2Tim. 2:17-21

Paul has previously told Timothy to:

v. 14 - Remind Christians about the basics "the faithful sayings"

v. 15 - To study God's Word diligently, in order to cut it straight

v. 16 - reject useless teachings that are not from God

Now in v. 17, Paul names two false teachers who lived in the area of Ehpesus. One of these men has caused problems at this church for some time, for we'll see that Paul mentioned this man in his first letter to Timothy (1Timothy). Paul deals with these men in a way that is obedient to God. Christians today need to learn from Paul's teaching on dealing with false teachers.

The Church has gone from the era of the apostles, who did not hesitate to point out and name the False teachers, to the era of tolerance that we see around us today.

When we think about all the teachings that are in the church today, we know that some are man made and have little or nothing to do with God's Word. The question should be asked: "Why are these doctrines of men or doctrines that mix God's truth with man's allowed to remain in the church?"

While Some Christians are Crying out Tolerance, the Apostles wrote in the NT:

1. Rightly divide God's Truth

2. And Avoid, Mark and Put out the False Teacher

Throughout the years, the failure to obey the apostles' teaching in this area has produced many Cults and man made Christian doctrines that have nothing to do with Christianity at all. The church that does not listen to the apostles teaching regarding False Teachers, is like the farmer who convinces himself that weeds and garden pest are his friends, only to have his garden destroyed over time! The local assembly that does not weed all even the most minor (in our mind, not God's)doctrinal error opens that church up to greater doctrinal error that will eventually destroy that local body and render it useless in God's hands.

Rev. 2:5, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

Rev. 2:5 is a reminder that the Holy God is not going to tolerate a false light. It's never been God's way to wink at teachings that don't represent His Word accurately, that's why Paul told Timothy to "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

Let's begin to study our text, 2 Timothy 2:17-21

v.17, "And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;"

Warning - it WILL… "eat" like an animal grazing, consuming things in it's path

Canker - [gaggraina] Gangrene, a horrible fast moving disease that consumes the flesh.

Paul here uses Greek words that describe a fast moving and consuming disease that eats what ever is in it's way. The Greek word Paul uses is were we get our English word "gangrene", that terrible disease caused by bacteria in the flesh.

During some Wars of the past, non fatal bullet wounds often became fatal because of gangrene. Everyone who was wounded in battle took the threat of gangrene very seriously. Though some would be saddened by the loss of a leg or arm, they would much rather loose the body part then loose the whole body. This illustration is very important to understand in the light of false teachings and false teachers in the church. It is far better to remove them than it is to loose the health of the whole body. Those that teach tolerance of false teachings and false teachers have already paid the price of dead or dying local assemblies. Oh from man's perspective some of these churches may look lively, but are they alive from God's perspective?

Why is Paul saying the teachings of the false teachers are like Gangrene? Because they are fast spreading. The teachings of men often travel faster than the teachings of God. Why? False teaching has man's views and man's ways mixed in, so they are more appealing to men. This is one of the reasons so many liberal churches today have not obeyed apostolic teaching regarding false teaching. They want the people rather than being obedient to God, which requires only allowing Sound doctrine in the church.

As we continue in v.17, "And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus:" Paul names these false teachers, he points them out.

Now is that the Christian thing to do?

Is that the loving thing to do in the Body of Christ?

Yes it is the obedient Christian thing to do. It's certainly not the popular Christian thing to do in our day, but it's always been the right thing to do. Marking and naming the false teachers is also the loving thing to do. A loving father will always point out dangers to his children, so also will a truly loving church leader. What church leader, who loves biblically, would ever hesitate to tell his people that they are close to danger?

We've seen Hymenaeus before in 1Tim. 1:18-20. Paul already put this man out of the church. This false teacher was not even a Christian, look at vs. 18-21.

v.18, "Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some."

To teach this doctrine they had to ignore God's Word and they did, but they also taught others to ignore God's clear teaching. That's the danger that spreads to other areas. The moment Christians drop their doctrinal guard they open themselves up to infection from all kinds of smaller doctrinal issues (small because they may not cause a person to believe in a false gospel, but to God all error is HUGE).

If you allow yourself to ignore one of God's truths, soon it will be ignoring two truths, three truths, etc.

How does someone like Hymenaeus, with a huge doctrinal error get into the church? Because the church allowed small errors in doctrine to remain. Remember the illustration Paul uses - Gangrene: caused by the bacteria Clostridium. This bacteria's activity, blocks blood and oxygen from getting to cells, causing cells to die. It's a fast moving disease that can be fatal if the bacteria and infected body parts are not removed or remedied.

Now, if you knew you had Clostridium bacteria in your body what would you do? Would you say, "Oh it's not that bad, just a little bacteria, what's there to worry about?", or would you say, "get me to the Doctor's office immediately so we can eradicate every last particle of this bacteria from my body?" What if the tip of your finger was infected and the doctor told you,"if you want to save your hand, we'll have to cut the tip of your finger off." Would you tell the doctor, "no, don't cut the finger off and I'll just take my chances." You see, in the physical realm we can see the urgency of removing the infected body part, but we need to see the importance of this in the Spiritual realm.

Now let's look at verse 19.

v.19, "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."

Paul more than likely has in mind the foundation of the Church or the foundations of God's plans. Neither one of them can be broken by man's evil doings. Local assemblies can be destroy and made ineffective by false teachings and false teachers, but the Invisible Body of Christ remains true. Paul also speaks of the "seal", which speaks of God's ownership of believers. God always knows the true believers from the false, even though we may struggle from time to time knowing who's genuine.

In the context, the "iniquity" is false teaching and false teachers and the command is to get away from them. The Christians that continue to reach for the unity Bible passages out of context need to study all of God's Word, not just the parts that are easy to carry out. Tolerance is easy to carry out. Tolerance to sin and error is part of the flesh, but removing the flesh from sin and error can only be done in God's power and in His Spirit. I think we can see why some Christians fail to remove themselves from the "iniquity" of false teachers and false teachings. Their flesh is ruling in that area.

Paul continues to give practical solutions to dealing with false teachers and false teachings within the church.

v. 20, But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. 21, If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.

The "great house" Paul speaks of may refer to the visible church or include all that profess to be memebers of God's kingdom. Notice that some vessels honour God and some do not. In the context the false teachers must be understood as the vessels that do not honour God. These kinds of vessels never have. So how do we deal with these vessels that do not honour God? Paul's solution is to purge yourself from them and their doctrines. What's interesting is that Paul makes it clear that only the honoring vessel that removes themselves from the false teaching and the false teacher is a vessel "meet for the master's use." So many Christians today are desiring to know how they can be used of God, yet they fail to see the importance of having only pure doctrines in their churches and in their lives.

Allowing small doctrinal errors will eventually lead to allowing large doctrinal errors that produce false Christians. Yes, false Christians are a more severe spiritual dilemma in the light of eternity, but the false doctrines in the lives of genuine Christians still act like gangrene in any local assembly, slowly choking the life and pure light out of that church. Needless to say, one does not have to look far to find churches in our country that are actually lifeless corpses or bodies with limbs that are ready to fall off because of false doctrines.

A church that desires to obey the apostles' doctrine needs to avoid, mark and eventually put out those false doctrines and their teachers. If they do not, the whole body is at risk, just like the body of someone with gangrene. It's better to cut out the infected body part than to loose the whole body.

2Timothy - Outlines & Notes