The doctrine of the false teachers is also serious, so serious that it too should make us search our hearts. 1. The particular doctrine confronting the church at Ephesus was Gnosticism. The Gnostics felt that what really mattered in life was the spirit of man; the spirit was the only good thing in the world. Everything else in the world—all physical and material substances including the human body—was corruptible and evil. Therefore, man’s task upon earth was to deny self