Saturday 29 August 2020

Don't get shipwrecked!

Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. 1 Timothy 1:18-20

Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. 2 Timothy 2:16-18

I wonder who Hymenaeus, Alexander and Philetus were?

The fact is that we just don’t know. Hymenaeus gets two mentions in the New Testament, both in the passages above, Alexander and Philetus get just one each. But that’s all the information we have.

Just names to us. But presumably they were members of the church in Ephesus, where Timothy was the pastor. Very likely they were thoroughly pleasant people, good family men, leaders in the church.

But these three men were trouble-makers, and Paul sees fit to warn his young protégé Timothy about them…

They remind us that even in the earliest days of the church all sorts of wrong ideas were swirling around, and that some of them were anything but Christian; on the contrary, they were a danger to the church. Paul compares the teaching of Hymenaeus and Philetus to “gangrene” (not nice!), and warns that that of Hymenaeus and Alexander could lead to “shipwreck”.

Well, if it was like that then, two thousand years ago, how much more today? That’s why it’s vital that the church should stick carefully to scripture and not let itself get sucked into the world of half-truths and downright untruths which are all around us.

What was actually wrong with the influence of these men?

Regarding Hymenaeus and Alexander, it seems there was a problem about conscience (1 Timothy 1:19). They have “rejected” it – perhaps like sailors deciding they know better than the compass – and so have run aground spiritually.

Conscience is not an infallible guide to behaviour. But it is important and, hopefully, in general it points us at least roughly in the right direction. To disregard that little inner voice, especially when it has been exposed to scripture and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is folly – like carrying on with what you’re doing even though a fire warning bell is ringing.

Is this a reminder some of us need today?

Regarding Hymenaeus and Philetus, something a little more precise was obviously troubling Paul. It seems that they were teaching that “the resurrection has already taken place” (2 Timothy 2:18). Well, of course, the resurrection of Jesus has already taken place; there’s no argument about that! But that wasn’t what they were talking about.

No, they were suggesting that the general resurrection of all humankind at the end of time was not going to happen – everything that was going to happen had already happened.

To be absolutely fair to them, you could say that Paul himself had taught things that could be interpreted that way. In Colossians 2:12 and 3:1, for example, he tells the Christians of Colosse that “you have been raised with Christ” – note the past tense!

Yes, Paul certainly believed that by faith in Jesus we have already entered into his resurrection-life. But he also taught very clearly that our present resurrection is one day to be completed when Jesus returns in glory. (Just take a look at 1 Corinthians 15, his great resurrection chapter.) We will then experience a bodily resurrection, just as he did.

Presumably Hymenaeus and Philetus thought that after death we become disembodied spirits; perhaps they had absorbed a common view in the ancient world that the physical body is intrinsically evil, and they couldn’t conceive that it would one day be raised, even in a perfect and sinless form.

Whatever… the fact is that there is no such thing as Christianity without a conviction that not only did Jesus rise that first Easter day, but that one day we too will rise: our present sharing in Jesus’ resurrection life is just a foretaste of the future glory that is still to come.

Do you see yourself as already raised with Christ? And do you also anticipate a day when you will be raised to be eternally with him and “see him as he is” (I John 3:2)? This, and nothing less, is what it means to be a Christian.

So… a warning about false practices and teaching in the church. But it  needs an important footnote.

Yes, we must be very careful. But, dare I say without being misunderstood… not too careful…!

The things Paul is writing about – (a) the violating of our consciences and (b) the denial of a basic teaching of the Bible – were glaring errors, poison in the bloodstream of the church.

But we need to be careful not to go to the opposite extreme and condemn every point of view that doesn’t agree exactly with ours. History shows that there have always been people only too ready to shout “heretic!” or “unsound!” when they come across a person, book or movement which doesn’t see things quite the way they do.

This is seriously dangerous: it encourages division and perhaps self-righteousness and smugness: “We, of course, are the ones who have got it all right…”.

Is this a warning some of us need?

I am reminded of a severe pastor from a bygone age who lamented that he, his wife and their dog were the only truly biblical people around. And who then added under his breath: “And, to be honest, there are times I wonder a bit about my wife…”

(I don’t vouch for the truth of that story…)

Lord God, save me, I pray, from serious wrong in either conduct or doctrine. Save me too from the kind of confidence that breeds self-righteousness and arrogance. Keep me true – and keep me humble! Amen.

No comments:

Post a Comment