WWUTT 682 Avoid Irreverent Babble?

The Danger of Quarreling Over Words

The Apostle Paul said that false teaching spreads in the body of Christ like gangrene, which is quite a picture. Bad teaching causes parts of the body to rot and fall off when we understand the text.

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Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We only got as far as one verse yesterday in our study of 2 Timothy 2, verses 14 through 19. We'll see how far we get today. The Apostle Paul writes, Remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good but only ruins the hearers.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.

Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his.

And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. So I come back to that passage that we started with yesterday, verse 14, where Paul says, Do not quarrel about words. It doesn't do any good.

It only ruins the hearers. You know, it's interesting to me that the Greek word that appears there for ruin is the word katastrophe. It's catastrophic. To quarrel over words is catastrophic to the hearers.

And what specifically are we talking about when we talk about quarreling over words? Well, it's arguing over doctrines that are not godly, that are not biblical, that do not flow from the sound words of the gospel of Christ.

Arguing about these things doesn't accomplish anything. One person could win the argument over the other, but what have you succeeded at except being able to give a thumbs up and say, hey, I won that one.

But it doesn't benefit anybody. It only ruins the hearers to hear these quarrels that do not direct a person to the sound words of Christ. Remember, that's the contrast here, because Paul goes on to say, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, one who rightly handles the word of truth.

So we're contrasting quarreling about words with word of truth. Those who are quarreling about words are arguing over things that would essentially come out to being lies or meaningless jargon that would not benefit anyone in any way or lead them any closer to Christ, whether the argument was won or lost.

It becomes catastrophic to them. This same word, catastrophic, is used in 2 Peter 2 .6 to describe the destruction that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah when God rained fire and brimstone upon them in his wrath.

So the misuse of words to speak false doctrine rather than true doctrine that points to Christ would be as catastrophic to the hearers as it was to Sodom and Gomorrah on that day of God's wrath. It does not lead them to life everlasting in Christ, but rather it leads them to their destruction.

And Paul is saying, do not dabble in these kinds of words that don't benefit anyone. It only ruins the hearers. It's catastrophic to the hearers. Instead, be one who rightly handles the word of truth.

That's where we go next. In verse 15, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed because you've rightly handled the word of truth, God's word. You've not distorted it, but taught the full counsel of God.

In Acts 18, Paul came to Corinth for the first time and he found a Jew named Achilla, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. This is the same Achilla and Priscilla who would lead Apollos to the truth a little bit later on in the letter.

And Paul went to see them because he was of the same trade. He and Achilla made and mended tents, and they worked together there in Corinth while they ministered, making a living for themselves, but also teaching the gospel.

And it says in verse four that Paul reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, trying to persuade both the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timothy arrived there from Macedonia, they found Paul occupied with the word testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

He was trying to show them how Christ fulfilled all the law and the prophets. Everything that was written about in the Old Testament was pointing to Christ, but they would not listen to him. It says in verse six that they opposed him.

They reviled him for this message of the gospel that he proclaimed. And so what was Paul's response? It says he shook out his garments, just as Jesus said to his disciples, if they don't receive you, kick the dust off your sandals and go to the next town.

So here in the synagogue, Paul shook out his garments as though to symbolize shaking himself free from them. And he said, your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.

His reaction was likely a reference back to Ezekiel 33, where God said to the prophet, son of man, speak to your people and say to them, if I bring the sword upon a land and the people of the land, take a man from among them and make him their watchman.

And if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people that if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning. His blood shall be upon himself. If he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet so that the people are not warned and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity.

But his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. And so all of us have been charged to share the gospel. We see a sword coming upon the land. It is the sword of Christ. It is the sword of judgment that he is going to bring upon the whole earth when he returns with his angels in fiery judgment, as Paul describes it in second Thessalonians chapter one.

We know that day is coming because the word of God says so. And so we must warn the people that the day of judgment is on the way and they save themselves by turning from sin and worshiping Jesus Christ, believing the gospel, the forgiveness of sins that is offered through the cross of Christ and eternal life through his resurrection from the grave.

If we do not teach the gospel, if we withhold that from people, when we have the opportunity to share it, then we are like the watchman who sees the enemy coming but does not sound the alarm and those who will be destroyed by the sword of judgment, their blood will be on on our heads.

And so Paul here in Acts chapter 18, when he shakes his garments of the Jews who would not listen to him preach the gospel and he says your blood be on your own heads. It's a reference back to that passage there in Ezekiel 33 makes me even wonder if at that particular time he finally got frustrated with him.

He was teaching in Ezekiel 33 at the time and they would not listen to him. He says, I am innocent from now on. I'll go to the Gentiles and teach the gospel to them. I've tried to reason with you. You will not listen.

You revile me for the gospel that I preach. So I'm going to the Gentiles with the good news of Jesus Christ. And in Acts chapter 20, a couple of chapters later, when Paul is speaking to the elders at Ephesus and he's saying farewell to them for the last time, because he's, as he says in his farewell, I know that I will not see your faces again on this side of heaven.

In verses 26 and 27, Paul says, therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Paul is a great example of one who rightly handled the word of truth.

And so here he's commissioning Timothy with the same. And we have that commission upon us as well, that we present ourselves to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed because we did not misuse scripture.

We did not teach false doctrine. We taught that which flowed from the gospel of Christ, rightly handling the word of truth. For those of you who have an Iwana program in your churches, if you know what Iwana is, then you know that this is the theme verse, this one right here, 2 Timothy 2, 15.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved for the name Iwana, A-W-A-N-A stands for approved workmen are not ashamed. When we have rightly handled the word of truth, when we know how to wield this sword properly, for the word of God is described as the sword of the spirit in Ephesians chapter six.

When we know how to wield this sword properly, we have no reason to be ashamed for the way that we used this weapon for we are considered a workman approved. We were taught how to use the word of God rightly, and we taught the full counsel of God.

And that's what we teach our children in our Iwana program at our church. We teach them key passages, they memorize verses. And then there's some short catechisms in those books as well to help them apply those verses and know what it is that they mean, how they apply to our lives.

And so rightly handling the word of God, we have no need to be ashamed. Paul makes a reference then back to irreverent babble, which he has warned us to stay away from. And here's what he says once again about the consequences of irreverent babble or talk, which is quarrel over words that ruins the hearers.

Verse 16, but avoid irreverent babble for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness. What is irreverent babble? Was hard enough to try to find examples for quarreling about words. Now, what do we got to know about irreverent babble?

Well, something that is irreverent shows a lack of respect. And so particularly when we are talking about being before God with the words that we say, that's what we talked about yesterday. Paul says it in verse 14, remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, but rather to handle the word of truth rightly.

Therefore, as we stand in the presence of God and we give an account for every word that we say, we are to avoid irreverent babble. That which is disrespectful to God and misuses his word, that's irreverent.

It leads people into more and more ungodliness. Remember we talked about from first Timothy chapter six, that the consequence of the gospel is godliness. When we hear the gospel and we obey it, it develops into, it turns into godliness in the life of a person who is following, is responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But the person who does not receive sound teaching, who doesn't hear sound words of the gospel or does not follow the gospel, it leads to ungodliness. So the gospel develops godliness, ignoring the gospel or teaching something other than the gospel will turn into ungodliness.

And in verse 17, the further result of this is that such talk will spread like gangrene. That's a really gross picture when you think about it, of what irreverent babble develops into, what bad doctrine turns into in the hearts of those who listen to it.

It spreads like gangrene. It rots the flesh, the spirit. The person falls apart, withers away, and dies when they are not receiving the sound teaching of the word of God. Instead, hearing irreverent babble and quarreling over words, it spreads like gangrene.

Another way to envision this in your minds is that it causes parts of the body to rot and to fall off and die. It is like zombifying tissue. It smells awful. It looks terrible. It's rotten flesh. I know this is a great picture that you wanted to have in your mind, particularly if you're listening to this devotional while you're eating breakfast.

But apply this picture to then the body of Christ, the church, which is described as a body. Romans chapter 12. We are all different parts, but we function together as the body of Christ. If the sound words of the gospel are not being taught in the church, then the people are not growing.

They're not developing in godliness, but rather their spirits are rotting. And some of the members of that body are beginning to die spiritually and fall off from the body because the gospel is not being taught.

People are not growing in maturity into the head who is Christ, the picture that we're given in Ephesians chapter 4. Instead, they're just rotting away and falling off. This is why sound teaching is so critical, so important in the life of a church and falling into a reverent babble or misusing the word of God, teaching false doctrine, quarreling about words.

These things don't lead to godliness. It's talk that spreads like gangrene. It's an infection in the body of Christ, and it will cause spirits to wither away and die. And then Paul even gives examples of this.

Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus who have swerved from the truth. How have they done this? They have said that the resurrection has already happened. By the way, this is why the return of Jesus Christ is an essential doctrine to believe.

It is necessary to believe that Christ is going to return for his bride. He is going to return in judgment. Those who have already died are going to be resurrected. We will be caught up in the air with the Lord, and we will be forever with him.

This is an essential doctrine. Now, we may not all agree on the specifics of how those things are going to take place. You have different end times views, premillennial views, amillennial views, postmillennial views, pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, no-trib, pan-trib.

It's all going to pan out in the end. That's the pan-millennial. I just believe it's all going to pan out in the end. So we have different views on the end times. We may not all believe the same thing, but what's important is that we believe Christ is going to return.

And to say that he has already returned or that he's not going to return is heresy because, as Paul is pointing out here, there are people that have been put out of the church because they taught wrongly even about the end times.

Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus. They've swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened and have upset the faith of some. How has their faith been upset? Because they're going, what?

We missed it? We missed it already? The day of the Lord came? What's the point of believing any of this if Christ has already returned and we're still here on this earth? And then they abandon their faith because they believe the lie rather than the truth.

This is why sound doctrine is so critical to the life of the body of Christ. It develops godliness. It leads to everlasting life. There is nothing more important than doctrine and right theology. I made a comment about that on Twitter.

Oh, last week, I think it was. And there was a man who contested with that, tried quoting to me John 10, 10, where he says, I have come to give theology and have come to give theology more abundantly.

And he said, doesn't quite have the same ring to it. So I quoted to him a couple of other verses out of John. John 5, 24, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

John 6, 63, it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. And he didn't understand. He didn't understand what it was I was pointing out to him.

And I said to him, right teaching leads to eternal life. You're trying to take John 10, 10 out of context to say that I'm replacing the word life with the word theology. I'm telling you that right theology leads to eternal life and abundant life.

You cannot have one without the other. Hank Hanegraaff on the Bible Answer. Man was so fond of saying that life and truth matter. But then after he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, he began saying life and truth matter, but life matters more.

He just didn't seem to understand that you don't have life without the truth. For Jesus said, once again, as I quoted yesterday, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, but by me, we have eternal life because we have the truth, the sound words, right doctrine, good theology in our Lord Jesus Christ.

So present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed because you rightly handled the word of truth. Let's conclude with prayer. Our Lord God, we pray that you would seize our tongues, that he would place a guard at the door of our mouths so that what we would speak would not be things that would ruin the hearers or that would cause infection to spread in the body of Christ.

But it would only be those things that are good for building one another up, speaking grace to the hearers so that we may bless others, especially with the good news of the gospel that so many in the world yet need to hear, that they would be healed from the corruption of sin that has stained the heart and they would turn from the rottenness that has infected their souls as persons who follow the prince of the power of the air.

And instead they would follow the prince of peace, king of kings and Lord of Lords who gives healing to our rotten spirits and transforms us and makes us new in the presence of God. Help this to be the word that we adore and that we speak and grow all the more in that we may become healthy and mature, men and women of God, because we believed the word of God.

We pray and ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

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