What are the character attributes of false teachers?

The New Testament has a lot to say about the content of false teaching, but it might have more to say about the character of false teachers. Here's what to look for...

This “Cut for Time” post is material that didn’t fully make it into the final version of my sermon, “By the Book: God Breathed and Useful.”

“Christ the Vine” Icon: Byzantine, c. 16th century

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Last week, I charted out a few subjects of doctrine that most concerned the early church. I suggested that Christians today can familiarize themselves with the moves made by what the early church called “false teachers” so as to better discern what we might hear today. The language in the passages I cited last week is…strong. We don’t talk like this today about false teaching. Many want to live as if all theology is neutral, but it rarely is. In our digital age, I feel an increasing conviction to help Christians sort out good teaching from bad. But how can we do that?

Jesus and the Apostles do not often use the names of specific false teachers (although they sometimes do!). There is no long list of “teachers to avoid” in the New Testament, which is a collection of documents not shy on long lists of names (have you read a genealogy lately?) Instead, Jesus and his Apostles tend to outline two things: the content false teachers teach and the character of those who teach bad doctrine.

We can confidently condemn the teaching, but we should hesitate to condemn the teacher. After all, the strange part about false teachers is that some of them will be in heaven. All of us are heretics to some degree, anyway, so let’s stay humble. This is the nature of grace. With the New Testament’s writing on content and character, we can see the various traps into which we could easily fall.

What are these characteristics of false teachers? What character attributes tend to exist? Here are some:

1. Selfish ambition and worldliness:

It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

-Philippians 1:15-18

Paul’s warnings to the Philippians involve well known teachers forcing Christians to be circumcised and follow other Jewish laws (that’s the content of the teaching). It’s interesting, however, that he is concerned for these teachers’ motive, too. Even as he mentioned parts of their content, they seem to get enough of the gospel right that he’s just glad the news of the resurrection is moving on. Still, his concern for their character is real. He says later in the same letter about these teachers that “[t]heir destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things” (Philippians 3:19). False teachers have a mind geared more towards “earthly things” and even towards their own personality.

Paul will tell the church is Rome to “watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned” (Romans 16:17). He’ll say it simple: “Keep away from them.” But his reasons are grounded in their character: “For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites” (Romans 16:18). The ego-drive in a teacher will almost always result in a distorted gospel. As Augustine and Calvin would argue, show me someone with a warped sense of self and they probably have a warped sense of God—and vice versa. The relationship between how we experience ourselves and how we experience God cannot be underestimated. A lot of false teaching comes from a place of self-service.

Peter might have the strongest language in the entire New Testament against false teachers. Here’s a taste: “With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood” (2 Peter 2:14)! There is a kind of licentiousness that is connected deeply with what the Apostles and Jesus called “the world.” It involves “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). Jude says these teachers are “ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 1:4).

There’s a kind of communicator that is communicating as an extension of their ego in order that he or she might gain the world and its pleasures. Paul comments on their style: “By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people” (Romans 16:18). They sound good and they make you feel good. They tend to take advantage of “naïve people” or those who do not know better. Many young believers follow bad teaching not because they’re dumb—they simply don’t know better. But the ego-driven, world-attached communicators and preachers can be seen easily in both how they talk and also who listens to them.

2. Confidence in meaningless statements

Paul warns Timothy: “Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm” (1 Timothy 1:6-7). Peter will tell his churches that “[false teachers] blaspheme in matters they do not understand” (2 Peter 2:12). There’s a kind of confidence with which false teachers make claims—and their confidence is in the falsehood they promote, not in the assurance of salvation through Christ. They are bold and plain, but when you actually think about what they’re saying, it’s superficial, false, or makes no sense.

Preaching is effective because it includes emotivism or pathos—forms of speaking that make you feel a type of way. It may be helpful to actually type out what you hear, read it back, and think, “does this sound like my Bible?” Sometimes I see social media posts with a pull-quote of some renowned preacher or speaker and just reading it in a plain voice out loud sounds false and a little dumb. But, I can imagine when this person said this and preached this in a certain way, attaching it to compelling stories and metaphors and jokes to a full room of eager people who already like them…it sounded pretty cool and interesting. But when I read it, it falls flat. Beware of those who are confident about false things.

There’s also a kind of false teacher who likes to be an expert on everything and is therefore helpful with nothing. Very few people are polymaths. Pastors often promote themselves as pop-psychologists, historians, criminal justice experts, and political scientists; they confidently communicate like experts in family systems theory, attachment theory, or brain science, but they went to Bible school.

The truth is, we pastors are experts (or should be) and helpful in many ways—but the ways we are to be helpful are related to our office as pastor. We should be excellent at studying and teaching the Scriptures, counseling the faithful, evangelizing the lost, leading leaders, training people in godliness, reading, and relating to regular people. We should be devoted and skilled in prayer, contemplation, and the crucifixion of our flesh—and we should be able to help others in these efforts. We should also probably be great at stacking chairs.

Pastors must “present themselves approved” (2 Timothy 2:15) because the task is real—but it is a task, not a broad arrangement of vague expertise and confident smiles served up with a steady diet of podcasts and airport-purchased books. Pastors need credentials—pastoral credentials. We would do well to focus on doing a few things well: prayer, shepherding the flock, studying/teaching the Bible, and dealing with evil…to name a few.

3. Unhealthy interest in controversies

Paul to Timothy as he closes his first letter: “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain” (1 Timothy 6:3-5).

One common trope of false teachers is that they love controversy. They comment on everything that may involve a fight. If there’s something buzzing around the internet, they will comment on it in some way. If something bad is said about them, they’ll jump to defend themselves. If there’s a trend, they’ll “hop on here real quick” and mouth off on their favorite social media platform. If all eyes are on one person or thing, they’ll exploit that attention to try and redirect it on themselves—anything to get the eyeballs that are on the controversy to be redirected on them and their opinion of any given squabble.

Some preachers build their entire teaching calendar around what the internet is talking about instead of the actual people in their church. This is the lure: they appear to be “answering the questions we’re all asking,” but really they’re a troll, unable to teach the Word “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). For them, it’s always summer. False teaching tends to be “current” in the worst way: here today, gone tomorrow…but because they’re so dead-set on keeping current, false teachers keep redirecting you so you don’t have to think about the hot take they gave two days ago that has now grown cold. They’re already on to the next one.

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There, of course, are more character attributes of false teachers cited in the New Testament (financial gain, sexual promiscuity, abusive/corrosive forms of power-grabbing, forgetting or exploiting the poor, just to name a few). But the aforementioned attributes seem especially unique and sneaky, particularly in today’s digital landscape.

We want false teaching to be all about content—and the content should be closely followed, I think. But bad fruit comes from bad trees (Matthew 7:15-20). It is rare—very rare—for a false teacher to have good character. The gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t produce perfect teachers with impeccable doctrine (as I said, we’re all heretics in some way), but it does produce faithful teachers with humility and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

The teachers to follow are the teachers who rightly divide the Word of truth and live their live according to it, with remarkable humility, faithfulness, and integrity. While not everyone can teach the Bible, the tough news is all of us can obey Jesus. As Andy Crouch has said: we can’t all be celebrities, but we can all be saints. And that is difficult to hear because it’s way easier to be a compelling communicator than a consistent person of Christlike character. But let’s look for the latter so as to work hard towards the former.

This is why Paul tells Timothy “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16). Both life and doctrine are of utmost important to the teaching ministry in the local church. The hearers should assess both.