A Verbally Transmitted Disease

According to the headlines, there seem to be an awful lot of things in this world that could kill us.  Whether it’s what we eat, what we breathe, what we touch, or what we do (or don’t do), apparently all sorts of wrong choices open us up to bad things that are just waiting to hurt us…or worse!

Sometimes, when another person points out that a choice I’ve made that could – according to the latest study – harm me, I point out that a lot of things are competing to ultimately “do me in” (i.e., kill this mortal body I live in), and any particular one is statistically unlikely to win that morbid competition.  In reality, though, I believe in being wise with my choices about the body that God created for me to live in on this earth, but without worrying too much about every last detail.  God can protect me from unlikely events, and worrying doesn’t change things in the first place (see Matthew 6:25-34).  And, when it’s time for my work here on earth to be done, He has a new body ready for me that won’t wear out!  (See 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, for instance.)

When a new bacteria or virus starts going around, though, it’s important to understand how it is transmitted.  Some germs get into the water or food, so we might need to boil or cook what we consume.  Other “bugs” are left on surfaces, so we must wash our hands a lot and avoid smearing infectious organisms into our eyes (ew!)  Yet other maladies are spread through the air, so infected (or uninfected) persons wear masks of various kinds, or they just stay home.

The Bible teaches that the ultimate source of harm to us is called sin, and it hurts our soul, rather than our body.  The good news is that Jesus Christ provided the ultimate cure, taking the sickness of sin upon Himself, so that everyone who accept Him doesn’t have to endure its eternal consequences.

Once we’ve received an “inoculation” for our sin-sickness, though, let’s consider another “infection” or “disease”, as we look at portions of the book of 2 Timothy, where the apostle Paul wrote instructions to a younger Christian named Timothy.

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 departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some.

2 Timothy 2:16-18 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/2ti.2.16-18.NIV

Now, we’re back to more useless words (mentioned earlier in this chapter).  While disputing about words was mentioned in verse 14, here we see a similar (if not identical) problem described previously as “godless chatter” [NIV] or “worldly and empty chatter” [NASB, italics in original to indicate a supplied word].  A commentator [Moss, p.215] also suggests 1 Timothy 6:20 as another example of Paul’s warnings against these vices.

Do you remember when some local newspapers would run a “gossip column”?  Today, while social media is not inherently evil, much time is wasted through it.  Social media isn’t alone in this, though: we can also waste time in pointless discussions through in-person conversations, over e-mail, and – in today’s connected society – through various other channels of communication.  Now, human communication isn’t bad: God created it, after all.  The issue results from our using it in the wrong way.

Time is precious, as suggested by Ephesians 5:15-16 NASB, so squandering it can be unproductive for God’s kingdom.  However, this “godless chatter” sounds like something that causes problems even worse than wasted time.  Paul calls out two people out by name as those have left the truth, and are teaching the spiritual equivalent of “disease”.  Translated as gangrene (or possibly cancer, per NASB footnote), ungodly teaching can infect and spread throughout a church, and spiritually destroy far more people than those who initially spread it.  This was a disease that was transmitted verbally, passed along by those who heard, believed, and re-taught it to others.

Specifically, it sounds like this pair might have been teaching that people had already been resurrected (or, per Moss, p. 216, some concept of having been resurrected spiritually, with no physical resurrection to follow) , so I don’t know if this harmed other Christian’s faith because they were still expecting Jesus to return, or because they were getting the idea that Jesus had returned and they missed it.  Regardless of the details of this corrupted doctrine, though, it was hurting others and poisoning their faith.

As I’ve said before, the truth is the truth, and anything else – including “truth plus something” or “truth minus something” – should alarm us, to the point that we strive to get rid of false doctrine from the church.

So, let’s not waste our time – or worse – with pointless arguments and repeating false teaching as fact, especially when certain viewpoints are clearly based on something other than truth.  That might even mean breaking off a conversation that is going south, since “garbage conversations” can do more than just waste our valuable time: they can lead to spiritual disease and spread to others in the church.  I think that they also can hurt our testimony to a lost world.

Instead, let’s use guidance like Colossians 4:2-6 to direct our conversations.  By sharing the good news – the truth – about Jesus Christ, we can spread a cure, rather than a disease!

From Sunday School lesson prepared for March 30, 2025

References:

• 1717 Bible Studies, 2 Timothy, © 2025 Christian Standard Media.
• Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
• Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
• The College Press NIV Commentary – 1, 2 Timothy & Titus, by C. Michael Moss.  © 1994 College Press Publishing Co.