1 Timothy 6:21

Now the Spirit expressly warns that, in the later times of the Christian profession, some will depart, or fall away, from the faith. Later, the Apostle gives more warnings. Some, by their practice, will deny the faith (v. 8). Some, by covetousness, will wander from the faith (1 Timothy 6:10). And some, by speculation, will miss the faith (1 Timothy 6:21).

"The falsely-named knowledge" always subjects God and His revelation to the mind of man. In this way man takes the place of judge, as far as he can. That role always suits his self-importance. He also needs it, to hide from himself his own guilty and ruined state in the sight of God. What is more, in the fullness of his presumption, he uses the human writers to deny inspiration in any real sense. So he sits in judgment on that word which, our Lord declares, will judge him at the last day (John 12:48).

Everything must be false where man does not feel his true state. Where that happens, people leave out the real character of God, and the way He steps in because of that state.

Here the apostle touches briefly on the effect of this false knowledge: "in professing which some missed the mark [or erred] concerning the faith." It is sad to know that men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. But there is a deeper sorrow over those who once seemed to run well, and then went fatally wrong about the faith. They are not only the victims of folly and evil. They also blindly dishonour the Name which is above every name.

These words imply that a true science exists which is in complete harmony with revelation. They also state plainly that even 2,000 years ago there was a wrongly-named science which opposed revelation. It was largely made up of the speculations of the philosophers. The wrongly-named science of today is also made up of partial knowledge, based on imperfect or inaccurate observation. It mixes in a great deal of speculation, often of the wildest kind. Whoever professes that sort of "science" misses the faith altogether.

It is not that any kind of knowledge which is true can be without its value. Christianity does not force us to reject any part of it. But how easily people lift these things into a place they should not hold, and turn them into real opposition to the truth. In that role they must be false.

The apostle wanted to prove that his letters were his own, and to keep believers from being taken in by forged letters. Someone seems to have tried that at Thessalonica. So early in his written ministry he chose a token that would mark his genuine writings. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you" (20). He perhaps wrote it with his own hand, as he did in his second letter to the Thessalonians (2 Thess. 3:17). We find this greeting attached to all his letters, either in its longest form (2 Cor. 13:14) or in its shortest (1 Tim. 6:21).

Yet the last word is beautifully positive: "Grace be with you." Grace is the pure favour of God. In it lies the power to meet and rise above all the opposition that may ever come. And it is there for the personal joy, blessing and strength of the individual — not only, as in other letters, for the whole company of the saints.