What pricks your
attention as a Christian? What do you want to hear more about? Alternatively, is
there anything in the Bible that has made you think, “I don’t really want to
hear that,” or “I don’t need to hear that.”
Choosing what we listen
to or hear is just one way in which we try to maintain control over ourselves. But
when we do this with God’s Word, we are not submitting to it and trusting God
as our ruler, who wants us to willingly come under the control of his Spirit.
If we’re honest, we are all
tempted as Christians in this way; to discriminate between one part of God’s
Word from another. We can be selective hearers. This could be simply by giving
more attention to parts of God’s Word that we like. Or we may tend to highlight
only what stands out to us as encouraging. And we may steer clear of parts of
God’s Word that we don’t like. And in this way, we take away from God’s Word by
ignoring or even omitting from the Scriptures what we, in effect, choose to
silence.
This temptation to be led
by our own desires when coming to God’s Word relates equally to those who teach
or preach or prophecy within the Church. A simple memory verse system might focus
only on all the positive, uplifting quotes throughout the Bible. Or a preacher may
find themselves focusing in on a particularly distinct, unique emphasis that they
feel is relevant or ‘fresh’. Or they just have their preferred, choice of topics.
In this way, those who speak in the Church are tempted with the ‘sin of omission’;
in effect taking away from the message and teaching of the Bible.
The Apostle Paul warns us
strongly about this.
“… the
time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching
ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
and will turn away from listening to the truth…” (2
Timothy 4: 3-4)
The surprise of this statement is that Paul lays the blame upon the
listener. They are being driven by their own desires in how they select
teachers and who they gather around them. It is because they cannot put up with
some of the teaching of the Bible that teachers spread who give them just what
they want to hear already.
Why should this be of great concern to us?
Because our salvation, Christian growth and maturity are all at stake, as the
Apostle Paul warns in 1 Timothy 4:16:
“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this,
for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
One of the greatest risks of selective hearing (and selective preaching)
is the ever-present danger of false teaching within the Church. False teaching
only exists because there is a market for it. If there were no pupils there
would be no teachers. You cannot teach anything unless you have someone who
will listen. And so, the Bible warns us that we need to vote with our ears.
How do you know if you are listening to false teaching unless you are
listening to all of God’s Word – that is, unless you are continually allowing
the Bible to interpret itself for you by listening to it as one unified message
from God? How do you know if you are a false teacher unless you are faithfully,
carefully holding together all of God’s Word and its teaching in your ministry,
without adding to it or taking away from it? After warning Timothy about false
teaching in the last days (2 Timothy 3:1-9), Paul instructs him:
“the sacred writings… are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God
and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good
work.” (2 Timothy 15b-17)
One of the reasons why the Bible says that false teachers themselves will
be judged more strictly is that, not only do they tend to selectively use the Bible
-- and in this way change and distort its overall message – they also (whether
consciously or not) misread and thereby misapply the Bible:
“There
are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and
unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (2
Peter 3:16).
And so, as well as simply adding to or taking away from what the Bible
teachers, false teachers also interpret the Bible in such a way that it contradicts
a clear and plain reading of the Bible when comprehended in its entirety.
Our job as Christians is not actually to ‘interpret’ the Bible – which literally
means to explain its meaning. Rather our job is to ‘read’ it, which, by definition,
means to ‘comprehend’ its meaning within its own context. It explains itself. The
Bible stands alone as a self-authenticating, self-interpreting book with its
own vocabulary and progressive message, and this requires of us careful attention
and literacy as does all proper ‘reading’. We need to ‘hear’ it and accept it (all
of it) as God’s own word:
“when you
received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the
word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you
believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
False teaching in the Church
has been with us from New Testament times, and before. In fact, in the Old Testament,
Moses warns Israel against false teachers which may not only include ‘prophets’
but may also include your brother, mother, son, daughter, wife or fellowman (Deuteronomy
13:1-15; 18:20-22). And almost every New Testament book (Philemon is an
exception) contains warnings against false teachers and false prophets. Jesus warns
us that false teaching will, in fact, be a defining mark of the last days in
which we now live (Matt 24:11).
The issue is so serious and is of
such dire consequence that Paul can say in Galatians
1:8:
“…even
if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one
we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
So,
what can each of us do, to safeguard against and resist false teaching in our
lives as Christians?
First, there are some obvious big things we can do that are
a priority for every Christian in every circumstance:
1. Make a habit of praying before and after you read or listen to God’s Word, that you take it to heart by responding with repentance and faith, remember that Christians are fundamentally those who not merely listen to God’s word, but who accept and obey it: Psalm 1; Psalm 119; Mark 4:10-20; John 5:39; John 10:1-29; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; James 1:22-25.
2. Listen through all the Bible as regularly as possible. The 66 books of the Bible were all written to be read aloud, and so are best understood by sitting back and listening to them in their entirety. They also have one unifying theme and message which progressively unfolds in the pages of salvation history itself. Once you have ‘heard’ and ‘listened’ to the whole of a book, you will have a better grasp of its overall message and context. From there you can slow down and dive into the nuances with a hard copy, and grapple with (and ideally meditate on) its variegated teaching. But make sure you read and comprehend each part within its whole – read in context – and that is much easier if you use of the very recent blessing of being able to listen to whole books of the Bible in audio.
3. Don’t buy or propagate any material containing teaching you know to be wrong or misleading – this only supports and helps it to be more successful. We mustn’t compromise God’s Word by supporting material that confuses or even contradicts it. The Bible commands Christians not to support false teaching or false teachers (2 John 7-11).
4. Make sure you are part of a church that makes expository preaching, based on Bible exegesis, the staple diet of the congregation. If you can, attend a bible study group too that is progressively going through all the Scriptures (1 Timothy 4:13; 2 Timothy 15-17).
5. Speak up with the truth in love to fellow Christians. We are to expect differences amongst us, and this should not surprise us (1 Corinthians 11:19). Debate is good and healthy, in order to maintain unity in the Spirit – unity does not arise from coming together (sticking to one another) but from coming around Christ (sticking to him); we are united in him (Ephesians 4:3-5). This means that the loving way to edify one another is to be speaking the truth to one another (Ephesians 4:15-16) and all teaching one another (Colossians 3:16). This means we mustn’t be afraid to confront or even rebuke a fellow Christian with the truth of the Bible, and no one is above this (Galatians 2:11-16).
Secondly, there are some less obvious actions
that may apply to us given the circumstances, which may require them:
6. Warn other Christians if they continue to go down a road of disobeying the clear commands of the Bible or contradicting its clear teaching (after you have ‘spoken the truth to them in love’). In such circumstances, we are told to withdraw fellowship from fellow believers as a warning sign to them, so that by God’s grace they will repent – in other circumstances, we are told to do this because they may be false Christians corrupting the church by their influence (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Titus 3:10-11; 1 Corinthians 5:2, 13; Ephesians 5:5-7). Acts 5:1-11 is a monumental example of how seriously God wants us to treat holiness among Christians, his Church. We are called to judge ourselves as Christians (1 Corinthians 11:30-32). The pattern of Matthew 18:15-20 is helpful here. You could take a second or a third person along after your warning if they persist in disobedience or in false doctrine. If they continue, you should tell the elders of your church so that they can protect the whole flock if needed (Acts 20:28-31).
(There is an important distinction
that the Bible makes here, however: we are commanded to judge those inside the Church
(1 Corinthians 5:12b-13), not those outside. So, while this point does
apply to false Christians it does not apply to unbelievers who make no profession
of faith. Their judgment is not our business and would be practically impossible
(1 Corinthians 5:10, 12); rather for the sake of the gospel we are told to “answer”
outsiders with wisdom, grace and a holy life - ‘salt’ in Colossians 4:5-6).
7. Leave your church if you need to stop supporting false teaching and at the same time unite with true fellowship around sound teaching: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said… go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 - It was in the context of false teachers in Corinth influencing the church there that Paul gave this command to leave and be separate). Join a church where you can be united to Christians devoted to sound teaching (Acts 2:42; Titus 1:9; 2:1).
Paul’s
command, in speaking about false teaching and false teachers, is to “flee”
and instead “pursue” holiness:
“If
anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of
our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness…. flee these
things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness,
gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith…” (1 Timothy 6:3, 11-12).
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