Burn Victims

“through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared” (1Tim 4:2)

God gives us potholders and oven mitts for a reason. If only I remembered to use them more often. Too many times, I’ve grabbed something on the grill or a scalding skillet and created painful moves worthy of winning “Dancing with the Stars.” More like “Dancing with the SCARS!” A big downside of these incendiary incidents is the lack of feeling in my fingertips…at least after the searing pain subsides. Did I mention the pain? For a few hours, I can’t feel anything.  

Did you know Paul talks about burn victims in a letter to his protege Timothy? He tells the lead pastor of the Ephesian church how a team of false teachers have so much scar tissue that they’ve lost all feeling. Folks are being fooled from following Jesus “through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared” (v2). They’re phonies and liars who’ve ignored their God given warning system so long that it no longer works. Hypocritical liars with cauterized consciences. In other words, burn victims creating more and more burn victims.

Yeah, the whole scene in the church of Ephesus is indeed a nasty dumpster fire. A posse of religious hucksters weaseled their way into the congregation and distracted believers from the grace found only in the Gospel. As Paul heads off on his next assignment in Macedonia, he appoints Tim as the new lead pastor. He gives Tim a two-point to-do list. Step one, get rid of the arsonists and extinguish the blaze (1Tim 1:3-7). Step two, take steps to insure no future fires by putting godly leaders in place (1Tim 3:1-13). 

These burn victims hide behind a disguise. Paul says they do it “through the insincerity of liars” (v2). The original language here is VERY enlightening and rather frightening. The word that the folks behind the ESV translate as “insincerity” is hupokrisis. It’s where we get our word “hypocrisy.” It describes someone who’s pretending to be somebody they’re not. They’re incognito. They’re in disguise. They’re not who they say they are.

Back in the first century, it described the performance of an actor in a play. When you went to a play in the Greco-Roman world, all the actors would wear masks. Think of your favorite stars wearing heavy makeup and prosthetics to play characters in the X-Men franchise. That’s Kelsey Grammer?!? You’ve GOT to be kidding me! I don’t know about you, but I can barely recognize them.

Jesus had little time for religious bullies who hid behind masks. He could see right through the heavy makeup and then called ’em as He saw ’em. They looked good on the outside but were actually “full of hypocrisy (Gr. hupokrisis) and lawlessness” (Mt 23:28). He warned His followers to be on red alert for “the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy (Gr. hupokrisis)” (Lk 12:1).

God’s Word isn’t just calling out these Ephesian phonies. We’re ALL to take off our masks and makeup. Stop pretending to be somebody you’re not. Stop acting like you’ve got your stuff together. Stop trying to earn the Oscar for righteousness. God sees right through it. He knows EXACTLY what’s behind the heavy makeup. He knows me better than I know myself (Ps 139:1-6). He’s the only Person that ultimately matters. We perform for an Audience of One. Take off the mask.

The religious con artists don’t just look like somebody they’re not, they sound like somebody they’re not. They’re “liars” (Gr. pseudologos). The Greek word literally means “false (pseudo-) words (-logos).” It describes when you say one thing when you’re actually up to something else. You know when one of these fakes are lying when their lips are moving. Insert joke about politicians here. 

Just in case you’re new to this whole God thing, He’s been against lying for a long time. A REEEEEEALLY long time! He even included a law against it in His Top Ten (Ex 20:16; Dt 5:20). Remember, He’s a God who cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Heb 6:18). As followers of the One who is the very personification of Truth (Jn 14:3), we’re not to lie. Paul tells his buddies in Colossae that we stop fudging facts after Jesus makes us new (Col 3:9). So stop lying. Stop shading the truth. Stop the spin. Once we place our trust in our Savior, the masks must come off and the lies need to stop.

That’s clearly something the Ephesian false teachers didn’t see as a high priority. Remember, these are the snake oil salesmen who are spreading the demonic doctrine that’s doing all the damage among the believers there (1Tim 4:1). Like Dorothy pulling back the curtain on the Wizard, Paul rips off their disguise and shows the world who they really are. Mask wearing lie spewers. 

The apostle points out that the false teachers have a much deeper problem. They’re “consciences are seared” (v2). The conscience is the warning system God places in every human being. It’s that awareness we have of the cultural values and norms. Our inner sense of right and wrong. Let’s be clear. It is NOT the Holy Spirit. It is NOT the voice of God. But when alarms start buzzing in your conscience, it’s probably a good idea to slow your roll. God calls the followers of Jesus to “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” in Jesus (1Tim 1:5).

The Ephesian phonies have ignored the warnings so long that their “consciences are seared” (v2). You may want to put on the Ove Glove before we take a closer look at the verb here. It’s kausteriazo. The term almost sizzles when you say it. It means to brand with a red hot iron, cause to be insensitive, deaden sensation, and even harden. It’s the source of our medical term “cauterize.” That’s when a doctor uses a red hot medical instrument to stop the bleeding or close a wound. The procedure creates scar tissue and destroys nerve endings. The result is a lack of sensation in the area. You can’t feel pain. As a matter of fact, you can’t feel anything.

As if things aren’t bad enough already, the mask wearing lie spewers have cauterized consciences. I love how the old King Jimmy translates this phrase. They’ve “branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron” (v2 KJV). They’ve become insensitive to the alarm system God has placed in each one of us. When we fail to obey the warnings and God’s commands, we create spiritual scar tissue. We destroy our spiritual nerve endings. When we refuse to listen to the warnings from our conscience over and over, it becomes easy to ignore what’s going on. We end up with a cauterized conscience. We’re burn victims. And the burns are actually self-inflicted.

Paul saw it happening before in Ephesus. He warned the church there to watch out for unbelievers who “have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (Eph 4:19). When we ignore our God given alarms, we’re headed for BIG trouble. The warning lights are flashing for a reason! We build up callouses. Spiritual scar tissue makes it impossible to realize I’m headed for trouble. Or as the Message puts it, “Those liars have lied so well for so long that they’ve lose their capacity for truth” (v2 The Message).

Remember Fire Marshal Bill? Jim Carrey’s character on “In Living Color” had third degree burns and clearly bad at his job. He continually warns folks about the dangers of fire. “Let me show you something!” But his demonstrations always, shall we say, went up in flames. Once Paul pulls off the masks of these liars, he reveals these goobers are nothing more than first century Fire Marshal Bills. Burn victims with self-inflicted wounds who are looking to burn you too!