting “pastors” to refer to themselves as apostles.  In truth, a man who calls himself an apostle in this regard shows both his ignorance of Scripture, his vanity, and his credentials as a false teacher.  The church should shun him.  

False teachers are known throughout Scripture by their love of money and sexual sin. There was a rather large church in my town led by a self-proclaimed “apostle”.  His church was a sideshow spectacle full of noise and commotion, a rock concert with mentions of Jesus.  A veritable entertainment complex with God’s name attached.  It grew and grew.  Attendance records were set every week and people flocked to “see the show” and be whipped up into emotional frenzy by the passion of the false apostle. 

Ah, but the stories of sexual debauchery began to leak out.  And the stories of lavish spending by the wonderful apostle.  A private jet.  Personal security.  A mansion.  And then we learned, through the media no less because what’s another black eye for the gospel…that the apostle’s wife was also no stranger to adultery.   She was a sex addict we were told and the whole sordid thing played out publicly.  

All of it would be easily avoided if God’s church took up the sword of the Spirit and actually did its job.  A disciple is someone who follows the Lord Jesus Christ.  An apostle was someone specifically chosen by Jesus to spread the gospel after His death and resurrection.  The logic is clear: if you were personally chosen by Jesus, you were empowered with the office of apostle.  Only those were apostles.  And in the cases of Luke, who was with Peter, and Paul, chosen dramatically on Damascus Road, were given the high privilege of being vessels of use through which the New Testament was written.  Some even today are given the gifts to be pastors, elders, teachers, and so on.  But the office of apostle and, importantly, the writing of God’s Word ceased when that generation passed.  

No person today has either the office of apostle nor the power to receive new revelation insofar as the gospel of Jesus Christ is concerned.  Period.  End of story.  A clear test of whether someone is orthodox or not is what do they say about Jesus Christ and the finality of His word.  

“I testify and warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book [its predictions, consolations, and admonitions]: if anyone adds [anything] to them, God will add to him the plagues (afflictions, calamities) which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from or distorts the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away [from that one] his share from the tree of life and from the holy city (new Jerusalem), which are written in this book.”

Revelation 22:18-19 AMP

Notice that in all false teaching there’s a diminishment of the ghastliness and reality of sin and a consequent weakening of the work of Christ.  The two are a package deal.  All false teaching makes man’s central problem not moral rebellion (sin) as the Bible says, but on something else.  It might be economics or class, race or strife, riddles or mysteries.  If man’s central problem isn’t sin, his answer isn’t Christ alone.  To wit:

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

1 John 1:6-10 ESV

Lest we think this is a minor issue, consider: 

“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we [originally] preached to you, let him be condemned to destruction! As we have said before, so I now say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel different from that which you received [from us], let him be condemned to destruction!”

Galatians 1:8-9 AMP

Or consider Paul’s hard letter of correction to the Corinthian church:

“For [you seem willing to allow it] if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted. You tolerate all this beautifully [welcoming the deception].”

2 Corinthians 11:4 AMP 

A liar and false teacher is someone who takes the emphasis of teaching off of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to give glory to someone or something else.  A false teacher is someone who brings our focus from the cross, from sanctification and progressive spiritual growth in faith and obedience, and places it onto something else.  Your finances, your health, your relationships…nothing compares to Christ.  And a false teacher either belittles the supremacy of Scripture and/or confuses it with endless riddles.  

Timothy is to charge false teachers to cease and desist.  The word charge is here a military term.  A preacher/teacher/leader in Christ has the spiritual authority to command false teachers to stop their aberrant and destructive ways.  The authority they base this upon is the aforementioned Scripture.  No force is to be used but the threat of judgement hangs over the charge.  Some Christians in history have erred by having the church take up the sword in order to stop what they deemed false teaching.  But the man of God has no such power in Christ.  We have the power to declare God’s word/law and command, in Christ, the obedience of faith.  If the false teacher won’t repent, the corporate church must expel the person or the individual must cease contact with them.  This is all done in the name of love and Christ.  It is wholly unloving to not challenge false teaching that leads men away from the truth of Christ.  

Our walk in faith is to be focused.  The loss of focus has made shipwreck of men’s lives and enterprises.  How often have we ended up in some dead-end in life or business and discovered upon examination that it’s due to a loss of focus.  A majoring in minors is life’s scourge.  A man who worries so much about providing for his family is tempted to forget them and focus too much on work.  An old ship-builder in Norfolk, Virginia, animated by the Protestant work-ethic, had this as its mission statement:

“We will build good ships.  At a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but we will build good ships.”  

Paul’s admonition to Timothy, and Scripture’s to us, is simple.  Keep the main thing the main thing and the main thing is Christ.  You simply cannot live in this world without identifying the most important thing.  Everyone must.  Being finite beings, being limited by time and space, talents and resources, we must have a star around which all other things must orbit.  We will do this either in glorious deliberate submission to Christ and His wondrous word/law or Satan will set it for us.  Our unmoving star, the center of our world – our work, home, and recreation…our all – is Christ Himself.  Indeed, our life’s goal is Him.  To love Him.  To obey Him through grace and gratitude.  To learn about Him and the sweet perfections that He is!  

Christian life is about focus upon Him and His word/law.  The goal of our life is faith in Him.  Anything that distorts or diminishes this is the enemy.  Put it to death.  

“So then, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but not to our flesh [our human nature, our worldliness, our sinful capacity], to live according to the [impulses of the] flesh [our nature without the Holy Spirit]— for if you are living according to the [impulses of the] flesh, you are going to die. But if [you are living] by the [power of the Holy] Spirit you are habitually putting to death the sinful deeds of the body, you will [really] live forever. For all who are allowing themselves to be led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading again to fear [of God’s judgment], but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons [the Spirit producing sonship] by which we [joyfully] cry, “Abba! Father!””

Romans 8:12-15 AMP