“As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work – which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Timothy 1:3-5)

The Apostle Paul wrote many verses contrasting living by the law and by faith. And while Paul never rejected the law, he focused on faith in Jesus as the only true metric of Christianity. In the end, Paul knew that the law could only point out our sin, and it is faith in Christ Jesus that saves us from sin. But as clear as Paul makes this message, he knew that others would work just as vigorously to distort it. Today’s verses, originally written for Timothy, can just as easily be applied to each of us in our own dealings with false doctrines. Now you may be thinking that we don’t regularly encounter myths or Christians elevating themselves because they have a direct family lineage to Jesus. But we do have many false doctrines being pushed out onto the modern church. The biggest examples are the various churches that promote the God of love above all else. In these false teachings, certified and accredited pastors promote the ideas that Christ loves you too much to send you to hell, or that your sin is simply okay because Jesus loves you. Possibly you have heard that the best lies have 80% truth. Which makes false doctrine difficult to detect at times. Yes, God loves us infinitely. But God cannot tolerate our sin. If our sin was acceptable why would God send His Son to die for us? Measuring doctrines to God’s word is the best tool we have against false teachings. So today, be aware of the 80% truths and more aware of the 20% that makes them false.