On False Teachers, part 2

So in last week's post (False Teachers, part 1), we established beyond a shadow of a doubt that false teachers exist, and that we need to be vigilant to guard ourselves and our church bodies from them. We also looked at what to look for and how to identify false teachers, should we suspect that one is one our midst. All really tricky stuff, not to be taken lightly, and impossible to achieve without being thoroughly immersed daily in the Truth. So then what's next? If you become entirely convicted, through prayer, study, wisdom, and counsel, that there is a false teacher inside of your body of believers, what should you do??

The answer to this is so simple, and yet practical application of it so unbelievably difficult.  American Christians have been taught for generations now that Christians are nice.  Somehow nice has been equated with good, so if you're not being thoroughly nice, or perhaps if you have a "critical spirit," you're not actively following Jesus' teaching of love and compassion.  But friends, I have read many passages in Scripture that are not nice.  At all.  I've seen John the Baptist point to a group of Pharisees and yell, "You brood of vipers!!" I've heard the apostle Paul say, "I wish they would just go the whole way and cut their testicles off rather than keep harassing you about this!"  On another occasion, Paul told us that, if someone we know should claim Christ but choose to remain in sin, we are not even to eat with them! Jesus Himself called people names all the time, including hypocrites, fools, snakes, and liars.  And have you ever read the book of Jude??  Holy gees, now there was a guy that was NOT fooling around! Of false teachers he has this (among other things) to say:

 "These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead.  They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever."

Yowch.  Those are some distinctly not-nice, critical words.  And all of our Biblical heroes have harsh words to say about people and ideologies that need to be harshly addressed.  Because the Bride of Christ is precious, and she must be defended..  The Gospel of Christ is sacred, and it must be defended.  Our faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the foundation for every true thing in the universe, and must be defended at all costs.  And friends, sometimes that requires nice, good, kind, compassionate people to say and do harsh, difficult, painful, and not-nice things.  I feel like I should apologize for saying that, but the fact is, I am unashamed of the Gospel of Christ.  These are not my ideas, I have no authority.  This is the authority of the Scripture that I hold out to you now.

I love the beginning of the book of Jude, when he basically says, "Brothers and sisters, I so wanted to write to you and just celebrate how awesome our faith is, but instead I feel compelled to address this other ugly issue."  And I get that, Jude. I totally get that.  I, too, wish that week after week I could just write to everyone about how awesome our faith is, how loving and compassionate our Savior, how boundless the grace and mercy.  But instead, I feel compelled just as Jude did to "write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people." (Jude 1:3)  That's the task with which I believe I have currently been entrusted.


 Jude then continues with these decisively harsh words about false teachers: "Certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."

In Paul's second letter to Timothy, he warns, "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron." And he tells Timothy that he will be a good minister of Jesus Christ if he points these things out to his brothers and sisters, nourished on the truths of faith and of good teaching  (2 Timothy 4:1-2,  6).  I like the sound of that.  I very much like the idea of being a good minister of Jesus Christ to my brothers and sisters.  I very much like the idea of being nourished on the truths of faith and good teaching.  But I suppose that is beside the point. I suppose the point is that these Scriptures suggest to us that false teachers aren't to be ignored, or approached politely, or addressed gently.

So where does that leave us?  When it comes to the difficult topic of dealing with false teachers, what should we do? What are we, as Believers in Jesus and defenders of the Faith, called to do when we believe that that Faith is being corrupted by darkness? 

False teachers are to be called out.  Publicly.  There are no kind provisions set aside in the Bible for false teachers, the way there are for exhorting and admonishing your brothers and sisters who are struggling.  There's nothing that tells us to tread softly and deal gently.  Because false teaching causes spiritual devastation.  It is destructive and brings the way of truth into disrepute (2 Peter 2:1-3).  It's just plain old unacceptable and must be brought to light and dealt with as swiftly and decisively as possible. Paul himself called false teachers out by name (1 Timothy 1:18-20, 2 Timothy 2:17-18).  Sometimes, regardless of what the current church climate tells us is acceptable, sometimes we just have to do or say something really harsh in defense of our faith.

So there we are, friends.  This is tough stuff, I know it, and it takes so much wisdom, so much discernment, so much prayerful consideration.  We can't just run around the streets shouting "False teacher!!!!" at every person whose doctrine we disagree with.  But we must immerse ourselves in the truth, and always stand at the ready to contend for our faith in any way that we're called to.  Being a follower of Jesus is amazing, entirely fulfilling, boundlessly joyous.  But it's also hard.  It also requires sacrifice and suffering.  Sometimes it requires us to do stuff that we absolutely hate.  That's painful beyond measure.  

But we do it.  

Because consider Who's asking.  And what He's already done for us.