TALES AND LINIAGE

1 Tim 1 talks about “fables” and “endless genealogies”.

God has given the truth to men like [the apostle] Paul so that we can know what the truth is. God gives us truth today through the Bible. However, men for their own purposes corrupt what God has written to us. They are supposed to teach "no other doctrine". Sometimes they seem to stray away from the intent of what the Bible says. But we should always be wary of the sources of our learning. We should know, respect, be confident in, those who are teaching us. We certainly should not carelessly believe everything we hear; neither from Facebook nor from or other social media.

What does this mean for us, the ones who read or hear what they say, when they are slightly off the road, or even in another county? We should be familiar enough with what the Bible says to be aware when a teaching is slightly awry. This means if you cannot clearly get a teaching out of scripture, you should not put your full trust in that teaching.

First Timothy one says that some people were into fables and endless genealogies. A fable is a story made up to illustrate a teaching, like Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare. That particular fable carries good instruction: “slow and steady wins the race”. However, we should be very careful of illustrations that men use in connection with the Bible that they teach what the Bible actually teaches.

The Bible uses genealogy to tie Jesus’ linage back to King David and to Adam. When a man uses “Endless genealogies” it may be an attempt to place oneself in some higher status among men. Other than family curiosity, there is no reason to mark any genealogy outside of scripture as important. These attempts can result in questions, confusion, and rivalry rather than enlightenment about God's ways.

What are you listening to? Is it a fable, an endless genealogy, or does it purely describe what the Bible says?