The Spirit
clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow
deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
1 Timothy 4:1
Paul
wrote to Timothy, the pastor of a church in Ephesus, and outlined a number of
qualities of false teachers and false doctrines found in 1 Timothy chapter 4. He wanted to warn them about getting involved
in their churches. These rules still
apply today.
·
The teachers are
hypocritical, saying one thing but doing another (verse 2)
·
They are more about
forbidding the wrong thing than doing the right thing (verse 3)
·
They are not about
thankfulness, but regret and rejection (verse 4)
·
Their teaching is
based on unproven myths (verse 7)
·
Hope is not put in
God, but in the teacher and the things they do on earth (verse 8)
·
Unlike a true
believer, they don’t examine their lives closely, holding it up to the word of
God and the example of Jesus (verse 16)