Epaphras the pastor of the Church in Colossi went to Rome to seek help in dealing with the infiltration of Gnosticism. Gnostics (those in the know) who held to Gnosticism had contended that they had superior knowledge based upon a superior intellect and so looked down upon those believers advancing through faith perception and faith application. They referred to these believers as ‘Pistics’ those who function only under faith since they did not have a high I.Q., the viewpoint of the Gnostics. Paul will point-out that Gnosticism is nothing more than human, philosophical nonsense created by those rejecting God’s truth. Furthermore, whereas their entire philosophical system is based on human knowledge (gnosis), Paul will point out that God’s system for the believer is divine thinking which begins with gnosis (divine knowledge understood) and then through the enabling power of the Spirit becomes epignosis usable divine knowledge in the stream of consciousness. So, whereas gnosis is the entirety for the Gnostics; for the Christian it is only the first stage. Furthermore, Paul will point-out that Gnostics learned a philosophical system through rationalism, whereas the advancing Christian acquires divine thinking through faith perception.

 

Though the Gnostics ridiculed the use of faith, Paul points out the critical role of faith namely that the Christian through faith not only acquires gnosis, academic knowledge of divine truth in the staging area of his soul but could also have that converted into a higher and superior form of thought namely epignosis, metabolized divine thinking in the stream of consciousnesses. Finally, using faith application via the power of the Holy Spirit to make application to life and circumstances.   

 

A short brief on Gnosticism: Gnosticism derives its name from the Greek word ‘gnosis.’  It was one of the greatest attacks on Bible doctrine in the 1st century based on intellectual snobbery. Gnosticism combined Greek philosophy, legalistic Judaism and oriental dualism to form an apostate syncretism covered with a veneer of Christian vocabulary. It was an attempt to reconcile philosophy with divine truth. Furthermore, it had an experiential approach which appealed to both the ascetic and the lascivious types. Therefore, Gnosticism was quite successful in the early church and became Satan’s greatest counterattack against Christianity.   

 

Cursing is turned into blessing. Gnosticism forced Paul to develop some technical vocabulary namely gnosis and epignosis to describe the mechanics of the Christian way of life. So, cursing namely this attack upon the spiritual life was turned into blessing namely Paul’s development of these technical words which helps to better understand the mechanics of the spiritual life.

 

Incipient Gnosticism:

​

1. It derives its name from the Greek word ‘gnosis.’  It was one of the greatest attacks on Bible doctrine in the 1st century based on intellectual snobbery. It was picked up by those who were attracted to Hellenistic Systems of philosophy and was an attempt to reconcile philosophy with doctrine.

 

2. Gnosticism combines Greek philosophy, legalistic Judaism and oriental dualism to form an apostate syncretism covered with a veneer of Christian vocabulary.  Gnosticism was Satan’s greatest counter attack in the early church; it still exists today. 

 

3. Gnosticism forced Paul to develop some technical vocabulary to describe the principles and mechanics of the Christian way of life.

 

4. Gnosticism had a dualism of good (pleroma: the world of the spiritual) verses evil (‘hule’: the world of matter that is the body).  These Greek words were taken from Plato (Platonic dualism). Plato said that the human body traps certain ‘aeons’ from the ‘pleroma.’ This causes man to have been created evil.  That appealed to Christian doctrine for it states that man is born spiritually dead.  The ‘demi-erge’ (the God of the Old Testament) created man evil since he created ‘aeons’ in the ‘hule’ (of the body) and these ‘aeons’ have to be liberated. They must be liberated into the Pleroma (heaven).  They can be liberated either by maximum asceticism or maximum lasciviousness. This saves man. Christ was not God and not the savior, but the highest ‘aeon’. The cross was an optical illusion.

 

5. The original Gnostics of the salvation by asceticism were called ‘Essene.’ The Dead Sea Scrolls revealed a lot of information about them. The Essene, the Marcionites and the Manicheans were all involved in this. The antithesis are those Gnostics who said that the ‘Aeons’ were released into the world of Pleroma by lasciviousness.  This is why there was so much immorality among the Greeks. It all started with Plato. One could be liberated by bestiality, homosexuality, or normal sex, but there had to be a lot of it: the daily function of sex.  The Nicolaotans and the Ophites were involved in this religion. Since people like either lean toward asceticism or lasciviousness, Gnosticism appealed to everyone. 

 

6. Gnosticism was both an experiential and philosophical attack on Bible doctrine.  As a form of mysticism, it claimed that it had revelation apart from Scripture. It had a system of sacraments in which they had formulae, names and symbols which were used to have a good destiny after death. Romanism has copied much of its rituals and sacraments from Gnosticism. Gnostics believed in 7 world angelic powers and so worshipped fallen angels (Colossians 2:18).     

 

Persuasiveness of False Teachers:

 

1 John 4:1. Beloved, stop believing every eloquent speaker, but keep analyzing those influential speakers whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out to evangelize on behalf of the Cosmic System. 

 

Human ability and intelligence cannot deal with false teachers.  Because man is inferior to angels and inherently weak because of sin, good and evil, he must gravitate to a system of power greater than himself. It may be a false system, or it may be a true system. The true system is God’s system of power, and the false system is the cosmic system invented by Satan. The first 6 verses will deal with the challenge of thought testing.

 

In the early church, Satan attacked the 1st Advent of Christ mainly through Gnosticism. Those Gnostics claimed that the 1st Advent of Christ was an optical illusion. Cerinthus also attacked the incarnation and hypostatic union. So, John used empirical evidence such as what the apostles had heard, seen and touched to refute the claims of Docetic Gnosticism and other arguments to defeat the claims of Cerinthian Gnosticism who claimed that Jesus was a mere man. 

 

1. This passage deals with the eloquence of the Docetic and Cerinthian Gnostics who had the persuasiveness of Demosthenes, a fourth century B.C. Athenian statesman and one of the greatest orators of the past.  Some of his quotes are as follows: “All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.”  “It is not possible to establish a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery.” “The man who has received a benefit ought always to remember it, but he who has granted it ought to forget the fact at once.”

 

2. Cerinthus, a Greek lived circa 50-100 A.D. and was an early Gnostic Christian who was prominent as a heretic in the view of the early Church. He denied that the Supreme God made the physical world. In Cerinthus' interpretation, Christ descended upon Jesus at baptism and guided him in ministry and the performing of miracles, but left him at the crucifixion. He also maintained that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was a mere man, the biological son of Mary and Joseph.

 

3. Docetism is broadly defined as any teaching that claims that Jesus' body was either absent or an illusion.  Christ was so divine that he could not have been human. He only appeared to be a flesh and blood; his body was an illusion or an apparition.

 

4. Eloquence, a talent is often mistaken for spiritual dynamics; it may be, or it may not be. The issue is not eloquence, but content of message.

 

5. With the Gnostics their persuasive speaking was false teaching, which constitutes thought testing, one of the great momentum tests which the Christian must pass before reaching spiritual maturity.

 

6. Eloquence and persuasive preaching can be true or false. Only the believer with maximum doctrine resident in his soul can determine or discern the validity of eloquent and persuasive teaching.

 

7. The present imperative plus the negative indicates that the believers to whom John writes in this chapter have already flunked this thought test for they have been distracted by the eloquence and the talent of Gnostic speakers.

 

8. This negative command constitutes a warning to every believer to discern between the talent of speaking, which is not the issue, and the content of the doctrinal message, which is the issue.

 

9. It is not the man, but the message. A man may be eloquent and dynamic as a speaker, but false and apostate regarding his content.  Eloquent error is still error. Talent in teaching does not change false to true or error to doctrine.

 

10. Discernment verses naivety: Perception of doctrine provides discernment and common sense which eliminates simple stupidity or the naïve appreciation of talent. Naiveness dulls the senses, while discernment from doctrine sharpens both the intellect and the ability to distinguish truth from what is false.

 

11. Life is made up of analysis. If you cannot properly analyse you cannot make proper application. You can only apply correctly what you understand correctly.

 

12. The purpose of discernment or analysis is to qualify the eloquent and persuasive teacher, whether he is teaching the truth or not. To fulfil the mandate (analyse), the believer must possess Bible doctrine in his soul, have established correct norms and standards, and have priorities that reflect his advance in the spiritual life.