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Error takes many forms and wears many faces. Sometimes it's easy to detect, at other times its difficult. Sometimes it surfaces as blatant denial; at other times it appears as a slight imbalance. Whatever its form, it needs to be spotted and corrected.
Paul provides two helpful tests for error in the early verses of 1 Timothy chapter 4. The church in Ephesus was evidently facing the threat of error, probably, according to John Stott, a form of exaggerated asceticism. Some teachers - the "hypocritical liars" (1 Timothy 4:2) mentioned last week - were forbidding people to marry, and ordering them to "abstain from certain foods" (v. 3). On the surface these might appear to be secondary, "unspiritual" matters, but as later church history was to show, they were not as harmless as they appear.
In responding to them, Paul takes two approaches. The first is what we might call a theological approach. He points out that there is a fundamental conflict between these demands and the doctrine of creation. Marriage and food come from God, and are to "be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth" (v. 3). While it is true, as Stott points out, that God's good creation gifts have not escaped "unsullied by the fall", they are nevertheless to be received thankfully and "consecrated by the Word of God and prayer" (v. 5). "The principle is plain," Stott writes. "How can anybody despise marriage, let alone forbid it, when God instituted it? How can anybody command abstention from certain foods, when God created them to be received with thanksgiving?" (p. 113). Or, to put it another way, "To reject these things is to abandon the faith, since it insults the Creator" (p. 115).
The second test Paul uses to detect false teaching is what might be called the ethical or practical test. He warns Timothy not to have anything to do with "godless myths and old wives tales" (v. 7). Instead, he is to "train" (or exercise) himself to be godly. For, he says, "physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all times, holding promise both for the present life and the life to come" (vv. 7,8).
What in effect Paul is saying is this: True teaching will always promote godly living. By godliness, Paul is thinking of a reverent, God-centred lifestyle. Stott puts it well when he explains, "Godly people are God-fearing people. They have experienced the Copernican revolution of Christian conversion from self-centredness to God-centredness. Previously it could be said of them, that in their thoughts, 'there is no room for God'. But now they say: 'I have set the Lord always before me... They anticipate on earth the God-centred life of heaven, which is dominated by God's throne" (p. 117).
Here, then are two tests we can use to evaluate the truthfulness of teaching - of any teaching that poses to be Christian. The theological test weighs what is being said in the light of the great doctrines of the Bible - doctrines that relate not only to creation, but also to providence and redemption. We need to ask when presented with any new idea, "Is it consistent with the great doctrines of the faith? Does it exalt God as Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer?" And then we also need to ask, "Does this idea (teaching) promote godliness? Does it encourage me to live a God-centred, God-glorifying life?" "We need have no hesitations," writes Stott, "about any teaching which glorifies God the Creator and promotes godliness" (p. 118).