The early disciples, just like disciples of Jesus today, were not immune from the strong influence of fellow humans.
They, too, fell prey to the wolves in sheep’s clothing that infiltrated their Christian communities:
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Matthew 7:13-15
“And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.’” Matthew 24:4-5
“Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:11-14
“But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Timothy 3:13
“Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching.” 2 Timothy 4:14-15
What is a wolf in sheep’s clothing? What is an imposter?
They are those who pretend to present or be the real thing: so a wolf acts like a sheep, and an imposter window-dresses him or herself in the identity of their choice.
In the church and Christian community (which includes colleges, seminaries and summer camps) they are pastors, professors, authors, teachers and congregants who create, buy-into, adopt, or advocate a different gospel than the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as written by God in the Holy Bible.
“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures…For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” Romans 1:22-23; 25.
“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. “ 2 Corinthians 11:3-4
I witnessed this in the liberal PCUSA church, among others, which I attended in my hometown and in other cities I moved to as an adult. Nature, the cosmos, the celestial heavens, endangered species, and any human-centric artistic expression and achievement were all placed on the pulpit, with man given all the credit.
Songs of women’s liberation were sung in Sunday school with science and earthly progress exalted as the domain of man alone.
It was an elder in the PCUSA hieracrchy who, when I told her I was born again in Christ, unequivocally told me to my face that I was “wrong.” What did she base this on, or back this up with? Nothing. It was merely her human opinion.
Why? Why is it that people who attend a church building and who can be so humanly charitable towards other humans are vehemently uncharitable—downright hostile—towards Jesus Christ and those who follow Him?
Well, it is for the same reason that anyone separates themselves from Christ and His followers: those opposed are embarrassed and ashamed of the Bible, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
Many reject the Light because they prefer darkness (John 3:19) .
Others don’t want to change because they don’t understand that transformation in Christ is not a chore: it is peace, joy and freedom (Luke 4:18).
This is no surprise to our Lord, who, after sending the twelve apostles out to “proclaim the kingdom of God” said,
“Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” Luke 9:4
And yet, people today still seek answers. They attempt to chase down truth even though they claim there is no such thing. Just watch their lives and you will see them perpetually seeking answers to everything from how to eat healthy to how to be happy and find relevance.
But they won’t turn to God, His Son, Holy Spirit and His word to arrive at answers. That would be silly and juvenile, especially in the modern day world we live in.
This, too, is no surprise, since the Bible predicts the very thing:
“As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, ‘To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.’” Mark 4:10-12
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Timothy 3:1-7
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.” Hebrews 13:8-9a
Jesus spoke in parables, which He acknowledged those on the “outside” would not get. The entire Bible, to those on the “outside,” is an enigma. So they make up their own versions and interpretations as to what the Bible means, or they claim one can’t really know anything about it, or they say it’s just an old dusty book, and now man is entitled to say whatever sounds good to him about God.
And men without the Spirit of Christ will continue to do this because without His Spirit, man cannot understand or accept the things of God.
This was God’s prerogative in His plan for freewill:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:1-8
“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
‘I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE,
AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.’
Where is the wise man?Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” 1 Corinthians 1:18-21
“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWNN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:14-16
As seekers not yet in the Kingdom, people will be tempted to follow “every wind of teaching” because they do not yet have the Holy Spirit to guide them. It is a crucial time. But God, as the only one who draws and quickens hearts to Himself, has given His Word—the Bible—as the sufficient go-to in the quest for answering the question that needles each one of us, “What’s it all about?”
As believers in Christ, we might be tempted, especially initially, to follow “every wind of teaching” that calls itself “Christian,” but isn’t.
God in His Wisdom has provided a protection against that:
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
“No one is good except God alone.” Jesus speaking in Mark 10 and Luke 18
“I and the Father are one.” Jesus speaking in John 10
“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” 1 Corinthians 10:12-14
Once we enter into the Kingdom of God through salvation in Christ, although we continue to be physically in the world but not of the world, we live in the wisdom of God, not men:
“like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture:
‘BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone,
AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’
This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve,
‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED,
THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNERstone,’
And,
‘A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE’;
For they stumble because they are disobedient to the word,” 1 Peter 2:2-8a
“Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.” 1 Peter 3:13-17
That is our strong foundation: to live as Christ, in Him, and His Spirit in us.
Then, no matter who comes along to shame or deceive us; to pooh-pooh our faith and our standing in Christ; to lob insults at us; to accuse us of being backward and closed-minded; to snicker and gossip behind our backs; we remain prudently impervious.
For Christ said,
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My names sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also.” John 15:18-23
Paul assures us that, standing firm in our ongoing spiritual maturity in Christ, we will:
“no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Ephesians 4:14
“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.” Ephesians 4:17-18
Christ is our rock and our portion, we will not be moved (Psalm 62:6; 16:8)
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell–and great was its fall. When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” Matthew 7:24-29 emphasis and underline added)
“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;” Colossians 2:8-10
Copyright Barb Harwood
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