(Through the Bible) 1 Timothy — Zac Poonen

Paul’s Final Letters and the Shepherding of the Church

Let's turn to God's word in Paul's first letter to Timothy. The two letters to Timothy in Titus are among the closing letters that Paul wrote towards the end of his life. And all three of them, which were the last letters that he wrote, 2nd Timothy being the last, are related to the servant of the Lord, the servant in the church and the first letter to Timothy we could say the subject is the church and its shepherd.

The attitude that the shepherds and leaders of the church should have, the way they should live and the way they should conduct church matters. And it's very interesting to see that these last three letters of Paul have this as their theme.

So, Paul sort of sensed that his time on earth was gradually getting over and he was very concerned that the next generation should have the same principles and values that he himself had as a servant of the Lord.

And in the earlier letters he spoke more about the Christian life, but in these last three letters he speaks more about the next generation having the same values, giving them warnings, prophetic warnings about how things are going to be and to prepare themselves for that future time.

And it's very interesting to see that if you see it in that context that Paul is unburdening his heart to Timothy and read this letter with that in mind and you'll see some of the most important things that a servant of the Lord must bear in mind.

Guarding the Church’s Teaching and Pursuing Love

First of all, he says in verse 4, verse 3, don't allow people to teach strange doctrines in your church. If you're a leader in your church, you have a responsibility to see what type of teaching goes on in your church.

You must be alert and if somebody gets up, you know, there was a lot of freedom in the churches in the early days for people to get up and share what's on their heart and some people may have some crazy ideas.

Those days at least we can say they didn't have the Bible, New Testament, so they could speak like that. But even today with the New Testament, people have crazy ideas and they get up and say things in the church and you must not allow that.

You must not allow any person to teach strange doctrines and don't get involved in arguments and many times he tells Timothy, don't get involved in arguments in first letter and second letter. It's one of the most important bits of advice that he gives to Timothy.

Don't get involved in endless arguments and disputes because that won't help about genealogies and speculation. Speculation means discussing things which are not written in Scripture. Who was Cain's wife?

How does that help you to know the answer to such questions? A lot of other questions like that, don't get involved in such discussions and the goal in contrast to all that, remember that the purpose of all our instruction, verse 5, it's a very important verse.

Do you know what's the purpose of all teaching in the church? The ultimate goal is to get people to have love. The ultimate goal is love and if you people in your congregation have not learned to love God with all their heart and love their neighbor as themselves, then you haven't succeeded in your ministry.

If you've just succeeded in getting them to go out and give the gospel to others and not to love God with all their heart and love their neighbor as themselves, you're a total failure. And I'd like to know how many people who have been preaching the word for so many years in some church, such a lot of teaching, have led people to love God with all their hearts and love their neighbors themselves.

We can say such people have been successful in their ministry. Love from a pure heart, and I said the other day how a pure heart is a heart that loves God totally, no place in the heart for anybody else or anything else, and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

So it's not just love, it's love that comes from a heart that loves God totally, love that comes from a good conscience, a man living with a clear conscience, so important. Paul, towards the end of his life, stresses this matter of good conscience.

He said it in Acts 23 before the high priest, he said it before Felix in Acts 24 -16, and he says it to Timothy in his closing years. Good conscience, good conscience, good conscience, because he had seen how many Christian workers had destroyed themselves by not keeping a good conscience.

And so here is a good verse for you to keep in mind when you're trying to build up a church. You're a successful minister of the gospel if you have worked in that church to lead people there to have love to God with a heart that is pure, which is God's place only for God, and you've led the people there to live with a clear conscience at all times, and to have a simple, sincere faith in the Lord.

He got people to trust the Lord, not just to believe in him to take them to heaven and forgive their sins, but also in the daily trials of life. And he says in verse 6, some people have strayed away from these fundamental things.

And when you stray away in your teaching from all these fundamental issues and get taken up with small, small matters, these are the main issues. And in your teaching, you don't emphasize these things mainly, but you emphasize all these trivial little things which are not so important.

It ends up in fruitless discussion, argument. They want to be teachers of the law, but they don't understand what they are saying and the matters about which they make confident assertions. I've heard a lot of preachers in Christendom today, and I have to say a lot of them don't know what they're saying.

Like it says here, they don't know what they're saying. They just get up and preach out what they've read in some book or studied in some Bible college or heard on some tape. They haven't allowed that word to become part of their life.

They haven't come to a place where they love God with all their heart themselves. How in the world are they going to lead other people to such a life? The word that you hear from another man of God, you have received secondhand.

All that you are hearing these days is secondhand. You must take these truths before God and say, Lord, convert it to firsthand. That means make these things real in my life, and then you can speak it as your message.

It's not just a message you heard from somebody else secondhand. You have converted it to firsthand by applying it to your own life, and you come into a living experience with God about these truths that you've heard.

After that, it's no longer somebody else's message. It's your message. But if you have not converted it into your life, it's always somebody else's message that you're preaching. Do you know that you can convert every message I preach into your message?

Very simple. Apply it in your life. Many people have asked me, Brother Zach, can I preach your messages? I say, sure, but with one condition. Live it first. You don't have to quote me. You don't have to always say, this is what I heard from Brother Zach.

No, I don't want any credit for it. But live it first. If you try to preach it without living it, I tell you in Jesus' name, you'll destroy yourself. That's what I've told them, and that's what I tell you.

Convert it to firsthand. Live it and preach it as your own message. Otherwise, you'll be like a great teacher of the law, not knowing what you're talking about. And he says about the law, we know the law is good if you use it lawfully.

But the law, verse 9, is not made for a righteous man. A righteous man doesn't need a law. Why do you need a law which says don't commit adultery when you're not even sinning in your thoughts in that area?

Why do you need a law which says don't commit murder when you're not even angry with people? A righteous man doesn't need these Ten Commandments because he's living at a higher level. Why does he need them?

His standard is so much higher. And further, the law is made for those who are lawless, rebellious, ungodly sinners, and a lot of things like that. And anything else is contrary to the glorious gospel of the blessed God.

This is, we have considered this earlier, how we are free from the law when we walk in the spirit. And then he says, this is another thing that Paul emphasized much towards the end of his life. He says, look at my example.

See how I lived. This is always what he tells Timothy. You know how I lived? You've seen how I lived? I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into the ministry.

Faithfulness, Testing, and Paul’s Example

Now even though God sovereignly calls people to his ministry, this verse tells us that before he puts a man into the ministry, he tests him. And I think the Apostle Paul was probably tested for a period of 10 years from Acts chapter 9, where he was converted to Acts chapter 13, where he was sent out to the ministry was a period of about 10 years.

What was happening in those 10 years? God was watching this man to see whether he was faithful in daily life. And after he tested him for 10 years and saw his faithfulness, he says, okay, now I'm going to send you to serve me.

And you know, when God calls you, he tests you. I know he tested me for nearly 10 years too, after I quit my job, before he opened up the ministry that he really had for me. Don't think that as soon as you go out, you can step out and get an anointed ministry.

God will test you to see whether you're faithful in the little things. And if you're faithful and you humble yourself under authorities God places over you and faithful in the little things, faithful to study his word, faithful with money, faithful with your time, upright, honest, faithful in purity.

It may take 10 years, but in 10 years, God will put you into a ministry. And when God puts you into ministry, you can do more in one year than if you go 10 years trying to do something yourself. He says, he put me into the ministry, it wasn't any man.

Even though I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, you know, God doesn't put only holy people in ministry. He puts people who are outright sinners in their past life. He makes them holy, but they could have been terrible sinners in their previous life.

And that's an encouragement to anybody sitting here who's lived a very wicked life of sin in the past. There is a second century writing in which it says that Jesus Christ, in order to show that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, picked up some of the worst sinners of his time to become his apostles, of which was Paul.

He says in verse 15, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am number one. He says, among all the sinners in the whole world, I'm the greatest. And Jesus picked me and he became the greatest apostle.

So God doesn't necessarily pick people who have been brought up in very God fearing homes and will live very godly lives all through. He does sometimes, but he also picks up people who have lived in the depths of sin.

He can pick up adulterers and thieves and drunkards and drug addicts and transform them and make them apostles to prove that sin doesn't disqualify a person from becoming an even an apostle. The greatest sinner became the greatest apostle as an encouragement to all people who have lived in sin who feel, oh, I have sinned so much.

God can't do much through me. God can do a lot through you if you will trust him and repent of your sin. I want you to notice a progression in the apostle Paul's attitude towards his own, I mean, understanding of his own sinfulness.

Many people, they think the closer they get to God, they will be less aware of sin in their life. It's not true. Any godly person would say the closer he gets to God, the more he is aware of sin in his life.

Because God is so holy. Isaiah saw the holiness of God and said, Lord, I'm a sinful man. Job said that. Peter said that. John said that. And Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, 9, about 10 years before he wrote this letter, he says, I am what I am by the grace of God.

I am the least of the apostles. He thought of himself as the least of the apostles. Five years later, in Ephesians 3, 8, he goes still further down and says, I'm not just the least of the apostles. I'm the least of all the believers.

Five years later, when he writes 1 Timothy, he goes still further down and says, I'm the worst of all the sinners. So what is spiritual growth? Spiritual growth is a greater awareness of your littleness and your nothingness.

How you are the least of the apostles and the least of the saints and the worst of sinners. Is that the way you're growing? Then you're growing in the right direction. That means that you're coming closer and closer to God.

Now a lot of people think that there'll be no consciousness of sin in my life if I come close to God. I've got victory over sin. No, it's not like that. As we come closer, we discover sins that we never knew existed in us before.

Keeping a Good Conscience and Fighting the Good Fight

Okay. He tells him in verse 18 onwards to fight a good fight, wage war, fight a good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, verse 19, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck. He says, there are people who did not keep a good conscience.

And you know what happened? They made shipwreck of their lives. They lost their faith. How do you lose your faith? You sometimes read of believers losing their faith. How do they lose their faith? Sometimes you, I've heard stories of some child of God, really born again, loves the Lord and goes to some liberal Bible seminary or something and he loses his faith after he hears all that is taught there.

But how did he lose his faith? He need not have lost his faith. First of all, he shouldn't have gone there. Secondly, if he had kept a good conscience, we lose our faith when we don't keep a good conscience, when we say things which are not true, when we don't stand up for our convictions.

Supposing a person made the mistake of going to a liberal seminary for getting a degree and if he had kept a good conscience, he'd have stood up to his professors and say, I'm sorry, sir, that's wrong.

That's not according to God's word. Of course, he'd have been thrown out in the first month. But he wouldn't have lost his faith. Now, a lot of people don't keep a good conscience. They just keep quiet.

The Lord is being dishonored left, right and center in their classroom. They keep quiet. But such people deserve to lose their faith. They deserve to go to hell because hell is made for the cowardly people.

It says in Revelation 21 7. It's made for those who don't have the guts to stand up for the truth. And if you're like that, you deserve to go to hell. Definitely. But heaven is made for those who stand up for their convictions.

If you don't keep your conscience clear, you'll make shipwreck of your faith. That's what the Bible says. Among them are he names them. Hymenaeus, Alexander, you know, Paul was not afraid of naming people.

Some people say we must never mention any names. Paul said, I'm not afraid of naming people. I want to warn you about this man. This man, they're leading people astray. And I have delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander to Satan.

So that they may not, they may learn not to blaspheme. Okay. Chapter 2. Verse 1. Here he says, I want you to pray and give thanks for all men. Now, in previous passages, we saw we have to give thanks at all times.

And in everything, always give thanks in everything at all times. And here we find another amazing verse. Not only at all times, not only in all things, give thanks. Here it says, give thanks for all men.

Have you read that verse? Have you learned to give thanks for all men? Does your Bible say, I want thanksgivings to be made on behalf of all men. Last part of verse 1. It says that. That means, I say, Lord, I'm thankful for everybody.

The ones who harm me, the ones who do me good. Everybody is working for my good. You can't do that unless you believe in Romans 8 .28. And he says, especially you must pray for kings. Those in authority.

Prayer for Authorities and God’s Saving Will

And do you know who was the emperor in Rome? When Paul wrote this? Nero. One of the worst emperors. Well, man who persecuted Christians like anything and who later on chopped off Paul's head. He said, we got to pray for them.

So we don't pray only for people who are in authority, who are godly. Even if it's the most ungodly person like Nero who persecutes Christians and chops off the heads of apostles. Pray for him. Pray what?

Pray that God will restrain the forces of darkness from hindering and prevent them from hindering his purposes on earth. What should we pray in India? We're not expecting believers to get an authority in the central government.

No, that's not what I pray. Let them be unbelievers. There were no believers in authority in Paul's time. But we pray because we have the power to influence almighty God. Who is the greatest superpower in the universe to influence governments in every country.

I have believed that for many years. In our church, we have always prayed at election time and at other times that God will control the decisions taken by the government. And we believe God does that.

If you don't have faith, of course, don't pray. If you think God almighty in heaven is unable to control some small government in some country, then don't pray. It's no use praying if you don't have faith.

But I hope we have faith that a few people who live godly lives with a good conscience can pray and influence a country's government in a way that fulfills God's purposes in that country. Now, God's purpose may be persecution.

It was persecution for nearly 200 years of Christendom. The early first 200 years. Okay, that's fine. It may be persecution in India. And so I'm not praying against that. When Jesus himself said, all men will hate you in the last days.

I'm not praying Lord. Don't let all men hate me. How can I pray against what Jesus himself will happen? When Jesus said in the last days, there'll be famines, earthquakes and wars. I can't pray Lord. Don't let there be any famines or earthquakes or wars.

There will be. So we can't pray against what Jesus said. It will be. I accept it. But what we can pray is that the forces of darkness will be restrained. See in 2 Thessalonians 2, he speaks about a restraining influence.

And that restraining influence is the church restraining. And then one day time comes when that restraint is taken away and the Antichrist comes in. But until then, we must pray for those in authority and influence them by prayer.

That is the best way. Not by joining politics. There's far more power in influencing them by prayer than by joining politics. And it says this is good and acceptable. Our prayer is not that we won't be persecuted.

Our prayer is that we can live a quiet life in godliness and dignity. And if it pleases God for us to be persecuted, that's fine. And then it says here in verse 4, God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

It's a wonderful verse which says that God wants every single person in all the 6 billion people in the world to be saved. Don't let anybody tell you anything other than that. God's will is that every single person in this world should be saved.

He did not predestine anybody to go to hell. This verse teaches that very clearly. And not only to be saved, he wants everybody after they are saved to come to the full knowledge of the truth of God. Not just be saved.

Once you have saved a person, that's not enough. God's next part of his will is that they must come to the full knowledge. That's the meaning here. The full knowledge of the truth of God. And it says further here, because there is one God and one mediator between God and men.

That is the man Christ Jesus. Isn't it interesting? That 30 years after, 35 years after Jesus ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit still calls him the man Christ Jesus. Not the God-man. He is God. But he has taken our nature so completely that he is still called the man.

Even today after 2000 years, he is the man Christ Jesus. You see, Jesus came and took our nature. And he has taken it to heaven to represent us. And he has given us his nature to represent him on earth.

That's the picture. He has taken our nature to represent us in heaven. And he has given us his nature to represent him on earth. What a wonderful exchange. He is doing that job faithfully. With our nature, our human nature, he is representing us before the father.

He has given us the divine nature to represent him in the same way on earth. Just like he stands before the father, we are to stand before people on his behalf. Because he stands on our behalf before the father.

This is a mediator. Okay. In verse 9 onwards, till the end, he talks about the way women should dress and conduct themselves. He says, I want the women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly, discreetly.

That means a woman should be careful that the way she dresses should not provoke others to lust. A lot of women follow the fashions of the world which are designed to provoke others to lust. And you got to make sure when you tell the tailor how to stitch your clothes, that you don't want the fashions that other people are having.

And if that fashion involves immodest exposure of your body, anything which is provocative to other people. A woman must be dressed modestly. That doesn't mean she should be shabby. I believe it's good for brothers and sisters to be dressed neatly, smartly, decently.

And a woman especially should try to make herself as attractive as possible, but not in a provocative way to provoke men to lust. It's very practical. And it says here in verse 9 further, not with fancy hairstyles, and not with gold, not with pearls, and not with expensive clothes.

I find that a lot of churches which emphasize not with gold, do not emphasize not with expensive clothes. I don't know why. They tell that poor sister to take off her 1 ,000 rupee earring, but she wears a 10 ,000 rupee sari.

I say, what's the difference? It's in the same verse. Well, I'm not here to decide about those things. I say you take God's word. He says the main thing is, it's not the main emphasis here is don't make yourself attractive on the outside, but by good works in a way that's fitting for a godly woman.

And then it says about how a woman should behave in the church. Remember the subject of Timothy is the church and its shepherd. He says later on in chapter 3, verse 15, I'm writing these things. I may be delayed.

I'm writing these things so that you must know how you ought to conduct yourself in the church, especially when you come to the meetings in the church. Be modestly dressed. Don't make yourself attractive.

Of course, we should be like that all the time. And in the church, that's the theme of Timothy. 1 Timothy 2 .11. A woman must quietly receive instruction. Now that doesn't mean that she cannot teach her children at home.

She cannot teach Sunday school. That doesn't mean she cannot be an evangelist and go and preach the gospel even to men who are unconverted. She can always do that. But in the church, 1 Timothy 3 .15, this is speaking about in the church.

Women’s Conduct and Ministry in the Church

1 Timothy 3 .15 makes that clear. In the church, she must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. And in the church, verse 12, I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man but must be quiet.

It doesn't mean that she cannot pray or prophesy because we read in 1 Corinthians 11, she can pray and prophesy. She can sing. But quiet in the sense that she must not teach men in the church. She must not stand up as a teacher.

She can get up and give a testimony. She can get up and share some word that has been a blessing to her. But she must not teach. And she must not have authority. She must not be an elder in a church. See, remember, if you read Romans chapter 16, you find at least five women there mentioned who were co-workers of the Apostle Paul.

They were workers and they were not just cooking the food. They were actually serving the Lord. Evangelism and other things they were doing. So women had a tremendous part in the ministry of the early church.

Think of a country like India. You know how difficult it is for a man to speak to an unconverted woman in India. Who's going to reach all these 50 of India which is women? Sisters. So I believe that women have a great ministry in counseling and evangelism and reaching out to half of India.

And we must not suppress that ministry. But as terms of authority, it says Adam was created first and then Eve. And second reason is Adam was not deceived. The woman was deceived. That's why a woman should not teach because she's more prone to deception than the man.

A lot of cults have come up through women. But it says a woman's ministry can be bearing children. And that's a ministry too. Don't think that's not a ministry. And I'm sure Timothy who got this letter believed that because he became an apostle because he had a godly mother.

And he could understand that very well. If it were not for my mother, he would have said I would never have been an apostle. Many people don't realize that discipling your children at home is primarily the work of a mother in a sense because she's there with them most of the time.

I met a family, a mother who had 12 children and she said, you know, like Jesus, I'm also training 12 disciples. Absolutely right. So she shall be preserved through the bearing of children. There was a curse on the ground and the Lord told Eve in Genesis 3 that you bear children through a lot of pain.

Qualifications for Elders, Deacons, and Deaconesses

So when he refers to Adam and Eve here, Paul says a woman doesn't have to fear. God will take care of her when she's delivering children. Let her continue in faith and love. In chapter 3, he talks about the qualifications for elders and deacons and deaconesses.

That means men and women servants in the church who have certain ministries. In verses 1 to 7, he deals with the qualifications for elders. They must have a good testimony. They must not have more than one wife.

You know, in those days, there were people who were married to two wives or three wives and supposing the man and all three wives got converted. What do you do? Well, he said they can all be converted.

They can come to the church. I think the man must live with one wife and keep the others away and support them. But such a man cannot be an elder, even though he can be a good brother in the church. But he must not be given a responsibility as an elder.

It's good for an elder of a church usually to be a married man because he has to counsel married people. And he must be temperate, wise, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. Not one who loves wine and comfortable life and not an argumentative type who is always arguing with people.

And gentle, not controversial in terms of, again, argumentative. Free from the love of money. Very important qualification. Notice how much emphasis the New Testament places on freedom from the love of money which is never found in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, you're warned about the danger of wealth, but here it's emphasis on free from the love of money. And then it says one who can control his own children well. If a man cannot keep his children in his home under control, how can he take care of the house of God?

If he cannot take care of three children at home, how can he take care of 300 people in the church? Impossible. So the way a man brings up his house and controls his house and keeps his home in order is one of the qualifications to be able to have responsibility in the church.

Which teaches us our home life is very important if we are to be servants of the Lord. The way we bring up our children. Children, sometimes you see in some churches, the children of the preacher are some of the worst behaved children in that church.

It's very sad. Such a man should never be an elder. And further, he should not be a new convert, verse 6, because he can fall into pride. He must have a good testimony with those outside the church. And then deacons also, verse 8 to 10, they must not be double-tongued.

That means they must not say one thing to one person, another thing to another person. They must be sincere and upright. See, deacons are those who look after the practical affairs. The elders are the spiritual leaders of the church, the overseers.

And the deacons are the ones who look after the, like the finances, the treasurer, and various practical aspects. They're looking after the widows and so many things, distribution of food. There are many, many practical things like that.

Those are the deacons. And they also must be people who hold the mystery of the faith, who've got a good conscience, and many things like that. And then in verse 11, it speaks about deaconesses. The women who have a ministry in the church must not be malicious gossips.

And I want to tell you, the word for malicious gossips here is the same word which is used for the devil in other places, diabolos. And so what he's saying is women should not be little devils. That means always, you know, speaking evil gossips, gossips, gossips.

Of course, men shouldn't be little devils also, but women have a tendency to gossip more than men. You know, because the men are out at work, and the women are sitting at home, nothing to do, and they decide to visit some other woman, and they sit.

And if they sit for half an hour, it's okay. Beyond half an hour, 45 minutes, they begin to talk about other people. So women must not be malicious gossips, must be self-controlled, faithful. Then only they must be given a ministry in the church.

And the deacons must be husbands, again, of one wife, and so on, who can manage their own children. Even the people who are responsible for practical details in their church must also be able to manage their families well.

And then he says, you know, I'm writing all this so that you know how to conduct yourself in the church. Verse 16, he moves on to another subject. Well, I believe this is really the subject that he goes on about later in chapter 4.

Christ in the Flesh as the Secret of Godliness

This is the great mystery of godliness. I told you yesterday there are two great mysteries. One is Christ coming in the flesh, here in verse 16, and the other is the church being one flesh with Christ.

Now think of this mystery. Mystery means you can't explain it. How can God be a man? I don't know. I can't explain it. But I believe it. He, God, was revealed in the flesh. He came like us. Believe it.

It's a very important thing to believe. It's the secret of godliness. Mystery means secret. What is the secret of godliness? What is the secret of living a godly life? The Living Bible paraphrases it like that.

What is the secret of living a godly life? The answer lies in Christ who came to earth as a man. There is the secret of living a godly life. There was one man who walked on earth as a man who lived a godly life.

And that's why you and I can live a godly life. He is the proof that a man can live a godly life. He is the proof that a man can overcome the lust of the eyes. He is the proof that a man can control his temper.

He is the proof that a man can never be jealous, never be bitter, etc. So the secret of a godly life lies in Jesus Christ who came in the flesh. And was vindicated in the spirit. That means the Holy Spirit examined every area of his life and said, 100 pure.

Beheld by angels. Angels watched this great mystery of God becoming flesh. And walking as a man being tempted and overcoming. And this is what we proclaim in all the nations of the world. And people believed on him in the world when he was here also.

And he was taken up to glory. This is the secret of godliness. And this is the way we've got to go too. Today we are in the flesh. The Holy Spirit examines our life to see whether we are pure. Angels are watching us.

We saw that in Ephesians 3 .10. Our life is a proclamation to the nations about what the gospel is. And people believe and one day we will be taken up to glory as well. If we are faithful. But in contrast to this God's method of holiness.

False Asceticism and the True Source of Holiness

The Holy Spirit says in the last days people are going to preach some other method of holiness. In contrast to this. Chapter 4 verse 1. And they are going to listen to deceitful spirits. Lot of deceiving spirits are going to come into the world in the last days.

They are going to listen to doctrines of demons. Now when you read doctrines of demons. You think some horrible thing. Doctrines of demons. What's that? You know what a doctrine of a demon is? Things like verse 3.

Don't get married. Does that sound like a doctrine of a demon? Don't get married. Paul says there are some people who teach don't get married as a way to godliness. The secret of godliness is don't get married.