“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
“But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.'” (2 Tim. 2:16-19).
There is a certain kind of doctrinal chatter and speculation that is simply vain and unprofitable. You can identify it by the kind of fruit it bears, just as the Lord taught us. We are to judge the teachers by the fruit (Matt. 7:15-16). Such teaching, such doctrine, leads to ungodliness, and a doctrinal cover for ungodliness is always going to find a ready audience. This is why empty and vain theology can spread so readily — it spreads like gangrene and requires (spiritually speaking) horse doses of antibiotics. Paul then gives us an example of two men who were into this kind of thing. Hymenaeus and Philetus were maintaining that the resurrection was already past, and were unsettling some believers. A similar form of the same error has reappeared in recent years, known to some as hyper-preterism and to others as pantelism. This is the idea that all the prophecies of the end (not just some of them) were fulfilled in the first century. Note that Paul categorizes this as being more important than an error in timing. The entire nature of the Christian faith is at stake. If there is no resurrection of the dead ahead of us, then there is no such thing as Christian orthodoxy. The Christian church (ecumenically) has not settled on much when it comes to eschatology, but the one thing it has settled on is that hyper-preterism is wrong — “Jesus Christ shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”
The other thing that can be taken from this passage is found in two citations, the first from the Old Testament, and the second an apparent proverb in circulation among the early Christians. The quotation from the Old Testament is from Numbers 16:5 (LXX), and there are two things we can derive from it. The first is what it says — God identifies His teachers. The second thing, which is quite striking, is the context of Numbers 16. That is the place where Moses is facing a challenge to his authority, in just the same way that the apostles had to face challenges to theirs. Korah, Dathan and Abiram all said to Moses, in effect, who do you think you are? They came with a bogus argument about the priesthood of all believers — the whole congregation is holy, they said. Therefore they should have a part in the leadership, which doesn’t follow. Moses fell facedown (Num. 16:4), and then he said to Korah and his followers that the Lord knows whom He has appointed, and that He would make it obvious on the following morning. This the Lord did by having the earth open up and swallow Korah’s band along with all that they owned. Paul is clearly warning Hymenaeus and Philetus. The Lord knows the apostles He has established.
He adds to this the proverb — holiness is not measured or gained by challenging God’s appointed leaders. Holiness is measured by actually departing from iniquity.