Have you ever heard the saying “in a New York minute?” Most likely you have and if you haven’t you have heard something similar. It has to do with the speed that something can happen, how life can change quickly. Job changes, death in the family, divorces, along with a hundred other things can change quickly. Something else can change quickly. Our Christian lives and by extension our churches. How does this happen? The apostle Paul had a “son in the faith” named Timothy. He had other “sons in the faith” also, like Titus, and he offered them instruction concerning how to personally live your life. Paul wrote three books in the New Testament that are called the Pastorals. These little books are written to individuals, Timothy, and Titus, so they would lead the church to be biblical in both its organization and doctrines. These books are the pattern for us today concerning the church and its operation. Two thoughts.
- Apostasy can happen quickly. Paul leaves Ephesus in Acts 20. He had spent three years in that Ephesian church teaching and evangelizing and now it was time for him to move on to his next stop. He warned them that after he left there would be “grievous wolves” coming to cause havoc and rip the church as a whole and its individual members (Acts 20:29-30). When he left Ephesus, he didn’t leave them without leadership, he left Timothy. Our focus today will be from I Timothy 1. I want to connect the Acts passage and the I Timothy passage.
Timothy is left in Ephesus while Paul is traveling to Macedonia. Macedonia is not a city, it is an area with many little towns and some larger cities. You can read about some of these places in Acts 16. Neapolis, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens are some of them. Why did Paul leave Timothy back in Asia Minor (Modern Turkey)? 1:3 tells us the answer to that question. “…that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.” From the time Paul left Ephesus until he writes to Timothy in Ephesus is about four years. Four short years. Let that number roll around in your mind for a second. Four years seems but a moment. Time goes by so fast. Children are born, grow, are gone and we have only blinked a few times. We have worked at a company or institution for thirty years and it seems it has been just a few minutes. You get the point I am making about the speed of time. The same way that our lives speed by, so does apostasy speed into Christian circles. The “grievous wolves” of Acts 20 are everywhere. Shepherds are abandoning their flocks to the wolves. I try to stay current on what some call “Big Eva.” That is a short name for “Big Evangelicalism.” I have lost track of the number of pastors under the umbrella of “Big Eva” that have washed out and others who have revealed themselves to be wolves themselves. Many of those seeking to appeal to the world for popularity or the cash have been willing to change their stands on simple things like abortion. How fast does apostasy hit a church or ministry? In this instance, four short years.
What was happening? Some at Ephesus had had their Christian lives become shipwrecked (1:19). A mental picture of a shipwreck just flashed in your mind. The devastation is awful. Paul warned that demonic teaching would be appealing to church members (4:1) and some had already taken the step of following these evil, satanic teachers (5:15). Some of these teachers were a little more stealth with their seduction. The love of money, not money, but the love of money has caused some to err, fall into sin, and they have “pierced themselves with many sorrows” (6:10). Paul also tells Timothy that some of the church members at Ephesus just simply erred (6:21). The word for err means to wander. They just got complacent and “wandered away.” I think of all the people that have come through Corinth in the last 46 years and faces flash in my memory of those that just wandered away.
- Apostasy warps everything it touches. It warps doctrine as I have mentioned earlier, but it also warps godly living. Have you ever noticed the two words in 1:6 “vain jangling.” The verse tells us that some at Ephesus have turned aside into it. That means that they engaged in purposeless talk. The verse says they swerved. They jerked the steering wheel of their lives and now engage in useless discussions. When I think of useless discussions my mind goes back to something I learned about arguing rabbi’s. There was a discussion about how many angels could sit on the end of a needle. Do you know of people that are constantly seeking to find something that no one else has ever thought of? They desire to be teachers of the law but don’t understand what they are saying or what they say they believe (1:7). Paul gives Timothy a list of moral things that the law says are wrong and sinful. As Christians, know biblically there are certain things that are wrong. Often these sins are specifically mentioned. Somethings aren’t mentioned, but we still have a mechanism to discern. Notice 1:10 and the last phrase in the verse. “…and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” Being biblically sound is a defense against the apostasies of the day. How do we become and stay biblically sound? Spend time, consistently, day by day in “The Book.” In the second letter to young Timothy, Paul admonished him to “study to show himself approved of God rightly dividing the word of God.” He wished for Timothy to have God’s stamp of approval, and when he preached and led the congregation, to cut the doctrine straight. That is what “rightly dividing the word” means. Just cut it straight.
Let’s protect ourselves by having a pure heart, a clean conscience, and faith that is genuine (1:5). Satan and his cohorts can cause trouble quickly. Four short years is an example for us to learn from.