We live in a time where access to information is unfettered. A bottomless pit of info is available at your fingertips. The issue is not getting information. The issue is sorting through the vast sea of information to determine what is right and what is wrong. It is a dangerous thing to have access to data without the ability to determine what is fact and what is fiction. However, this is not a new problem.
Sorting fact from fiction started way back with Adam and Eve. The original fake news was, “You shall not surely die.” (Gen. 3:4). This has continued to be an issue in human history. Even Paul warned Timothy, “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’ which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith” (1 Tim. 6:20-21).
Like Timothy, we must guard what has been entrusted to us: the message of Christ; the pure healthy teaching from heaven. If it is corrupted, the outcome changes. Like the sacrifices of old, the message must remain pure in order to be effective. If we become loose stewards or allow other information to mingle with what has been given to us by God, how effective is the message? We can see in this passage the outcome of changing the message.
Paul mentions different sources of corruption. The first is the worldly or heathen influence. Those things that are profane and counter to the very nature of the gospel of Christ. Peter writes, “For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption” (2 Pet. 2:18-19). Another is labeled “empty chatter” or noise. Elsewhere Paul warns against “worldly fables fit only for old women” (1 Tim. 4:7). Also, “morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth” (1 Tim. 6:3-5). Lastly, he mentions arguments based on false knowledge. From the Earth being flat to salvation by faith only, there are many that fall into this category.
We, as stewards of truth, must guard what has been entrusted to us. If we allow it to be tainted it will no longer be the effective cure for sin. We start by knowing what truth is and comparing every other thing to that standard. If we allow false knowledge to creep in, we will start down a path that will lead us astray. We don’t want to be found trying to live by “another gospel, which is not really another” (Gal. 1:6b-7a).