“If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:6-10 ESV)
Should we dismiss everything we can’t prove? Not necessarily. But take for instance that one of the biggest means of deception right now is via the use of misimpressions (indirect lies) which are hard to prove. But when you learn the lingo of the false teachers and of their false gospel message, and you learn to recognize their patterns of deception, you can begin to spot these clever ways of spreading lies which are hard to prove because they are indirect, and not direct lies. So this requires Holy Spirit discernment.
Since such clever ways of deceiving people is predominant right now, because they who are spreading them know that they are not provable, we do need to be on our guard against taking everything at face value and assuming that everything and everyone is as they are being presented. For since fakery, lies, subliminal messages, misrepresentations, and the twisting of truth abounds in our day and age, we do need to be wise to their existence so that we are not fooled by their trickery.
So, just saying here that the things we are taught here to avoid aren’t always as recognizable as black and white and easy to recognize. And the things which are really happening in our day and age are not all provable, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist, or that they are not true, but that we just have no real way to prove that they are true, even if most people know that they are true. For so much in our day and age is “cloak and dagger,” i.e. mysterious, hidden, secretive, but nonetheless evil.
So, the lesson here is that we are to avoid (have nothing to do with) irreverent and silly myths. And myths are falsehoods, fiction, fabrications, and untruths (lies). So my point in what I said previously is to set the stage for what this says, for truth and lies are being so “flip-flopped” these days that the lies often appear as truth while the truth is often presented as lies. And so the danger here is that, although with good intentions, we might reject the truth and embrace the lies because we are not discerning.
Now some things are quite obvious. For example, if the Bible says we must obey God to have eternal life with God, we can take that at face value. For it says it enough times to where we know that it is a biblical fact. But even though the original manuscripts of the Scriptures were without error, many of our translations are not without error, and so it is critical that we read verses, not only in their immediate context, but in the context of the whole of the New Testament to make certain that our understanding is correct.
And it is also critical that we read Scriptures in their appropriate context, for so many of the false teachings we are being presented with today are based off Scriptures being taught out of context and thus taught erroneously. So someone may show us an independent Scripture and try to convince us that it says something it does not say because they have pulled it out of context. And so, even though it has the appearance of truth, it doesn’t mean that what they are telling us is actually the truth.
Therefore, although we are certainly to have nothing to do with irreverent and silly myths (falsehoods), we need to be very discerning people who pray for guidance in knowing what is true and what is false, because it is not all that obvious. For we live in a day and time of massive deception where so many things are being faked and altered and made to look real when they are not real at all. So, if we want to know what is real and what is fake, although we will never know it all, we need Holy Spirit discernment.
And that brings me to this next part. For Paul said, “Rather train yourself for godliness.” Amen! We are not discerning people when we are allowing ourselves to be caught up in the ways of the world and of the flesh and when we are not really training ourselves for godliness but we are entertaining ourselves in worldliness, instead. For if we are of the world we are not going to be discerning about what is of the world and not of God. And so we must be those who are living godly, morally pure, and obedient lives to God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
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