As I’ve read Paul’s letters in the Bible, while he makes a big issue about explaining what the Gospel is and how it is supposed to be lived out, I’ve found that it seems that the singular topic Paul addresses the most in all this is the discerning of true and false teachings. This is one of the reasons why I speak so much about them. John, Peter, and Jude each makes a big deal about discerning true and false teachings and identifying true and false teachers. Jude says we need to contend for the faith, because false teachers will come in to distort it, disrupt it, deny it, etc.
One would think that we could identify a false teacher if one came, yet what I am seeing now is that fewer and fewer people are able to identify true doctrines today. I used to think it would be obvious that New Age would be easily discernable as strange, weird, and ‘not going there.’ But it’s not so obvious. New Age has so infiltrated the church, decorating its teachings in Christianese, that many people think that God is a mystical energy that is able to empower your inner ‘godness’ and fulfill your dreams and wishes. Yes, that is being taught is the biggest churches in this country, specifically an exceedingly large own in Houston. Numerous ex-New Agers who come to Christ are looking at the church and saying “Hey, what are you doing?”
The Corinthian church has a lot of issues. They were a messed-up lot, and part of that was how it was a center of idolatry with its own temples. Paul instructed them to kick out an incestuous man, and then to welcome him back after he repented. However, Paul was very worried about them. Paul had written to the Galatians and found out that just a few months after he left, some false teacher came in and deceived them into false teachings. Paul was like: “Who bewitched you?” He was furious at the church for letting it happen, and even more so at the man who did it. Paul was concerned that the same would happen in Corinth. He suggested that just like with Eve and the Serpent, that if a false teacher were to come into their midst, they may well put up with him.
The Apostles were adamant that we are not by any means to give any support or recognition to false teachers. John told an elect lady to not even let such a person in her home. That was against the rules of hospitality and strangers. Obviously false teachers knew about that and played to the “you need to take care of me” card or they wouldn’t be hospitable. Paul saw that danger, so he made sure he never was a burden to any church. He was a tentmaker and never took money from a church for payment for his services. Now, I know many different ministries get their support from going around to churches, however personally I’ve never agreed with that notion: to go door to door, church to church to request funding. George Mueller saw the same issue, so he asked God for a ministry in which he could completely trust Him and never ask for a penny, let alone ever state financial needs. He ended up raising over 1000 orphans and sponsored numerous foreign missionaries. Mueller could never be accused of “being in it for the money” because he never asked for a dime.
False teachers will play you like a fiddle if you let them. They will tell you exactly what you want to hear, they know exactly which doctrines to agree to in order to get you to let them in, and they’ll make sure they get just enough “Gospel” in to silence critics. They will sound good. If they didn’t, no one would follow them. Yet, what they preach is death. Rat poison is 95-98% good food for the rat; it’s the other 2-5% that makes it lethal.
To borrow from an image Eric Ludy uses, if you leave your door open during the winter, you will have a cold draft enter the house and soon your house will be cold. But if you focus so much on keeping that front door closed that you forget that your bathroom window is open just a little, you will end up with the same result: a cold house, it just will take longer. False teachers may not directly attack the deity of Christ. They will instead come through a “secondary issue,” but the end goal is still the same: to prevent people from relying upon Jesus and the Word that describes Him. I see it all the time. Let me say this clearly: Satan doesn’t care what you believe, as long as it’s not the actual truth. And he rejoices when you believe enough truth to think you are saved, but not enough to actually save you. The deception is very powerful and very subtle.
If we are not continually on our guard and continually fed and nourished by the Word of God, we become easy prey for the deceptions out there. Take Paul’s warning seriously. If we are not continually checking what we hear, a false teaching will come up, pass our doctrinal smell tests, and we may well put up with them. And sadly, the area where we are most susceptible to is in the area of music. There are rank heretics out there preaching from pulpits, yet those church’s “worship teams” are writing the songs that dominate most church’s playlists. Justin Peters make a compelling argument that if we sponsor the songs written by Bethel, Hillsong, or Elevation by singing them in our churches, then we at the least running the risk of also supporting the heresies that come from the pulpits of the same churches. I’m still chewing on that one, because some of their songs are good, but many of them are not. What do we allow in? Do we test them? Or do we see the “Christian” label and give it a pass? Test what you hear. And I’m not talking about being picky or snarky about it; rather, test the spirit behind it. Is it truly from God? Does it truly worship God, or is it about something else? If we are not continually on our guard, a false teacher will come in, and we’ll not only put with him, we’ll start defending him and lashing out against those who do have their guard up. I’ve seen this many times. Test what you hear, even if you think it’s a good source.
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