If there was ever a redundant theme in the New Testament letters, it was the warning on false doctrines and false teachers. The second letter of Paul to the Corinthian church is no exception (2 Corinthians 11:3). As important as it is to not deviate from the truth, what stroked me from the warning was the use of the word “led astray” which seems to suggest a willingness to follow whoever is leading. Paul was cautioning the Corinthians to not be willing to follow false teachers and false doctrines. Often time, we do not realize that we are the first ones to be agents of our doom. I don’t know how many of us realize that when we engage with content, be it content we watch or content we listen to or content we discuss in various settings, we are willing participants in following the teachings and doctrines that are being discussed and if we are not careful, we will let those teachings infuse our minds, consume our thoughts and before we know it, like the Corinthians or the Galatians, we would have been bewitched. The bible puts a huge emphasis on our heart, mind and soul because what is nurtured in our hearts will move into our minds and souls and eventually find expression in our body (including what we do and don’t do). The question we should be asking ourselves is how do we guard our heart in this day and age that is filled with every kind of doctrine? The answer remains the same simple one from God: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Today’s post will seek to point us back to what is most important while looking at instructions from Paul on how to remain in the Lord.
I have heard it many times in sermons and read it in many books, the way to know a counterfeit is by studying the original. This, apparently is how government agents are trained to recognize an original bill from a fake one (if you’re curious, you can read the thorough work of Tim Challies on the subject of counterfeit detection). This is the principle Christians should also apply when “working out their salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). When God gave the command to the people of Israel to love Him with all their hearts, soul and might, He knew that this was what was needed for them to not be led astray. Indeed, our attention must be a hundred percent His otherwise, we will be making other things our gods. I am not sure who originally coined the expression “our hearts are idol factories” but boy, is it ever true! We were created for only One – the One true God. He is the One who can truly satisfy us because He is our source. The moment we separate ourselves from Him, from His teaching, from His commands, we become free prey that every wind of doctrine can attack. If there is an area in our Christian walk with which we can never be lazy about it is to be actively seeking the Lord. We ought to constantly learn about Him, know Him, love Him and submit to Him. In 2 Corinthians, Paul gives us a practical way to fight to preserve the truth we know about God. He says “we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.” (2 Corinthians 10:5-6). The assumption from what Paul is saying is that the believer knows God, because it is only when you know God that you can destroy arguments that are raised against Him. The work of knowing God is not a one-time work, it is a continuous work that will carry on until eternity. We should never get to a place where we are tired of learning about God. In fact, reality has shown that the more we learn about God, the more we see ourselves in its right place and the more we realize we don’t know anything about Him! God is not infinite for no reason! He is far beyond what our finite mind can conceive; His is the majesty, ours is the submission. I am realizing more and more that effort is put in everything that has value. Nothing comes easily and when things come easily, we must be wary of those things. Similarly, in our relationship with the Lord, we must put effort in it if we want it to flourish. Therefore, as Paul has said in other epistles, we ought to train our bodies with the most rigid training just as an athlete who competes in the Olympics would knowing that we are competing for a crown that will never fade (1 Corinthians 9:25). The book of Proverbs also supports this idea when it calls the reader to “seek wisdom like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures” (Proverbs 2:4). This tells me that it requires more than a one-time search effort, it demands your all. This journey of knowing God and living in our identity as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will demand all that we have to remain in the game.
How will you know you’re still in the game? By seeing the fruits you produce: is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control still attitudes you exhibit and love to exhibit? Are you growing in perseverance in the face of adversity? Are you still holding on to Christ despite the difficulties of life (death of a loved one, famine, sickness, rejection, etc.)? In Colossians Paul tells the church there that if they “continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel” then they are indeed presented holy and blameless and above reproach before God (Colossians 1:21-23). You see that there is a continuous work of “remaining in the faith” that has to be done and this shows that we can never be complacent, never think we already know and cannot be at the mercy of being led astray by what we ingest in our day to day. The instruction from Paul to destroy arguments and every lofty option raised against Christ implies that there are many arguments and lofty opinions that only seek to elevate themselves above Christ. We must beware of such opinions and arguments and we must take the proper action of casting them down, putting them in their right place. I don’t know about you but this word hit me differently this week. I was reminded of how lazy we can be as Christian because we know the grace and mercy of God are available. This knowledge leads us to stop exercising sound judgement; indeed, we stop evaluating what we are told, what we hear against the word of God because it comes from a reputed source, or because it comes from someone in authority. What’s worse is that often times, we believe the lies of the enemy because we do not even know what the Way, the Truth and the Life says! My brothers and sisters, let us be in the habit of reading our bibles for ourselves. I am not talking about listening to good Christian, biblical, gospel-centered podcasts, nor am I talking about listening to biblical sermons and teachings, no, I am talking about reading the actual word of God, discovering what it says and letting the Spirit of the living God in you reveal the word to you. It is only once you have done that you can then supplement with good teaching or podcasts. And even as you listen to such teachings or read about those, always be in the habit of evaluating what you have read with the word of God. The Spirit of God living in you cannot wait to reveal scripture to you so why won’t you let Him?
We must be like the Bereans (see Acts 17:11), who despite hearing the word from Paul himself still went and cross-checked to see whether what Paul said matched with the Scripture. The bible tells us that not only did they receive the gospel with eagerness, they also examined the word of God daily to see if what Paul said was true! Their attitude was so striking that we are told they were more “noble than those in Thessalonica”. We too must be noble and do the same. Let’s stop being lazy! Let’s do the work ourselves and when we don’t know or understand, let us ask God for wisdom and go to trusted sources who know better but by all means, we must become Bereans. I pray we learn to draw closer to God, I pray we learn to put Him truly as a priority, I pray we learn to spend time with Him and let Him dictate our life. This is the only way to survive in these times we’re living in. May God give us the grace to seek Him with all our heart, mind and soul. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 