Guard The Gospel - 1 Timothy 1:3-7

Transformative Truth:
Oppose whatever draws people away from gospel truth.

The Commission
1 Timothy 1:3-4

29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard!
Acts 20:29-31 NIV

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep.
John 10:11-13 NLT

Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have received that you have heard from me.
2 Timothy 1:13

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.
Titus 2:1

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
1 Timothy 3:14-15

The Contrast
1 Timothy 1:3-5

"Love is the overflow of joy in God which gladly meets the needs of others."
- John Piper

It was not so much that they set out to be heretical. They simply wanted to "go deeper" into the Scriptures. They wanted to go beyond the "simple" exegesis of Paul, and by giving the people and events allegorical meaning, simple stories would reveal fantastic truths. They did not set out to abandon the gospel ... but in fact their progressive accretions smothered the gospel.
-Hughes and Chapell