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Loving It So
False teachers are a plague in any land. The apostle Peter said that
they “secretly bring in destructive heresies,” exploiting people with
“deceptive words.” They “are wells without water,” promising things to
people that God never promised. Peter warned that “they speak great
swelling words of emptiness” (2 Peter 2:1-3, 17-18).
How troubling are false teachers? The ones Jude warned about were
“serving only themselves… walking according to their own lusts; and,” he
said, “they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain
advantage” (Jude 12,16).
Both Jesus and His apostle Paul likened false teachers to wolves
who come in and savage a flock of sheep. The Lord even indicated that
these “wolves” would come “in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew 7:15; Acts
20:29).
False teachers are more than a problem. They are a destructive
force in the lives of many a soul. For this reason the prophet Isaiah
said that “the prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.” Such a person
is the lowest of the low in any society (Isaiah 9:15).
Yet as distressing as the existence of such teachers is, sadder
still is the fact that there are those who are willing to listen to and
follow their teaching. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to this when he
described the religious conditions of his day: “An astonishing and
horrible thing has been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy
falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and my people love to
have it so” (Jeremiah 5:30,31).
“My people love to have it so.”
Have we ever considered that if a people wouldn’t ‘love to have
it so,’ false teachers wouldn’t persist? It’s all about a principle that
we’ve termed ‘the law of supply and demand.’ If a people demand the
truth, they won’t be satisfied with teachers who feed them a diet of
falsehood. Evangelists, pastors, and teachers who speak the truth
uncompromisingly will be sought and supported by such a group while
false teachers won’t find a home. But if a people demand to hear only
what they want to hear (whether it‘s the truth or not), false prophets
lurk around every corner, ready to give them what they crave. As Paul
said, “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but
according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they
will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away
from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 2:2-4).
Do we need to be wary of false teachers? Yes. The Lord said
“beware of” them, and Paul said to “watch” for them. But what we need to
keep an eye on as much (if not more) are any perverse attitudes that
might be welling up within our own hearts that would put our own
fleshly desires above the truth. Let us not forget that the “coming of
the lawless one” works his influence among those who do "not receive the
love of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:11).
We would do well to ask ourselves questions such as, “Do I like a
particular sermon because it is the truth, or because it resonates with
my way of thinking?” -- “Do I despise a certain religious article
because it is false or harmful in nature, or because it states some
soul-searching truths I don’t want to consider?” To put it candidly, of
what type of teaching and preaching would it be said of us, “My people
love to have it so”?
False teachers are dangerous, but they can’t have their way with
us unless we want it that way. We ourselves are responsible for the
teaching we hear, listen to, tolerate, love, and obey. (Read Matthew
15:14.)
--Mike Noble
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