Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
I mentioned this extract in an earlier thread; it is definitely one worth revisiting. One of the great dangers we face is obsessive purity-spiralling concerning relatively minor subjects to the neglect of weightier matters. It is no wonder that, in some cases, these purists have apostatised from the Reformed religion and joined Rome or Eastern Orthodoxy. Their unhealthy fixation on certain hobby-horses ought to have been a warning sign as to where they were headed. Anyway, here is the extract from Thomas Brooks on the subject:
The fourth character. False teachers easily pass over the great and weighty things both of law and gospel, and stand most upon those things that are of the least moment and concernment to the souls of men. 1 Tim. i. 5-7, ‘Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned; from which some having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, and understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.’ Mat. xxiii. 2, 3, ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.’
False teachers are nice in the lesser things of the law, and as negligent in the greater. 1 Tim. vi. 3-5, ‘If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strife of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.’ If such teachers are not hypocrites in grain, I know nothing, Rom. ii. 22. The earth groans to bear them, and hell is fitted for them, Mat. xxiv. 32.
For the reference, see Thomas Brooks: false teachers and majoring on the minors.
The fourth character. False teachers easily pass over the great and weighty things both of law and gospel, and stand most upon those things that are of the least moment and concernment to the souls of men. 1 Tim. i. 5-7, ‘Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned; from which some having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, and understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.’ Mat. xxiii. 2, 3, ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.’
False teachers are nice in the lesser things of the law, and as negligent in the greater. 1 Tim. vi. 3-5, ‘If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strife of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.’ If such teachers are not hypocrites in grain, I know nothing, Rom. ii. 22. The earth groans to bear them, and hell is fitted for them, Mat. xxiv. 32.
For the reference, see Thomas Brooks: false teachers and majoring on the minors.