1 Timothy 1:3

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ... As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith... But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully... for the lawless, the insubordinate... and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. (1 Timothy 1:3–11)

Sound doctrine isn't about impressive talk—its true product is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

The Law Is Good If Used Lawfully

Many of you know my wife is a nurse in an intensive care unit. Recently she showed me a video that has become a national news story—a nurse in Utah, Alex Wubbels, arrested by a police officer because she was upholding the hospital's policy and the law. She was falsely arrested and briefly imprisoned, yet she was actually defending a patient's rights when the officer tried to take blood from an unconscious man without following the law.

When we watch that footage, part of us is infuriated. Each of us has a deep sense of morality, of right and wrong, and a deep sense of justice. When we see someone use the justice system in an unjust way, it makes us angry. Because that is true, all of us can agree with Paul in verse eight: "we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully." Most of us instantly felt the law was not being used properly in that video. We say: that is wrong, that is unjust.

As an aside, evolutionary theory cannot answer where this deep sense of right and wrong comes from. If that topic interests you, I highly recommend C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. Some recent books argue that animals possess a "moral organ," but an article in Psychology Today responded that what we see in animals does not accord with human morality. Every human being from birth has a strong capacity for moral judgment, and it doesn't take long for that capacity to start making assessments. I have four children, ages eight down to four, and hardly a day goes by in my house without one of them—right down to the four-year-old—saying, "It's not fair!"

Paul Charges Timothy to Stay in Ephesus

Paul is pushing for a right application of the law, a proper use of the law. Why? After his imprisonment in Rome—where he had been extradited to stand trial before the emperor after appealing as a Roman citizen—Paul was released and went back to the churches he had planted. He returned to Ephesus, in coastal western Turkey, a church he had pastored for years. Timothy, then in his early thirties, was with him.

When they arrived, they saw a church full of problems, issues, and conflict. That is not abnormal. If you've been around church for any length of time, you know there are problems, because churches are made up of people, and people have problems. You may have come here leaving another church, thinking you finally found a perfect one—you didn't. Paul knew he wouldn't stay long; he was headed across the Aegean to Macedonia, probably to Philippi. So he told Timothy to stay and set things in order.

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification, which is in faith. (1 Timothy 1:3–4)

Pastors lead and teach in right doctrine and defend against wrong. Having done this by God's grace for almost 19 years, I can say this is not always easy work. Instructing people in what is right and wrong and saying "walk in this" can produce conflict, because none of us like to receive instruction. Reading between the lines of First and Second Timothy, you can see Timothy was not excited about that conflict—there was fear, a little timidity.

The word "charge" is a military term: commanding someone, giving strict orders. In that culture, it was especially hard for a younger man to tell an older man what he could or could not do. Yet Paul makes clear there is a leadership hierarchy in the church—we'll see more of this in chapter three—and Timothy was left as the commanding officer, told to strictly order them to speak no other doctrine.

The Letters About Doctrine

These letters—First and Second Timothy and Titus—sit in a section of the Bible called the Pastoral Epistles, because they were written to two men pastoring churches, one in Ephesus and another on the island of Crete. In these letters, the idea of doctrine comes up more than anywhere else in the New Testament. The word translated "doctrine" appears 19 times in the New Testament, and 15 of those are in the Pastorals, with eight right here in First Timothy. This entire letter is about sound doctrine.

The phrase "other doctrine" means heterodox doctrine—anything against orthodoxy. And Paul adds, do not "give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification." The New Living Translation puts it well: "Don't let them waste their time in endless discussions of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don't help people live a life of faith in God."

There is little agreement among commentators about the exact nature of the Ephesian problem. We could speculate and probably come close, since church problems are remarkably similar across time. The issues at Ephesus were likely similar to those at Corinth—read First and Second Corinthians and you'll see. But the specific nature of the problem isn't the issue. The outcome is clear: such things promote controversial speculations and lead to meaningless disputes.

Don't Be Jammed Up by Junk Doctrine

Of course, such things never happen today, right? Unfortunately, they do. What would a dispute-causing speculation look like in our day? You may have heard that next Saturday, September 23rd, is supposedly a big prophetic deal. Some YouTube videos say the sun will be in the constellation Virgo, the moon at her feet, with Venus, Mars, Mercury, and the star Regulus aligned at her head—matching Revelation 12:1: "Now a great sign appeared in the heaven, a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet, and at her head a garland of 12 stars." So, they claim, the rapture is probably happening next Saturday. Just so you know, I plan to be here next Sunday, so I'll see you there.

These are exactly the kinds of things that get into the church, become its focus, cause controversial speculation, and stop the work God has for His church. They break down godly edification and do not accord with sound interpretive methods. Don't be jammed up by junk doctrine.

This is not new. Just seconds before Jesus ascended in Acts 1, His core disciples asked, "Will you at this time restore the kingdom?" Jesus said, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in His own hand. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." The church has had to be reminded again and again what our purpose is: go into all the world and make disciples. We so easily get distracted by meaningless disputes about things that do not produce godly edification.

How Do We Know If It's Junk?

How do we discern? First, notice the point of sound doctrinal teaching. Right teaching produces "godly edification, which is in faith." Proper teaching of proper doctrine brings faith and builds up the church. That is the end goal—that we would be established in the faith, as Colossians 2:6–7 says.

Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. (1 Timothy 1:5–7)

The purpose of the commandment—the purpose of giving forth sound doctrine—is love. When we gather and open the Scriptures, the purpose is that we would grow, chiefly in our love for one another and for those outside. That is fitting, because love is the fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5, Paul says the fruit of the Spirit is love—singular—and from that flow joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control. The chief evidence that God dwells in us is love, because God is love.

In 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, Paul says if we have not love, we are nothing. We can understand all mysteries, speak with tongues, understand prophecy, give all we have, even give our bodies to be burned—and if we have not love, it profits us nothing. "Now abide these three: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." So love is the product of proper doctrine.

Love Is the Fulfillment of the Law

This should be obvious, because love is the summation of Scripture. In Matthew 22, a lawyer tested Jesus: "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Paul echoes this in Galatians 5: "All the law is fulfilled in one word, even this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." And in Romans 13: "He who loves another has fulfilled the law... Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."

What Kind of Love?

There is much misunderstanding in our culture about what love actually is. So Paul gives qualifiers. First, the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart. Searching Scripture, we find a pure heart only comes by faith in Jesus Christ. Acts 15 says our hearts are purified by faith. So those who do not know Christ do not have a pure heart, and cannot love in the most perfect form God designed. Non-Christians certainly experience and display forms of love, but not in its fullest, God-intended form. Just as sex apart from marriage can be experienced but not in its most perfect form, so love outside of Christ is not its perfect expression.

Second, love from a good conscience—a conscience cleared from guilt, shame, and fear. The only way to clear it is to receive God's grace and forgiveness, because all sin is ultimately against God. Every person lives with guilt and shame because we've transgressed the internal moral law God gave us, and with fear about the coming judgment. But when you become a Christian and receive the grace of Jesus, that guilt and fear and shame go away—and because it's gone, you can love perfectly. As 1 John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear."

Third, love from sincere faith—faith unfeigned, genuine, not hypocritical. It is found only in Christ. Doctrine properly taught leads to unhypocritical love flowing from a pure and good and sincere heart and mind.

A Barometer for Sound Teaching

If the aim of solid doctrinal preaching is this kind of love, then we have a barometer. If a church is peddling fables, myths, and spiritual pedigrees, it will produce controversial speculations and meaningless disputes. We can ask: what is the product of what's happening in that place? If the product is endless arguments and speculation, we can challenge whether sound teaching is coming from there. But if a church preaches sound doctrine, it will result in pure, sincere, good love from a heart and conscience transformed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Sound doctrine promotes genuine faith, cleanses the conscience, and purifies the heart, producing love.

King David had it right 3,000 years ago: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple... More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb... and in keeping them there is great reward" (Psalm 19:7–11). Why do we gather week after week and open the Scriptures verse by verse? Because we believe God's Word converts the soul, opens blinded eyes, and transforms us into people who love.

So did Paul. In 1 Timothy 4:13 he tells Timothy, "Give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." In 2 Timothy 4:2, "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching." Then immediately: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."

Good Talkers Are Not Good Teachers

Back to our text: "from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk." Who are the "some" in verse six? The same "some" of verse three. They have not left the church. They desire to be teachers of the law—a good desire, like those who desire the office of an elder in chapter three—but they understand neither what they say nor what they affirm. They are in the right place with the right desire, but not there in the right way. The New Living Translation says, "They want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don't know what they are talking about, even though they speak with confidence."

If you take New Testament Greek, on the first day you learn the alphabet, the vowels, and the diphthongs. By the end of that day you can open a Greek New Testament and read the words aloud—amazing your friends—without understanding a word you're saying. It's like my oldest son. Last summer in Oregon we took him golfing for the first time. He'd been playing baseball, and the swings are completely different. "Can I give you a few tips?" "No, no, no, Dad, I got this." Swing and a miss. Strike two. For nine holes: "Can I help?" "No, I got this." He knew just enough to be dangerous. He's the most confident person I've ever met—wonderful, but with confidence that doesn't yet have much to support it. These men in Ephesus are what chapter three calls novices. Not bad—they just need to grow.

Good talkers are not necessarily good teachers. There are people who can give a tremendous talk, and there have been people in places called churches who gave a tremendous talk while leading many people straight to hell. They might have big white smiles and be on TV—I'm not talking about anyone specific—but this is important.

You Will Know Them by Their Fruit

In Matthew 7, Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves." How will we know? "You will know them by their fruits." Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? A good tree bears good fruit, a bad tree bad fruit. "Therefore by their fruits you will know them." The fruit is either endless genealogies and disputes, or love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

Then come some of the most striking, fear-inducing verses in the Bible: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'"

This is not a small thing to trifle with. The teaching of sound doctrine has eternal consequences. There are people who go to places called churches and receive only endless genealogies and disputes, and on the day they stand before Christ they are in crisis—they knew some things, but they didn't know Him. That is why we take this so seriously, and why Paul left Timothy in Ephesus and said, "Charge them strictly; warn them that they teach no other doctrine."

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You for Your grace and for Your Word. Enable myself and the other leaders, elders, and pastors here to always be doing the work of rightly dividing the word of truth, that we may properly give forth sound doctrine. Lord, help us to have the boldness by Your Spirit to warn and charge those who are out of the way, who give forth that which may sound good and tickle ears but does not produce life. Open our hearts to sound doctrine that would come into our lives and produce love—love for one another and love for a lost and dying world—that this would be the evidence that we are Your followers, just as You said: they shall know you are My disciples by the love you have for one another. Do that work in us; transform us by Your grace. Help us stay on course. We praise You, Jesus. And now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be glory and honor and praise from our lives, from this time forth and forever. Amen.