But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. – 2 Corinthians 11: 3, 4
From reading Chapter 11 of 2nd Corinthians, we learn that the Apostle Paul is talking to the church at Corinth. This wasn’t his first time speaking with them. Paul established this church around 50 A.D. and I assume they had it going on spiritually.
They were carrying on with church, preaching the Gospel and worshiping Jesus and doing what all good Christians should do. But, in five to six years later, Paul is writing them a letter addressing an issue of them following false preachers and false teachings. How could this happen? How could a church ‘on fire’ start going down the wrong road? And what is a false preacher anyway?
If a person looks like a preacher, talks like a preacher, and has certificates stating he’s a preacher, then HE MUST BE A PREACHER. Right? If his name has a comma after it with a bunch of cool letters after it, like PhD or whatever, he must be the real deal. And especially those with cool titles, like Reverend or Pastor, they wouldn’t be ‘titled’ if people didn’t think they were good.
And the ones on television that speak with intelligence and big words or the ones that have written several books that are bestsellers at Narnes & Boble, they must really have it going on and I’m sure they can be trusted to present the Gospel. Right? Maybe not.
Satan is tricky and appears as an ‘angel of light’. We all know that Jesus is the Light of the world, so for Satan to get our attention he would have to come across as a ‘worker for the Lord’. The thought that comes to my mind are the religious cults that are floating around in the world today.
Yes, many of them appear to be preaching Jesus and may be using the same Bible, but some add their little extra dose of non-biblical teachings. The followers of these cults are being tricked and some have even died in the process.
This is what Paul was talking to the church at Corinth about. These folks were being misled by appearances, fancy words, and new doctrines. Paul reminded them of the simplicity of the True Gospel.
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore [it is] no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. - 2 Corinthians 11: 13-15
There are false teachers in the world today. I know that’s hard to believe. Many of them have church buildings, television shows, books all over the world, and the sad thing is that you could be following one of them. So, how would you know if you’re being misled? We would have to go back to the basics and compare.
- God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins.
- We are all sinners and need Jesus to save us. Our sin separates us from God.
- We become saved when we confess our sins, asking for forgiveness, turning from those sins and asking Jesus to come into our life. It is the blood of Jesus that washes us clean from our sins.
- The Bible is our source of spiritual knowledge and growth. All that we hear from preachers, teachers, and ministers must line up with God’s Word from the Bible. There are no extra books or supplementary editions. The Bible is complete.
As Christians, we have to make sure we are reading the Bible ourselves so that we will know that what we are being taught from others is fact. We can’t rely on their knowledge of what they think the Bible says. We also can’t assume that, just because a person speaks with intelligent words and looks Biblically sophisticated, they are truly of Jesus. Looks can be deceiving.
Let’s make sure we got our spiritual glasses on. You know?
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