Alright, well we are almost at the end of our series through the New Testament letter of 1 Timothy.
If you have your Bible with you, you can open it up to 1 Timothy chapter 6.
And we will have the words on the screen as well for you to follow along in case you don't have your Bible.
Here in chapter 6, Paul touches on three significant issues.
First of all, he gives some instructions for slaves about how they should treat their masters.
That's in the first two verses.
Then he moves on to giving Timothy some wisdom about false teachers and divisive people.
That's in verse 3-5.
And finally, we will only go as far as verse 10 today, he gives some wisdom concerning money and materialism.
Now each of these subjects could probably be its own sermon.
And my first draft of this sermon was 45 minutes long, so the good news is I cut a fair amount out.
We're going to move very quickly over the instructions to slaves.
Linger a little longer on the words of wisdom concerning false teachers.
And spend most of our time on the subject of money and materialism.
Let's start with these instructions to slaves.
Let me read the passage for us.
Paul writes,
All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect,
so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered.
Those who have believing masters should not show them disrespect just because they're fellow believers.
Instead, they should serve them even better,
because their masters are dear to them as fellow believers,
and are devoted to the welfare of their slaves.
These are the things you are to teach and insist on.
So this is a whole discussion and topic within the Bible that we're just going to summarize this morning.
So what follows are a number of statements that we can see when we look at all that the scripture has to say about slavery.
Slavery was a normal part of the society and culture back in the first century,
and even before that, all the way back through the history that is in the Bible.
Many were not slaves because they had been kidnapped or stolen away from their families,
but because they had sold themselves into slavery to pay off their debts.
The instructions of God in the Bible about slavery do not condone it or recommend it as a good thing.
God's word does not call for the immediate release of all slaves by their owners,
but it does contain the words that point towards the abolition of slavery as a good thing for all.
Christ instructs both Christian masters and slaves to treat one another well,
with dignity, kindness, respect, and love.
This kind of conduct between Christian slaves and their masters honored Christ.
This kind of conduct between Christian slaves and their masters upheld the established authority and laws of the day.
And this kind of conduct between Christian slaves and their masters protected the gospel message from slander.
It allowed it to spread further and faster, meaning many more people saved from an even worse kind of slavery,
which is slavery to sin and death.
And finally, the way that God handles human slavery on earth,
as we see all through the Bible,
reveals his ability to bring good out of human evil.
And it highlights his transforming love and power
over against man's tendency to hurt and abuse and take advantage of one another.
That's all I'm going to say about it this morning.
Let's move on to the next section and consider Paul's wisdom for Timothy about divisive people and false teachers in the church.
Verse 3.
If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ
and to godly teaching,
they are conceited and understand nothing.
They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words
that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions,
and constant friction between people of corrupt mind
who have been robbed of the truth
and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
So this is a long thought from Paul with a lot of stuff baked into it.
What is Paul saying here?
First of all, who is he talking about?
He says, if anyone teaches otherwise.
So Paul's talking about people who are teaching,
people who are advocating things,
people that are seeking to influence others with their words.
And what defines these people?
They're teaching otherwise.
They're teaching contrary to the things that Paul's now saying to Timothy.
And if we're listening carefully to the flow of Paul's thought here,
Paul's actually saying that the instruction that he has right now been giving
to Timothy in the letter is the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me just read it one more time and see if you hear that.
He says,
These are the things you are to teach and insist on.
If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction
of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching,
and we'll finish the thought in a moment.
So Paul knows that Jesus Christ himself is speaking through him
as he is writing this letter to Timothy.
And essentially he's saying,
Timothy, the way that people respond to these words
is to be a litmus test for you.
People that rise up against these instructions,
which come from Christ himself,
they are,
and then what follows is a list of things that they are.
Paul says,
If anyone does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ,
they are conceited.
Conceited means exceedingly proud.
Probably the original word here also includes not just the idea of pride,
but also the blindness and foolishness that goes with being exceedingly proud.
Pridefully deluded.
He goes on,
If anyone does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ,
they understand nothing.
So Christ's words are the very foundation of the truth.
They are the words that the household of God should be built on,
or that the life of a person should be built on.
And if we're rejecting that foundation,
then it doesn't matter what we build on top of it.
There's a problem.
The way that Paul says it is very strong.
He says your understanding amounts to zero.
I mean, what good is the whole framework and structure of religion
that is built on what is false?
What at its core is not true is a lie.
They understand nothing if they reject the clear instruction of Jesus, says Paul.
They have an unhealthy interest in controversies
and quarrels about words.
Some of the other translations bring this out a little stronger.
Unhealthy interest is a very soft way of saying it or translating it.
A little more accurate probably is that they have a sick craving for controversy
or speculations.
Disputes over words?
They love that.
This isn't just an unhealthy interest.
These people are vocally teaching otherwise to Paul and to Timothy.
They're vocally disagreeing with the Lord Jesus' own apostle.
And they're promoting controversies and speculations
and deviating from the sound teaching, from the godly teaching.
They're listening to the words of Paul
and then they're quibbling over them and twisting them.
Well, he probably doesn't mean that.
He probably means this.
Paul says that the problem with controversies and speculations
is that they result in envy, strife, malicious talk,
evil suspicions, and constant friction.
This is quite the list.
What's the result or the fruit of these pridefully deluded people
and the controversies and the speculations
and the arguments that they're promoting?
It's causing envy to arise in the church.
We heard in chapter 1 that they were making a big deal of genealogies,
perhaps suggesting that some are superior to others
because of their ancestry
and causing envy to arise between the members of the church family.
It's causing strife, conflict, rivalry between members of the church
or factions within the church.
The things that they're advocating are stirring up malicious talk.
Malicious talk includes things like slander,
saying things that are untrue about other people,
insults, or just disrespectful words that are spoken to lash out or to hurt.
These pridefully deluded people and the controversies that they're advocating
are causing evil suspicions between people.
It's leading members of the church to suspect things about one another that aren't true
and to distrust one another.
And all this is causing constant friction.
The sense here is that this is an ongoing thing.
That relationships in the church are now characterized by irritation
and arguing and fighting and tension.
This is quite the impact that these teachers are having.
How would you like to be a part of a church that's characterized by all these things?
Envy.
Conflict.
Constant arguing.
Insulting.
Disrespect.
Slander.
Where everybody is suspicious about one another.
We get the sense here that there were real factions in the church.
This is not a good thing.
This is not a good testimony to the Lord Jesus.
The good news is that it's not everybody in the church who's getting sucked into this stuff.
In verse 5 he seems to shift back to attributing these things to those people who are promoting them.
The bulk of this bad fruit is owing to the teachers themselves.
And perhaps to their closest followers.
They are the ones who have corrupt minds.
Who are devoid of the truth.
And these are strong words.
We get a sense that these false teachers and their most devoted followers maybe even weren't born again.
Somehow they had gotten into those positions in the church.
But now they're unresponsive to the instruction of the Lord Jesus himself that's coming through Paul.
And through Timothy.
Now we don't know how bad it got in Ephesus before Paul wrote this letter.
It was bad enough that right out of the gate in the first chapter Paul said command these men not to teach these things.
But we also notice that here in the passage he says if anyone responds in this way.
And so it sounds like Paul has encountered a lot of these kinds of people before as he's been ministering to the already established churches traveling around.
So what are we to take from this?
I think the Lord Jesus wants us to be wise to this today.
It can happen in the local church.
Praise the Lord.
It's not happening in our local church.
But here's the danger that Timothy and Ephesus never faced.
In our day and age a false teacher doesn't need to be in the local church.
And yet can still influence and lead members of the church astray.
A false teacher today doesn't even need to attend church.
And yet there's the real potential for him to cause division and conflict and strife within a local church.
How many of you have ever fallen for clickbait on YouTube?
Probably all of us have if we've figured out how to get on there and use it.
And some of those YouTubers, some of those self-appointed discernment ministry people online,
they know exactly the kinds of titles and exactly the kinds of questions and graphics to put on there
to get people to click here and to watch and to listen and to read.
And if we get listening to these people who we don't really know,
we can easily welcome the false teacher right into our home.
And we can carry the false teacher around with us in our pocket
and even get dinged when he has something new to say to us.
But is that person on the screen trustworthy?
Here are some questions we can ask to evaluate and to discern.
Questions to reflect on.
Is this online teacher pulling me back into the word of God
and helping me see what's been here all along?
What's the effect of this online teacher on me?
How is this online teaching affecting the way that I relate to people in my church?
Is it making me more like this verse 4?
Or is it whetting my appetite for controversy and speculation?
Is it making me more contentious, more critical of others, more suspicious of others?
Or is this online teaching me helping me to love the people in my church more?
Is it encouraging me to strive for peace with them,
to forgive them as the Lord has forgiven me,
to extend grace and compassion towards them?
Is this online teaching revealing my own pride?
Is it humbling me?
Is it giving me eyes to see the needs of others?
These are some questions that we can ask.
I think if we look at the overall message of this wisdom that Paul gives to Timothy,
the message is this.
When it comes to false teachers,
just like Jesus taught to his disciples about false prophets,
you will know them by their fruit.
At this point, Paul flows into a discussion of money and materialism.
One of the hallmarks of these teachers is that they're greedy.
They're after money.
They think, says Paul, that being devoted to God isn't the goal.
It's a means.
It's a means to what they really desire,
which is financial gain.
This is maybe another hint that, as we talked about last Sunday,
that all of the elders in the church were receiving some form of financial compensation from the church,
perhaps an honorarium of some sort.
And so it seems some of these men,
which Paul has run across in his travels,
are pretending to be devout
in order to get themselves the honor,
the gain,
the profit that goes with the position in the church.
And so Paul now offers Timothy some wisdom
about this particular ungodly desire
and attitude of greed.
He says,
they think that godliness is a means to financial gain,
but godliness with contentment is great gain.
Being devoted to God,
that's what godliness means,
being devoted to God with contentment
is great gain.
These teachers have the opposite attitude,
the opposite desires to what they should.
The true gain,
the great gain that we should strive for
is not financial or material.
And it comes to us by being devoted to God
while being content with what we have.
And now Paul
adds some more
to back this up,
to explain why.
Well, I'm missing the verse there.
Verse 7.
He says,
for we brought nothing into the world
and we can take nothing out of it.
Godliness with contentment is great gain
for we brought nothing into the world
and we can take nothing out of it.
These are powerful words.
We all started in this world with nothing.
Think of that.
completely naked.
Completely naked.
No possessions.
No money.
Completely dependent on others for everything.
Which means that life in its greatest meaning
is not about how much you have.
This kind of entrance into the world
reveals that we were made more
for relationship
than for ownership.
It points to the reality
that life is not about
who has the most.
Paul says,
we brought nothing into the world
and we can take nothing
out of it
when we die.
This is one of the most powerful truths
that there is
to fight against greed.
Do you realize
that the way we all started out in life
with absolutely nothing
is the way that we're going to end
our time
on this earth?
When it comes to money
and when it comes to possessions,
death separates us
from everything that we have.
Our possessions,
our money,
they don't come with us
when we die.
And it's true
for everyone.
And so money and possessions
really only matter
for that span of life
between birth
and death.
For us in Canada,
that's an average of 80 years
unless there's some kind of accident
or tragedy.
Here's another perspective
to work into this.
Most of the money that we have
is earned.
Meaning that we put time
and effort
into working
in order to get those dollars.
We give a certain portion
of our lives
to doing certain jobs
and tasks
in exchange
for that money.
And so that money
represents a part
of our time.
It represents
a piece of our life
put in at work.
Which means
that with most
of the money
that we spend,
we're actually exchanging
a piece of our lives
for that thing
that we're buying.
which means
that if I spend
lots of my money
on stuff
that I don't need
for myself,
for my comfort,
for my pleasure,
for my entertainment,
for good looks,
for status,
if I spend
lots of my money
on things
that I don't need,
I'm trading
lots of my life
for things
that I'm going
to lose someday.
Things that I can't keep.
This is a sobering thought.
How much of our
working lives
have we already
exchanged
for things
that we don't
really need?
Greed
leads us
to waste
our lives.
We put a lot
of time and effort
into working
to earn money
only to spend it
on things
that we don't need
or that don't
really matter.
Things that we
can't keep.
Contentment,
on the other hand,
is about
being satisfied
with having
the basics.
Look what Paul
says in verse 8.
If we have
food and clothing,
we will be content
with that.
This is probably
one of the hardest
things for us
to accept
in our North
American culture
which is so
deeply consumed
and motivated
by greed
and by
self-pleasure,
self-entertainment.
Do we really
need that thing
that's on sale
for Black Friday?
Or do we just
want a new one?
A better one?
A shinier one?
A more comfortable
one
for a good price?
For many of us,
we're so far
beyond this
simple statement
in verse 8.
If we have
food and clothing,
we will be content
with that.
I'm convicted.
Are you?
Paul goes on
in verse 9.
He says,
Those who want
to get rich
fall into temptation
and a trap
and into many
foolish and
harmful desires
that plunge
people into
ruin and
destruction.
It's hard to
imagine how
Paul could have
stated this
any more
strongly.
He just piles
on the words,
six words,
which all together
paint a picture
of how the desire
to get rich,
to grow your money,
to have more
than you need
is dangerous
and deadly.
That desire
leads you to
fall into
temptation,
he says.
And it's a trap.
The more
that we give
into greed,
the less free
we are.
We become
caught up in it
and it's difficult
to get out of it,
almost like an addiction.
We're so used
to scratching
that itch
whenever we feel
it,
that we just
can't stop.
We just can't
bring ourselves
to let that itch
go unscratched,
that desire
to go unsatisfied.
And it leads us
to do foolish
things,
says Paul.
Stupid things
and things
that are harmful.
Now,
of course,
these things
don't look
or feel stupid
or harmful
at the outset.
We think,
yes,
having this
thing,
that'll make me
happy,
that'll make life
better.
Or working
even more hours
or getting a
second or third
job,
or changing
to this much
higher paying
job over here,
it's gonna make
everything better.
But giving
into greed
always comes
with a cost.
cost.
It takes
a toll.
It exacts
a price.
It does
damage
and harm.
Whole families
have blown
apart
because they
spent
without restraint
on all kinds
of things
that they
didn't need.
Spending even
more than they
had,
going deep
into debt
to have
the bigger
house,
the nicer
car,
the holiday
trailer,
and the truck
to go with
it,
and the
expensive
toys,
and gadgets,
and suddenly
we're back
at the beginning
of this passage.
We've become
slaves
to our own
stuff.
And we have
to work
more,
longer hours,
two or three
jobs to make
the payments
in all these
things,
or to cover
the upkeep
of all these
things.
And as we
work more
and longer,
what happens
to the relationships
in our family?
We see each
other less
and less,
a toll
is taken.
Fathers
are absent.
In some
cases,
both mother
and father
are absent.
Husbands
and wives
don't see
each other,
don't spend
that quality
time together,
and the little
time that
families have
together is
scarcely
enough to
have good,
strong,
healthy,
loving
relationships.
Throw a little
conflict in
here,
which we all
have from
time to
time,
and it's a
recipe for
disaster.
Families,
marriages,
are blown
apart.
Paul isn't
kidding here
when he says
that these
desires do
harm.
Even more,
he says,
they plunge
people into
ruin and
destruction.
Sometimes we
look at the
devastation and
damage in
people's lives
and we see
them spiraling
out of control
and maybe we're
just wondering
like,
what's happening
in that family?
What's going
on?
How did
they get
there?
Could it
be that in
some families
and some
people's lives
there was a
silent killer
that they just
kept making
payments to,
not realizing
the damage it
was doing
until it was
too late?
Greed.
Discontentment.
It's not just
a bad thing.
It's not just
a sin that we
need to repent
of.
It is that.
It's a deadly
thing,
says Paul.
It's an itch
that if we
keep scratching
could completely
undo our
lives and
destroy everything.
And we're
not just
talking about
excessive
greed.
We're talking
about desiring
and going
after more
than the
basics,
as we heard
Paul say
in verse
eight.
Paul goes
on in verse
ten.
He says,
for the love
of money
is a root
of all kinds
of evil.
Some people
eager for money
have wandered
from the faith
and pierced
themselves
with many
griefs.
There's an
important distinction
in this
verse.
Paul doesn't
say that money
is evil.
Money itself
is not
inherently evil.
It's just
bills and
coins
that are
used to
exchange
the value
of service
for goods
or for
other services.
The currency
is not
evil.
Having money
is not
evil.
And we're
going to
hear more
about that
in this
chapter
as we
go on
in the
weeks ahead.
But loving
money,
loving money
is a root
of all
kinds
of evil.
evil.
And it's
not just
loving the
money itself
like I
love to
run my
fingers
through the
bills and
the coins.
It's loving
also the
material things
that money
buys.
Or the
security,
the sense
of peace
or power
that money
gives when
you have a
lot of it
piled up
there.
You may
love a
certain kind
of material
thing and
have this
desire to
collect all
of them or
to have
several of
them even
though you
really only
need one or
maybe you
don't even
need any
of them.
So you
put down the
money again
and again
to get more
and more
and more of
that thing
that you
love.
That too
is the
love of
money.
For most
of us,
money is a
means to
an end.
We love
what it
enables us
to do.
And just
in case we
haven't caught
the seriousness
of this
warning yet,
Jesus adds
in one
last warning.
He says,
some people
eager for
money have
wandered from
the faith
and pierced
themselves with
many griefs.
Not only is
there the high
price and the
damage and the
harm that it
can do to
you or to
your family,
but some
people have
left off of
following Jesus
because of
that love.
they've
wandered from
the faith.
Now we're
not going to
speculate about
whether these
people were
born again or
not or whether
they repented
and came back
or not.
It doesn't
say.
All we know
is that at
one time they
were here
saying,
I believe,
and now
they're gone.
And what
led them to
leave?
Paul says it
was greed.
It was the
desire for
other things
that came in
and choked
out the
word,
making it
unfruitful.
All of this
calls for
sober reflection
and prayer.
The good
news is that
Jesus died
to cleanse
us from
all sin
and from
all guilt,
from all
greed,
and from
all the
guilt that
we have
incurred
through our
lives,
because of
greed.
And so
we run
to the
cross.
It's there
that we
find complete
forgiveness.
But now
I wonder
if even
on the
other side
of the
cross,
for those
of us
who believe,
I wonder
if some
of these
words expose
for some
of us
maybe a
sin in
our lives
that we've
been blind
to,
that even
as Christians
we've been
blind to,
a pattern
of desires
or behaviors
that we've
been giving
into.
Everybody
else in
our world
around us
is doing
it.
We see
all the
advertisements
that promise
happiness and
pleasure,
if we get
more and
have those
things.
Could it be
that some of
our griefs and
sorrows right
now,
some of the
stresses in
our lives
right now
actually trace
back to
this?
choices in
our lives
that we've
made about
money or
for money,
for material
things that
we don't
need,
that we've
gone after
just out of
the greediness
of our
hearts,
in an effort
to scratch
that itch
and just to
make our
lives more
comfortable,
more pleasurable.
the good
news is
that however
much we've
blown it,
however far
down we've
fallen,
the Lord
is gracious
and compassionate.
He's slow
to anger,
he's abounding
in love,
and so let's
turn to him
and let's
repent,
let's find
freedom from
the trap of
greed,
and forgiveness
from the guilt
of greed,
and healing
from the damage
of greed.
Let's do
that now
together.
Father in
heaven,
we are
stirred deeply
by these
words,
and convicted
deeply.
We confess
to you
for every
time that
we have
scratched
that itch
of greed,
we ask
for your
cleansing
and for
your forgiveness.
Thank you
that Jesus'
blood
atones
for our
sins
and truly
wipes
our
slates
clean.
Lord,
we don't
want to be
slaves to
anything
or anyone
but you.
We ask
that you
would teach
us in the
midst of
this culture
that we
live in
to be
content
with the
basics
as we
live for
you.
May knowing
you
and having
you
and walking
with you
be the
end
goal
of our
lives
and not
just a
means.
We want
you,
Lord,
to be our
treasure
and to
have all
the love
of our
hearts.
We pray
this in
Jesus'
name.
Amen.