Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. (2 Timothy 2:16-18)

False doctrines are dangerous. People who are affected by them and who promote them become increasingly evil. To many people, the idea of evil evokes images of murder, adultery, oppression, and the like. But as evil as these things are, as a general and primary understanding of evil, this is insufficient and superficial. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is to love people. To define good and evil mainly by the second, and even to the neglect of the first, betrays a humanistic inclination.

The biblical standard begins with God. Thus the right knowledge and worship of God come before right conduct and relation with men. We are to have no other gods, but this entails sufficient knowledge of the one true God to identify him, and to recognize variations and imposters. We are to make no idols and worship no images, but this entails an understanding of the very nature of God – of what he is and is not. And we are to use his name rightly – not in vain, but with the right understanding and attitude, with reverence and adoration. This involves a definite inclination of the mind. To love God, of course, also means that we are to love his word, to count his teachings as precious and sacred. This also occurs in the mind, before outward obedience is exhibited.

False doctrines lead a person to transgress the greatest commandment even before they lead him to transgress the second, and even before any outward action is exhibited. That is, to believe or think something false about God, or to believe or think something other than or contrary to what he has revealed, is itself sinful. It is a violation of the greatest commandment. Therefore, morally speaking, to believe and promote false doctrines is much worse than murder, adultery, theft, and the like. This is the reverse of what many people, including Christians, appear to believe.

The false teachers that Paul has in mind include Hymenaeus and Philetus. They are false because they have “wandered away from the truth.” Again, it is the truth or doctrine that represents the standard. Any doctrine that is not the truth is by definition a false doctrine. Any teacher that has wandered away from the truth is by definition a false teacher. A church leader must possess, as closely as possible, a character that is above reproach. But even before character is considered, the line is drawn by doctrine. This is the rule that guides Christians in selecting teachers to follow and to emulate. This is the rule that governs church policy in appointing church officers, as well as in setting their agendas, budgets, and so on.

It is appropriate and sometimes necessary for ministers to discuss these matters both in private and in public. Ministers are to warn people about false doctrines and false teachers, at times announcing the names of the heretics, so that believers may avoid them. Nevertheless, an inordinate focus on false doctrines, even to oppose them, throws a ministry out of balance. As it is not Paul’s habit to indulge false teachings, it is not often that he directly refers to their contents or to describe them in great detail. Here he mentions that the heresy includes the idea “that the resurrection has already taken place.”

Could it be that they have spiritualized the resurrection, with the implication that Christ’s resurrection was also merely spiritual? In any case, as Gordon Fee writes, “For Paul, denial of our (future bodily) resurrection is to deny to faith itself.” Since Christ’s resurrection was physical, and our resurrection is to be like his, then until we have a body similar to his, the resurrection still has not happened, and any doctrine that says the resurrection has already happened is heresy, and tantamount to a denial of the Christian faith.

We cannot be sure as to the exact nature of this false teaching, but whatever it may be, it contradicts one of the crucial doctrines of the Christian faith. And if this is sufficient to evoke an aggressive reaction from the apostle, then it is our duty to react strongly as well when foundational teachings of the gospel are under assault. False teachings about the nature of God and of Christ, about the creation and fall of man, about atonement and justification, and at least several others, are to be met with condemnation. To deny what the Bible teaches on these topics, or to teach something other than what the Bible asserts, is to deny the Christian faith itself.