One thing the apostles often cautioned against is false teachers and their teachings. Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John all warned believers against false teachers. Paul’s letters alone amount to much of this warning. I don’t think there is a letter of Paul that does not contain a level of warning against false teachers. This issue is so important that it should cause us to pay attention to such warnings especially since many of these false teachers came from within the church and were masquerading themselves as followers of Christ. How then should we identify false teachers? What tests should their teachings be subject to in order to verify their truthfulness? Given the plethora of teachings we have these days, how are we as believers supposed to know when a teaching is from God and when it is not? Throughout this post, I will attempt to provide a few examples taken from the apostles’ teachings on how to identify false teachers.
First and foremost, it must be clear to every believer that two things are always at war with each other: the flesh and the spirit. Paul talks at length about this battle in Romans. The man who lives according to his flesh (sinful nature) has his mind set on what the flesh desires. Such a man is “hostile to God, he does not submit to God’s law nor can he do so” (Romans 8:5-8). The acts of the flesh are pride, selfishness, love of money, division, sexual immorality, etc. (Galatians 5:19-21) but the acts of the spirit are love, joy, peace, kindness, self-control, etc. (Galatians 5:22). And so, a false teacher, is one whose actions represent the flesh. Unfortunately, the fruits of the flesh only lead to death but the fruits of the spirit lead to life and peace (Romans 8:6). As stated by Peter, false teachers had this against them: their love of money just like Balaam (2 Peter 2:15). Remember what else is said about the love of money in the bible: It is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Therefore, the first thing to identify when it comes to false teachings and false prophets is simply to recognise that they are fruits of the flesh which we are to avoid at all cost as people redeemed.
The second thing to know about false teachers and their teachings is that they do not hold to the gospel of Jesus Christ nor do they hold to his supremacy. This might be straightforward, but it deserves attention. The apostles spent a lot of their time equipping the church through the teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is, the Son of God crucified for the sins of the world so that whoever believes will have eternal life (John 3:16). Unfortunately, as churches grew, many false teachers did as well. It seems many of them grew when Paul was in prison and also towards the end of the ministry of the apostles like Peter. During Paul’s ministry, it looks as if whenever Paul would leave a church to go plant another one, the church left behind would soon have false teachers emerge from there and Paul would often have to write back to that church to remind them of the gospel message. This is what happened to the church of Galatia. As soon as Paul left, they started believing something different from the gospel. I sense for Paul, being in prison while these false teachings were thriving would have been very difficult to handle but by the grace of God he was able to handle it well through his letters. Something that Peter and Paul also warn against is the subtlety with which these false teachers will introduce their false teachings. Their teachings will appear to be godly, but their foundations will be deadly (2 Timothy 3:5). Moreover, these false teachers will “secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them” (2 Peter 2:1-2). This tells me that to the masses, the message of these false teachers will sound just about right, and it will require discernment to see where the lie is. Because these false teachers belong to the church, deciphering their teaching will prove to be even more difficult. That is why Paul, and the other apostles said to flee from such people, to have nothing to do with them (2 Timothy 3:5).
If there is anything I have realised it is that it is very difficult to create something that sustains itself (unless you are God). Nothing just sustains itself, there must be work applied to ensure that sustainability. The same goes to ensuring the integrity of the gospel of Jesus Christ or our Christian walk. In Deuteronomy, God, through Moses, commanded the Israelites to have his words on their hearts and to teach it to their children in a very pervasive way (Deuteronomy 6:6-8). God told a similar thing to Joshua as he was taking leadership of Israel, that he was to not let the book of the law depart from his heart, that he was to meditate on it day and night (Joshua 1:8). The idea here is to practice discipline without which it is impossible to maintain the integrity of the word on your heart. The same principle can be applied to ensuring the gospel of Jesus Christ remains intact, we ought to not let it depart from our hearts, as we discipline ourselves to knowing it, learning it, meditating on it, celebrating it, and never getting tired of it. Then, we will be able to quickly identify false teachings. Again, as said in the beginning of this post, false teaching is a fruit of the works of the flesh. Therefore, as you live a spirit filled life, such works will jump out in your eyes. How do you identify false teachers and false teachings? Remain in the word, do not let the word of truth depart from your mouth, practice the discipline of meditating on the word day and night. I guarantee you; the light of God will shine through you and you will be quick to catch something that is not right even the teachings that have the “appearance” of righteousness. Remember, false teachers and their teachings only serve to divide, cause quarrels and fights, jealousy and much evil which are all fruits of the flesh (James 3:14, 16; James 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:2-5; 2 Peter 2). As Paul and Peter cautioned, false teachers should not be a surprise to the church nor should their acts, but the church must not fall into its traps. Let’s be on our guards then!
A Word Aptly Spoken 