MOOR of the Word with Pastor Chuck Pourciau

The teaching of these false teachers was characterized by avoiding marriage and abstaining from certain foods. It is not wrong for one not to be married. Paul was an example of a single man. It was not wrong to practice fasting, as it’s an important spiritual discipline. What is wrong is to demand it as a means of salvation. It is to teach that one must not be married and must adhere to certain fasting practices that moved this into the realm of false teaching. 

Apostates, as we learned in the previous verse, have been paying attention to the doctrines of demons. How do they come by these teachings? This verse shows that demonic false teaching is given through human agents. Here Paul describes it as being “by means of the hypocrisy of liars.” This phrase literally translated is “hypocritical or deceitful lie speakers.” Demons use human deceivers to publish their deceitful lies. 

What is the source of this apostacy? In the final words of verse 1, Paul noted that those who fall away from the faith have been “paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” Satan and his minions constantly seek to deceive all people. When someone identifies with a Christian community and is seeking the truth, Satan will fight tenaciously to keep them from true faith. The word translated “paying attention to” is more than just observance. It’s to assent to something. In other words, these people buy into the lies of Satan. These potential followers of Christ turn aside to cling to demonic teaching. They understand the facts of the gospel intellectually, and outwardly identify with the Christian faith. However, they are lured away by deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons. 

Deviations from true faith have been common throughout the history of the Lord’s people. To commit apostacy is to turn away from following the Lord. 

False teachers and those who fall away from the faith will appear in all eras of the church. There will always be those who make a temporary response to the gospel, but have no genuine faith in God. We should not be surprised when they leave, and should remember the words of John in 1 John 2:19: “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”

God became man, died for our sins, triumphed over death, was honored by angels and feared by demons, and ascended into heaven. This message was preached all over the world and many believed and were saved. That is the heart of the message it is our mission to proclaim to the world.

Here we have the central message of the church encapsulated in a single verse. The Word of God is a vast, inexhaustible storehouse of spiritual truth. Out of all that truth, what is most essential for the church to uphold and proclaim? Paul gives the answer in this verse: The message of Jesus Christ. That is the core of what we teach and preach.

We, the church, neither invent the truth nor alter it. We, rather, receive it and deliver it. We are to support it, proclaim it, promote it, and safeguard it. It is the sacred, saving treasure given to sinners for their forgiveness, and to believers for their sanctification and edification, that they might live for the glory of God. The church has the stewardship of Scripture, the duty to guard it as the most precious possession on earth. Churches that tamper with, misrepresent, depreciate, relegate to secondary place, or abandon biblical truth destroy their only reason for existing and experience impotence and judgment.

The idea of the church as the household of God also appears often in New Testament writings. Paul added further clarification to his point by declaring that the household of God is the “church of the living God.” This stresses, once again, that the church is God’s possession. We belong to him. 

The description of the Ephesian assembly as the living God’s church was especially apropos. It was the island of light in a dark sea of pagan worship. Crucial to behaving properly is the knowledge that the assembly of saints is the living God’s church in the world of dead idols, and that it is mandated and empowered for a divine mission and a divine message.

No great sports team can neglect the fundamentals, regardless of how achieved they are. No matter how long they have been excelling at their sport, they must give continuous attention to the fundamentals of the sport. If you ever neglect the fundamentals, failure is not possible, it is guaranteed. 

The apostle Paul knew the importance of stressing the fundamentals. He penned this letter to Timothy because the church at Ephesus was starting to drift away from the basic truths of the Christian faith. Like the Ephesians, we need regularly to be reminded of the foundational truths of our faith.

We love and esteem those who serve selflessly and humbly among us. Those who seek esteem through arrogant manipulation, we reject. 

Faithful deacons will be respected and honored by those they serve. It is only by commanding such respect that deacons can be examples, since respected people are the ones emulated.