Abundant Joy

“As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith.”

In this pastoral epistle, Paul gets right to the point. There are none of the extra words that Paul uses in the introduction to his other letters. I don’t know if this is because the other letters were to churches, and this was to Timothy, or if Paul was feeling the need to get right to the meat of the letter because he was nearing the end of his life. This letter was written in the year before his second Roman imprisonment and death. According to A Chronology of Paul’s Writings found at biblecharts.org, Paul wrote 1 Timothy and Titus in 67 AD. He was then imprisoned in Rome in 68 AD, where he wrote his second letter to Timothy. He knew the end was coming soon. Perhaps he already knew when he wrote this first letter, and he was anxious to pass on this information to his protege.

The very first thing Paul does in this letter after the greeting is urge Timothy to instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine. This is what he says. “As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine…” Paul had already warned Timothy about this when he left Ephesus (and here we get an idea of where Paul is writing this letter from). In this letter he is reemphasizing how important this is. It will become an important part of his letter again near the end.

Paul uses the phrase “certain people” as opponents of the faith. Throughout the rest of the letter, he will use the word “some” as in “some have departed” (1:6) and “some have rejected and shipwrecked the faith” (1:19). There are other examples in chapters four,five, and six. Andreas Köstenberger, in his commentary 1-2 Timothy and Titus, writes, “The effect of this designation is to establish a clear distinction between the false teachers and the propagators of the true gospel (Paul and Timothy). While the reference is generic, the named teachers in 1- 2 Timothy are all men (1 Tim 1:20; 2 Tim 2:17). Paul likely didn’t know the name of every single individual who perpetuated false doctrine in Ephesus; in any case, he was less concerned with the specific individuals than with preserving the purity of the Christian message.”

These teachers taught false doctrine, and they did something else. Paul says they paid attention to myths and endless genealogies. The main problem with this is that it promoted empty speculation and led away from God’s plan. There are other warnings about following myths and genealogies and Paul continues to warn further in this letter. Here are some of those verses:

“This testimony is true. For this reason, rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith and may not pay attention to Jewish myths and the commands of people who reject the truth.”  Titus 1:13-14

“For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”  2 Peter 1:16

“But avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, because they are unprofitable and worthless.” Titus 3:9

 “But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in godliness.” 1 Timothy 4:7

“They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:4

Let’s first look at the word “myths.” John Barry writes, “The Greek term used here, mythos, refers to legendary stories about the gods. It also could be used to describe stories generally understood to be false. Such tales distracted believers from the truth (i.e. the gospel message) and sound doctrine, resulting in ungodly behavior.” Is this still a problem today? I think it is. Especially with the advent of the Internet. People can get distracted with irrelevant myths, peripheral issues, apocryphal writings- things that seem like they are important, but have nothing to do with the Gospel of Christ. We must be careful to heed Paul’s warning here.

Genealogies are lists of descendants. You can read about Jesus’s descendants in Matthew 1. Paul is not writing against genealogies in general- they are in the Bible after all. What he is writing about is the use of them wrongly. Barry writes, “Genealogies were used to legitimize the inclusion of an individual into a group or the succession of an individual into a role. Some believers in Ephesus may have used genealogies to exclude others from fellowship or ministry.” Again, we can ask, is this a problem today? And the answer can be yes if people are focusing too much on genealogies for the wrong reasons. There is one religion in particular, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), that has made an entire industry out of genealogies. Ancestry.com was founded by Brigham Young University graduates in the late 1980s, early 1990s to help members of the church research their ancestors. Some of the reasons for this “endless search of genealogies” (as Paul describes) it include: baptism for the dead (baptism is necessary for salvation, according to LDS doctrine, and they baptize by proxy any family members who died without learning the LDS gospel); eternal families (families are sealed together in the temple, including nuclear families and generations past); and lineage (because according to the LDS website “belonging to one of the 12 tribes brings the blessings and missions specific to each one”). None of these are biblical and are reasons why the LDS church is not considered Christian. They do not follow the same Christ as the Christ of the Bible.

Paul finishes this first part with the reason he is speaking against these things. They distract against “God’s plan which operates by faith.” Walter Liefeld, in his NIV Application Commentary on 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus writes, “This work is in contrast to controversial speculation, probably in part because it is effective and unifying but specifically here because it is ‘by faith.’ One should think and act out of a confidence in what God is doing.”

Paul still has more words for the false teachers before he moves on with his letter. I will cover that in the next post.

Grace be with you!