Instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines,

  Good morning. Today we begin first Timothy. My Bible says that the two letters to Timothy and the one to Titus are known as the pastoral letters because they give instruction to Timothy and Titus concerning the pastoral care of churches. After his usual greeting, Paul then says, as I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, not to pay attention to myths and certain endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. Sometimes it seemed like Paul couldn’t leave a church without it coming into corruption. As soon as he left Ephesus, different men brought in different “doctrines“. One of the doctrines was Gnosticism, which we have talked about before. Apparently they were also teaching “old wives tales“; things not based on the gospel which Paul preached, but which were based on speculations. From things said later, Timothy was apparently not as strong as Paul was about making people strictly adhere to the gospel. Father bless the reader and his/her family.

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