2 Timothy 4:1-4 “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: (2) Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. (3) 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; (4) and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
We have seen in the previous section that a lifestyle of continued sin is one of the paths that believers can follow, which will eventually lead them to committing the sin to death. Another path that believers can follow which will eventually lead them to committing the sin to death, is the rejection of sound doctrine. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul warns the church about turning away from the truth to follow teachers who do not teach sound doctrine. Although it is scriptural to relate this passage to the end times, I want you to notice that Paul charged Timothy to address the issue in his day. The reason Paul did that was because even then, some believers were beginning to turn away from the truth to follow after fables, and that same problem continues in the church today. Believers that are vulnerable in this area are those who are always looking for “new revelations”, instead of living by that which has already been revealed to them. Satan accommodates these individuals by sending false prophets and teachers into the church, who distort scripture to support the “new revelations” that they teach. And so ultimately believers who continue to follow the path of listening to various fables and false doctrine, end up committing the sin to death.
2 Timothy 2:15-18 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (16) But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. (17) And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, (18) who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul continues to admonish Timothy to teach sound doctrine, and to stay away from profane and idle babblings. So what are the profane and idle babblings that Paul is talking about? In this passage Paul gives us an example by relating the account of two “ministers” who had begun to teach the church a false doctrine that the resurrection had already taken place. And so Paul warns us to stay away from those who would teach such nonsense, for he tells us that if entertained, doctrines like this can spread like cancer in the church. Sadly believers who choose to ignore Paul’s warning and embrace false doctrine, eventually become infected with the terminal cancer of false doctrine, for I want you to notice that Paul tells us that the faith of these believers is eventually overthrown. In other words those who continue down the path of listening to profane and idle babblings, eventually commit the sin to death.
Michael E.B. Maher
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