Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:3, “I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things.” This verse shows that Paul was inwardly clear that there were some in Ephesus who were teaching differently. For this reason, he charged one of his closest co-workers, Timothy, to remain in Ephesus to help the Ephesian believers and even charge them not to teach different doctrines or teachings. This proves that the matter of different teachings is a serious matter.
In 6:3 Paul writes again, “If anyone teaches different things and does not consent to healthy words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching which is according to godliness.” This is one of Paul’s final words in this book, which reminds us of his opening word. What is it to teach differently? It is to not consent to healthy words. These healthy words are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to realize that those who were teaching differently were teaching the words of the Old Testament. Although the Old Testament words are part of the Scriptures, they are not the “healthy words.” Unhealthy words are words that do not minister or supply life to others. What then are the “healthy words”? They are the words of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament age and the teaching that is according to godliness.
First Timothy 3:15-16 says, “The house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh...” If we put all the above verses together we can see that the healthy teaching includes two parts. The first part is the words that the Lord Jesus Himself spoke. The other part is the words that the apostles spoke on earth after the Lord resurrected and ascended. These words are “the teaching which is according to godliness.” The teaching which is according to godliness concerns God becoming flesh, passing through human living, dying, and resurrecting to produce the church, which is God manifested in the flesh. What the church supports and upholds is the teaching according to godliness, which is God manifesting Himself in the flesh through the church. In reality, the healthy teaching covers the entire New Testament; it is constituted with the Lord Jesus’ words of life and the preaching of the apostles, which is the word of the mystery of godliness, that is, of God becoming flesh to produce the church. It extends all the way from Matthew to Revelation.
Paul’s burden in his first Epistle to Timothy was to instruct him to remain in Ephesus to charge the dissenters not to teach anything outside the New Testament teaching. If anyone teaches anything apart from the New Testament teaching, he is teaching differently, and he does not consent to healthy words. If we study this book carefully, we will see that at that time there were some Judaistic Christians who were spreading such things as Old Testament knowledge and genealogies, not only among Jewish believers in Jerusalem but among the churches in all the Gentile lands. Although their speaking was in accordance with the Old Testament, it was not the healthy words. Consider the case of circumcision. According to the record of Genesis 17, God established circumcision with Abraham as a sign of an eternally immutable covenant. The Jewish Christians argued that even in the New Testament age, God’s people, that is, His children, were not exempt from circumcision. Superficially, such a teaching sounds scriptural. Actually, it is absolutely contrary to God’s New Testament economy, which the apostles preached.
Moreover, these preachings which were superficially scriptural did not give life to men. They did not afford men any life supply. On the contrary, they led some to become shipwrecked regarding the faith (1 Tim. 1:19). Therefore, they were unhealthy teachings. Healthy words are those that are not only scriptural, but those that consent to the revelation of the Lord Jesus. They cover the speakings concerning His birth, death, and resurrection. They also cover the words which the apostles continued to speak after His ascension concerning God becoming flesh and passing through death and resurrection to release God’s life and to produce the church to be the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh. These words according to the mystery of godliness are the consistent and overall revelation of God in the New Testament.