Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you.
Galatians 4: 17-18 (NIV)
The New Testament, especially Paul, take a lot of time to talk about false teachers. What are false teachers, and do we still have to worry about them? This devotion will address that question.
Nuggets
Paul was off working in another church when he got word that there were wolves in the hen house at Galatia. False teachers were coming to the new converts trying to convince them that their salvation also depended upon returning to some of the Jewish laws. They wanted the Galatians to go backwards.
Paul was upset, and rightly so. He wasn’t upset because the Galatians were rejecting his teaching; they were rejecting Christ and His plan of salvation. Luke 10: 16 says, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (ESV). But we still feel the rejection.
One Way to Salvation
Our salvation depends on one thing – faith in Jesus Christ. By accepting Christ, we are all made sons and daughters of God. Galatians 3: 26 says, “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (ESV).
The Jewish laws and customs did not save them. If these would have been sufficient, Jesus would not have had to die.
But the laws weren’t sufficient. They could not save them.
Belief in Jesus alone saves. Didn’t Jesus say, “…I am the way and the truth and the life …” (Jn. 14: 6 NIV)? The Judaizers were trying to make the acceptance of Christ harder than it is.
The people of Galatia did not obtain salvation by just listening to Paul’s teaching, just as we can’t be saved by just listening to what our preacher says. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10: 17 NAS). They had to believe, as we have to believe, that we are hearing the Word of God, which will work in our hearts and lives if we will only let it (I Thess. 2: 13).
We not only have to hear, but we also have to do. “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?” (Jas. 2: 14 NLT). We have to internalize it to externalize it.
Who Are False Teachers Today?
False teachers can come in many shapes and sizes. How can we discern if they are teaching the real gospel or some generic kind? Jesus said, “For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Mt. 10: 20 NAS).
Listen carefully to what they are saying. Are these things they are saying in line with what God has already said in the Bible? Or are they adding something to it or subtracting something from it? Are they being led by the Holy Spirit? Are they trying to get you to reject the gospel as they have?
These false teachers will be judged on the day of reckoning because Jesus also said, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day” (Jn. 12: 48 NAS).
Merciful Heavenly Father. Even before the world began, You devised the plan of salvation. You knew how fallible we humans are. Satan tries every day to draw us into doing evil. Lord, he has sent false teachers to confuse us and to take our eyes off You. Help us, Father, to know Your teachings. When we look in Your Word for guidance, let Your Holy Spirit work in our hearts to show us the one true, living gospel — the gospel we can obtain only by putting our faith in Jesus Christ, Your Son. Amen.
What do you think? Who or what are some of the false teachers that we must be careful around today? Leave me a comment below or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
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