General Editor’s Preface

HOW SHOULD WE DEAL with the plurality of non-Christian teachings and philosophies that characterize our culture and challenge the church? The apostle Paul faced the same challenge and in the Pastoral Letters offers an answer.

Paul begins, of course, by stating the obvious: Teach against them. But he does much more. As Walter Liefeld explains in the commentary that follows, the apostle recommends how to teach against them. Paul gives Timothy and Titus advice and counsel on methodology and attitude in counteracting false teachings, telling them both what not to do and what to do.

(1) As to what not to do, Paul warns against a great danger in dealing with non-Christian teachings. The danger seems at first glance a simple one: wasting time. Avoid godless chatter, he says, and focus on the really important things, such as the gospel of Jesus Christ. On one level this advice makes a great deal of sense. But since Paul does spend a great deal of time himself in the Pastorals and in his other letters warning against the dangers of false teachings, perhaps there is more here than a simple time-management seminar can cure.

What exactly is “godless chatter?” It is “secular and profane” talk that is “empty of real meaning.” “Real meaning” for Paul is that which relates to the most real thing in the universe, God. Godless chatter is talk that doesn’t have as either its content or goal the promotion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, what Paul is recommending is that our talk be “partisan” in the best sense of that word—that we never waste time in simple critique of false teaching, critique that doesn’t go anywhere. No, Paul wants us always to talk in terms of the gospel.

(2) What keeps this partisanship from becoming mean-spirited, triumphalistic, and self-centered? Here is where Paul’s advice about what to do comes in. When we talk about false teaching (by not wasting time talking about false teaching but by promoting the gospel), we should be awfully nice about it. You might say that we are to follow the law of love—which means we are to be clear, kind, and optimistic.

(a) Clarity is important to Paul because of the seriousness of the message. Elsewhere he says that good music is made up of notes distinctively sounded, for unless trumpets sound a clear call, no one will prepare for battle (1 Cor. 14:8). This is the theological version of Strunk and White’s call for clear and simple writing. For Paul, however, it is not just a matter of clear communication (although that is an important part of it), but it is an actual reflection of the nature of the Incarnation: God did not just take on human flesh in Jesus Christ, but did so in such a way as to be effective in showing himself to human beings. No secret gnostic doctrine here!

(b) Kindness is also important. For Paul, this is not a soft, pablum-esque meekness in the face of false teachings. Kindness means a committed graciousness. Like clarity, Paul considers kindness a theological category—in this case, a human reflection, an imperfect imitation of God’s grace toward all sinners. How can we show kindness to those who are threatening our faith through false teachings? Only by redistributing the kindness God showers on us toward others. We cannot find this kind of graciousness in ourselves.

(c) This leads to Paul’s third methodological principle, optimism. What works in combating false teachings, Paul says, is not angry denunciation or pessimistic hand-wringing. Rather, what works is keeping the “hope that is within us” front and center in all that we do. Since we do not always feel optimistic and hopeful ourselves, this may mean that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor in combating false teachings. We need to be patient not just with the false teachers, but with ourselves.

The Pastoral Letters are aptly named—they are pastoral in the sense that they offer good, sound, practical advice on how to live out our calling as Christians in a world that is not often congenial to the radical demands of the gospel. Live by the law of love, Paul says. Be clear, kind, and optimistic. Then the false teachings will pale in significance next to the eternal truth of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Terry C. Muck