Avoid Worldly and Empty Chatter (2 Tim. 2:16-18)

But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some. (2 Timothy 2:16-18, NASB)

I’ve been reading a book called The Story of Christianity, Volume 1, The Early Church to the Reformation, by Justo L. Gonzalez, and I was astounded to see how how profusely false teachers and doctrines appeared in the early church. I’m only up to the fifth century AD, and already there are so many accounts of sects and factions.

Clearly this was already happening in Paul’s time, not long after Jesus’ resurrection. So why should we be surprised that the church (and I mean the church as a whole) is full of “worldly and empty chatter”? Pastors are preaching skewed messages of prosperity for all or works getting us to heaven. They say from pulpits that Jesus isn’t the only way.

And these messages too are “spread[ing] like gangrene." What a vivid illustration that is! When infection sets into a wound, and it goes untreated, gangrene insidiously takes over. And if it continues to go untreated, often the tissue of the infected arm or the leg dies, and the limb has to be removed.

I’ve written many, many times, the only way to know God’s truth is to read His word. Bankers know counterfeit bills not by studying them; rather, they know counterfeit by studying the real thing. That too is how we know counterfeit doctrine: by studying the real thing.

Let’s speak truth, and never allow false doctrine to enter our message.