We are all potentially exposed to false prophets, false teachers, and false gospels in books and articles we read, podcasts we listen and church or religious gatherings we attend. Apparently, it was a serious problem in the first century. It’s a serious problem still today. The Bible has a lot to say about false teachers.
Jesus tells us that we must enter the kingdom or destruction awaits. But He also tells us that we must be on guard for those who claim to be showing us the right way to the kingdom and yet are sending us the way of the broad gate and the broad way.
There is a difference between a false teacher and a false teaching. A false teaching is simply something that’s wrong. A false teacher, according to what we read in the New Testament, is someone who deceives; teach things they should not teach. They cause division and confusion where unity and clarity should be. Another author describes a false teacher as someone who teaches something that contradicts what Jesus taught, or misrepresents what He actually taught.
We need to be careful. Charles Spurgeon says: “Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.” We must stay spiritually awake and alert. Perhaps you think this is no big deal. Think again! One degree off course may seem harmless enough. But if you stay on that trajectory long enough, spiritually speaking, you will end up far from where God wants you to be and realise “an enemy has done this!” So what is the answer?
You must know God’s Word so well that error, regardless of how convincingly it’s presented, can’t mislead you. The Bible is clear about false teachers. Some of the strongest language in the New Testament has to do with false teachings. Paul warned the Ephesians to be on their guard! See Acts 20:30–31:
30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
Take a look at this passage from Titus 1: 10-16:
10 For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. 11 They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 12 One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”[c]13 This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
That’s powerful. Paul did not pull any punches. Neither did Peter, or John, or Jude… and neither should we. This is important, and lives are at stake.
I hope to provide to provide enough information with this article to convince you that the truth matters, that we are to protect the message of the gospel from those who distort it, and that every person who follows Jesus should avoid false teachings.
A different gospel is no gospel at all:
Galatians 1: 6-9 tells us that the gospel that was handed down is the only true gospel:
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
This is not a small problem
2 Peter 2: 1-3 tells us that false teachers exist. That they are destructive, and that they will damage the reputation of Christianity:
2 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
Acts 20: 28-31 explains that Christians should be watchful and diligent, to protect others from false teachers:
28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God,[a] which he bought with his own blood.[b] 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
Command people not to teach false doctrines:
1 Timothy 1: 3-4 shows Paul instructing Timothy, a local pastor, to address the issue of false doctrines directly:
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith.
Keep away from false teachers
Romans 16: 17-18 explains that naïve people can be deceived by false teachers and they should be avoided:
17 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
Keep the goal in mind:
It is important that we keep the goal in mind. We should not be eager to condemn or criticize. We should, instead, be eager to know the true gospel, to share the true gospel, to protect the reputation of Jesus and the faith, to gently correct those who are in error, and to protect the young, the innocent, and the naïve among us.
This is serious business. It is not a contest to see who is right, where we tear down people with whom we disagree. It is a spiritual war, where we seek to undermine the lies of the enemy, to save those who are lost, and to free those in error from the bondage of the devil.
Here are additional resources to consult:
I use these websites frequently to get another opinion on a teacher, book, or church.
http://godwords.org/
https://www.discerningtheworld.com/
