Teaching Other than the Words of Jesus 1 Timothy 6:3

Paul the apostle told Timothy that he was to “teach and exhort” the manner in which “servants” should serve their “masters” particularly if the “master” believed in Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. This would bring a good witness to those outside of the church even though the “servant” might be an overseer of the “master” within the church. In chapter six and verse three of his letter to Timothy, Paul began to share about a person who would teach other than “the words of our Lord Jesus” where we read:

If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;

The verse begins, “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words,...” Paul began with the phrase, “If any man” or “whoever or whatever” “teach otherwise” which means “deviate from declaring the truth” “and consent not” or “come, approach, draw near and assent to” “wholesome words” which literally means “sound, well and in good health” and refers to “Christians whose opinions are free from any mixture of error, and of one who keeps the graces and is strong”. Just as Paul has challenged Timothy to “teach and exhort” the truth, he knew there were those who would deviate from and declare heresies.

The verse goes on to say, “... even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;” Paul specified more clearly the designation of “wholesome words” as he wrote, “even the words of our” which refers to “we, us and our” “Lord” or “he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding and our master” “Jesus” whose name means “Jehovah is Salvation” “Christ” or the “anointed Messiah and Son of God”. Paul continued, “and to the doctrine” or “teaching, instruction and precepts” “which is according” or which is “down from, through out, toward and along” “to godliness” or “reverence, respect and piety towards God”.

Though this is the beginning of a thought from Paul, we can still meditate upon this group of people of whom he declares. Their characteristics are that they do not speak the truth; they deviate from the teachings of Jesus; and they vary from “doctrine” which promotes “godliness”. Though Timothy was to be a teacher of the truth of Jesus, not everyone else would be. We have those sort of teachers today. Rather than teach the truth and doctrine of Jesus Christ, they promote their own agenda or false teachings which lead men and women away from a relationship with the one and only true God. Since there were these “false teachers” in Paul's day, and Timothy was warned concerning them, should we not be just as aware as Paul desired him to be? May the Lord Jesus help us to know the word of God and His doctrine, lest we also be led astray by those who “teach otherwise”.

Next time Paul tells of the character of those who teach things other than “the words of Jesus Christ”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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