Some have swerved, or missed the mark. Because they are not fulfilling verse 5, they are guilty of verses 6 and 7 (and 3 and 4 for that matter). They turn aside to vain talking (jangling).

He is not saying that they were once in a good place. He is saying they have missed the mark of love. They have deviated from love in 3 areas: a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Once we veer off course in our heart, we can't help but veer from the truth. Sure, we can still know some doctrine that is correct. Jesus said to do as the Pharisees say, when they teach something that is true. But a mixture of good doctrine and bad doctrine is not good enough. It's especially not good enough when we are teaching others. My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. James 3:1. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Mt 5:19. God help us. In the big picture, if we are missing love, we are missing the whole enchilada. If our heart is not pure, we will develop error in our theology. Having correct doctrine is not just a matter of the intellect. It starts with the right heart attitude. Once we compromise our conscious, our faith, and keeping our heart pure, we miss love, and we are going to miss seeing God's perspective accurately. Our doctrine will be flawed if our heart is not pure. These people are not keeping their heart pure, and thus they miss seeing God for who He really is (Mt 5:8).

Fortunately He has given us good doctrine to help straighten out our attitude. We desperately need to cling to everything He says to keep from being messed up. And we have to want Him to help us in our attitude. Our goal for going after doctrine needs to be to straighten out our heart (5). If we don't desire good doctrine to help us experience love, then we are going to turn aside unto worthless talk. All the scriptures are about loving God and loving our neighbor. That's what the scriptures help us to do. That's why we need to adhere to everything God says. God's Word is to help us experience love.

If we fall into the pit of learning doctrine to impress others (and justify ourselves), then we can not help but end up with bad doctrine. It's going to go on and say that these people really want to be teachers of God's Word, but because they miss applying the word first and foremost to their own wickedness, they turn aside to worthless talk. Vain talk can appear to be worth something by outward appearances, but underneath it's not profitable. We personally will profit zero when we use His Word to show off, even if we manage to speak a lot of truth.

God's path produces love, a pure heart, etc. When we deviate from this path, of wholly following His commands, then even though we don't want to, we end up in verses 6 and 7- spewing out garbage instead of being God's man.

7) Don't trust what they say. We can only trust the Word of God, and those who teach it in its entirety, as the absolute authority to be followed in every area of our life. We ought to see love from a pure heart (etc.) in teachers of God's Word. These people in verse 7 want to be teachers, but they don't see the whole truth. They get off track and teach horrible stuff, because they're having a problem in their own life. It's like hiring a plumber who can't figure out how to fix the leaks in his own house.

Don't be fooled because of their sincere desire to be a teacher. It's easy to see the Pharisees as imposters now, because of what the bible says; but it wasn't so easy to see through them back then. We must not be fooled by how devoted they seem to be. I doubt the religious leaders of our day are any more devoted than the Pharisees were. But they can still be in just as bad of a place as the Pharisees were.

Jesus showed us how they had swerved from love. He showed us that it wasn't just an intellectual problem with them. Jesus gave them good doctrine because He knew that was what they needed in order to straighten out their heart. And that is exactly what Paul is doing here. He is telling us to hold people to good doctrine in hopes of straightening out their heart. When someone won't receive good doctrine (after being provided a fair chance), we know it's because their heart is messed up.

We have a tendency to look at how sincere and dedicated people seem to be. They may study the bible a lot. They may sacrifice years of their life to go to seminary. They may talk about spiritual things a lot. But this is not how we are to judge them. Paul tells us these people have a desire to be teachers of the law. They set their hearts on it. Outwardly, they may sacrifice a lot to do this, just like people of the world often make sincere efforts to pursue their goals and desires. But it is totally worthless if they don't have the humility to obey everything in the scriptures. For example, if they want to compromise, and teach that only a few main doctrines are very important, then they don't know what they are talking about. If they think it's ok to ignore any part of God's counsel then they are messed up (Mt 5:19). They have missed the heart of God: they have missed a pure heart, real faith, and a good conscious. How can you ignore part of God's Word with a good conscious? How can that be real faith? How can that be a pure heart in front of God? That teaching does not come from love (except maybe seeking the love of the world as opposed to the love of God).

It comes down to Lordship. If there is any area of God's counsel that we think we can ignore, then we are missing everything. Those who stand against Lordship salvation (especially who stand against it by not practicing it) may tell us that we don't know what we are talking about. But God tells us here that it is they who don't know what they are talking about.

He strongly emphasizes their lack of understanding by using two strong and similar statements. They don't know what they are saying, and they don't even understand what they strongly affirm. They strongly affirm. They are confident. They have convictions. They seem so sincere (feigned faith is sincerely wrong). It looks like godliness. It fools a lot of people. People say things like "I know he's a man of God, even though he doesn't follow such and such a scripture." But God is showing us that this is faulty thinking. We shouldn't assume people have a pure heart in front of the Lord until we see an attitude of adhering to all of God's Word, because they realize they need it in their own lives. We can gain confidence in them if they change and adhere to the word when they are shown truth. These people had to receive help from Timothy if they we to press on with the Lord. We need to really hold to the Word of God, or these people will also fool us.

The flesh will strongly affirm. We want people to think we understand and can handle everything; even when we don't know what we're talking about. We fake it. We gloss over our conscience because our pride blinds us from keeping a pure and humble heart. This is not love. When someone challenges our doctrine, love suffers long, and has humility to sincerely investigate if we are wrong. Pride is impatient and rushes ahead to justify ourselves when we are challenged.

This is addressing people who are missing the whole point of the Law (as we will see). But this is also the same battle we all face as the flesh wages war against the spirit. This is human flesh being exposed for what it really is. It wants to look good. It will go to great extremes to have a good appearance. Both inwardly and outwardly, we want to look good. People sometimes do unbelievable things for appearance sake. We're like the Pharisees in that we want people to see how spiritual we are. Apart from God's help, we like the praises of men more than the praises of God. God please help us. And that's why we need to bow down to His Word, and let His Word have its way: because that is His help!

This is a tragedy. Here are people setting their hearts on being teachers of God's Word, and it's all a waste. They are throwing their lives away for what seems like a good cause. They look like they are on God's side, but it's all wrong. That is why we need to charge them not to teach any bad doctrine. We don't want them to go to hell. We want them to experience love that comes from a pure heart, and faith that is truly real! This is not about one-upmanship. This commandment is a matter of life and death! This is a commandment of God. Soldiers, charge!