Do You Speak Klingon?

“nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith” (1Tim 1:4)

Do you speak Klingon? What’s your take on Yoda’s species? Do really think Captain America is a member of the Tea Party? Let me get this out on the table from the get go. I’ve paid cash money to watch more than my fair share of movies from the all the sci-fi and superhero franchises. But I have many friends who are so consumed with these fantastic stories you might think they live aboard a starship or in the Marvel Universe. Have they ever sucked you into a black hole of discussion about the impossibilities in the conclusion of “Interstellar”? 

Well if you’ve been hanging around Christians for any length of time, you know our friends who go to ComicCon haven’t cornered the market. Have you walked down the aisle of your local Christian bookstore lately? We’re constantly playing a goofy game of “Pin the Tail on the Antichrist.” You’ve got “The Bible Code” and its whacky sequels. There are books cooking up countless crazy connections between 9-11 and obscure Old Testament commands. You’ll even find authors claiming to find the cure for your irritable bowel in the pages of the Bible. I would say you can’t make this stuff up, but somebody clearly has!

Don’t make the mistake of believing this is some sort of recent fad. Church folks have been cooking up whacked out conspiracy theories for a thousands of years. When we take a look at one of the letters Paul wrote Timothy, we see it was going on at the megachurch in Ephesus. Yeah, THAT Ephesus. The apostle tells his protege that Jesus’ followers should not “devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculation rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith” (v4). Some of the most popular hobbies in the Ephesian church are interminable discussions about urban legends that aren’t in the Bible. Stuff, in the long run, that doesn’t mean a hill of beans. 

These aren’t occasional confabs over coffee at Starbucks. Paul talks about how they “devote themselves” to them. He uses the Greek verb prosecho, which means paying very close attention to something. It can easily be understood as being consumed or even addicted to a particular activity. That makes this a worship issue. Do you spend more time on particular preoccupations than on things that have no eternal significance? We can do this with our smart phones, Facebook, Pinterest, sports, and scrapbooking. None of these is really evil all on their own. But anytime you take a good thing and make it a god thing that’s a bad thing. In a word, that’s idolatry. A certain section of the Ephesian church has unhealthy obsession with debating issues that don’t matter. How about you? What have you allowed to be your personal time suck?

For the Ephesian church, a boatload of their schedule is loaded with debates over “myths” (v4). A closer look at the original language reveals exactly what’s going on. This is muthos, which is fiction, a fable, or made-up story. We’re talking about fairy tales. This term can even mean a wild rumor or whacky conspiracy theory. Imagine a small group devoted to digging into the pages of the Weekly World News or one of the other tacky tabloids at the checkout counter. I don’t know if you realize this or not, but you really can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Shocking, right? 

Apparently these whacky goofball stories are all the rage in the first century church. Later in this letter, Paul tells Tim, “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths (Gr. muthos)” (1Tim 4:7). A few years later in another note, the apostle warns Tim again how Jesus’ followers are easily distracted and “wander off into myths (Gr. muthos)” (2Tim 4:4). Paul alerts Titus that the congregations on Crete must avoid “devoting themselves to Jewish myths (Gr. muthos)” which pull them away from God’s truth (Titus 1:14). Don’t think the man from Tarsus is the only one who sees these religious fairy tales as something to be avoided. Pete’s the leader of Jesus’ apostles and promises, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths (Gr. muthos) when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2Pet 1:16). 

But that’s not the only unhealthy distraction. Tim’s also trying to put the kibosh “endless genealogies, which promote speculations” (v4). Folks are spending WAY too much time and energy trying to trace their family trees. We all want to tell people about our impressive ancestors. Tell me you haven’t looked back at your ancestors to see if you’re a descendant of royalty or some celebrity. While it’s nice to know all about your memaw and pawpaw, there’s nothing to truly gain by spending hour upon hour climbing your family tree. I don’t know about you, but I’m a little afraid about what I might find along the way. A dive into one of these genealogical rat holes is “endless” (v4). Paul uses a Greek term here (Gr. aperantos) that means something that cannot be passed through. It’s boundless, limitless, and interminable. A series that never stops. It’s a conversation from which there is no escape! You’ve been cornered in a few of those, I’m sure.

All this mindless lip-flapping will simply “promote speculations” (v4). These aren’t so much controversies as distractions. God’s people argue about a boatload of stuff in the Bible that we don’t really have the answers to. How often should we celebrate communion? Should be people be dunked all the way under during baptism? Worship songs or hymns? How loud the music should be? Should we go on? I’ll answer for you. No. Some folks refer to these as open-handed and close-handed issues. There are doctrinal points we need to keep in a kung fu grip. You know the ones. The Trinity. God’s creation of the universe. How we broke His perfect creation. Jesus is the sinless Son of God who died for our sin, was buried, and rose on the third day.  

The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing. We should put all our efforts into “the stewardship from God that is by faith” (v4). Don’t major in the minors. Let’s avoid speculating on things that we can’t know for sure. Instead, let’s focus on our loving Heavenly Dad, our awesome Big Brother Jesus, and the brothers and sisters we’ll be spending eternity with. That’s the family we need to devote ourselves to. That’s the genealogy that really matters. This is a HUGE reminder that we’re to carefully take care of all that God has given us in Christ. It’s all about our faith in Jesus. What He did for us that we could never do. 

I really don't care if you can shoot the breeze with Worf in his native Klingon tongue. What intergalactic race of beings Yoda is part of, I care not. And I don’t give a hot hoot about Captain America’s political leanings. Instead, how about we spend a good bit of our calendar on what really matters? Who Jesus is. What He has done. Loving those around us. Being a firehose of His grace to everyone we meet. 

Fakes, Imitations & Cheap Knockoffs

“no devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth” (v14)

My wife and I were walking through the funky, cool neighborhoods of lower Manhattan a few years ago. We love Greenwich Village, Little Italy, and Chinatown. But something surprised us when my wife was looking at purses one tiny shop. The lady behind the counter made her an offer. “We can make it Fendi for you.” What’s she talking about? My lovely bride said, “No, thank you” and we walked out the door. I didn’t have a clue what was going on. Deb let me know that the woman was willing to turn one of the store’s generic purses into a designer bag. Yeah, I’m a little slow on the uptake. For just a few dollars, my wife could have walked out with purse with a Fendi logo. Well, at least one that LOOKED like a Fendi. That was just one of many stores that had to be making a fortune selling fakes, imitations, and cheap knockoffs. 

Here in this letter, Paul tells Titus to shut down a team of false teachers that are peddling a message that sure sounds like the Gospel. It sounds religious. As a matter of fact, it sounds VERY religious. They’re talking about all sorts of Jewish stuff. They sure seem to know what they’re talking about. There’s only one problem. It’s NOT the Gospel. It’s NOT about Jesus. Using a lot of religious mumbo jumbo, these snake oil salesmen aren’t drawing people closer to Christ but farther away. They are selling fakes, imitations, and cheap knockoffs.

One factor that makes any false teacher dangerous is when they seem to know what they are talking about. That’s the case with these Cretan con artists. You see, they’re members of what Paul calls the “circumcision party” (Titus 1:10). They’re Jewish Christians who believe that non-Jews must convert to Judaism before they can even think of following Jesus. This isn't the first time the apostle has run into such crazy talk. It happened in Galatia. Even Paul’s pals Peter and Barnabas got caught up in that mess (Gal 2:7-13). It’s hard for us to wrap our brains around what a huge controversy this was for the new church. Eventually they called a meeting at the home office in Jerusalem to figure out what to do (Acts 15). The leadership team decided that if God was bringing in Gentiles without making them become Jews first, who were they to get in His way.

The false teachers are dazzling these new Cretan Christians with a lot of scriptural hocus pocus. One of the rabbits they pull out of their hat are “Jewish myths and commands of people who turn people from the truth” (v14). They talk at length about stuff that sure sounds churchy and religious. They drop a lot of important sounding theological words. There’s just one little problem. It’s NOT true! It’s NOT God’s Word! And the same thing is still going on today. You’ve heard about this stuff. Kabbalah. The Bible Code. The Daniel Diet. The Search for Noah’s Ark. Folks get caught up in a lot of crap that sure seems religious but actually has very little to do with the Gospel. They’re just fakes, imitations, and cheap knockoffs.

We all need to take a step back and take a long, hard look at what’s being taught. Ultimately, is the message focused on Jesus? Is it telling us who He is and what He’s done? Is it drawing deeper and deeper into a relationship with our Savior? Are we being encouraged to focus on the Author and Finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2)? Or are we simply being fed a big pile of religious sounding hooey? Is it all just spiritual smoke and mirrors? Here’s the bottom line, the entire Bible is about Jesus. He’s THE Hero of THE Story. Don’t major in the minors. As Stephen Covey says, “Keep the main thing, the main thing.” And the Main Thing is JESUS! When we spend all of our time looking at the trees with a microscope, we miss the beauty of the forest of the Gospel! Don’t fall for fakes, imitations, and cheap knockoffs.