Truth and Money

Posted on by korgrocker

“But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.”
2 Peter 2:1-3 NLT

Peter warned his readers that false teaching will lead to corruption of the truth, lies and exploitation, and ultimately the loss of their money. He provided an early church picture of religious conmen peddling false ideologies and trying to get people to support them financially in the process. Fast forward two thousand years and we find one such doctrine today, which has come to be called the prosperity gospel. This is not just a recent modern phenomenon – it also manifested in the early church as a destructive greed heresy and the Apostles called it out as heretical false teaching. But in the “property gospel” the believer is told to use God and the Holy Spirit to do what they want them to do. The preachers of this “gospel” say that words themselves have creative power. What you say, prosperity teachers claim, determines everything that happens to you. Your confessions, especially the favours you demand of God, must all be stated positively and without wavering. Then God is required to answer (as though man could require anything of God!). Thus, God’s ability to bless us supposedly hangs on our faith.

The prosperity gospel movement suggests that if you give your money to God, then He will bless you with more money. Such adherents to this movement believe that God wants people to be prosperous. And perhaps to confirm that thinking, we read Scriptures such as Proverbs 10:22, “The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it“. But there is a balance in Scripture. Jesus Himself warned about the love of money. In the Gospel of Luke we read about how a man asked Jesus to intervene between two brothers over the matter of their father’s estate. Jesus’ response was,  “ …Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own” (Luke 12:15). Jesus went on to tell the story of a rich man who reaped a bumper harvest. He wanted to tear down all his barns and build bigger ones so that he could store up all his wheat. We then read in Luke 12:19 his response. “And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”” ‭‭But then Jesus ended the story with, ““But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’ “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”” (Luke 12:20-21). We must note what Paul recorded in Philippians 4:19, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus“. ‭‭I say “note” because of the word “needs” not “wants”. So I might want to have a shiny new car, but do I need it?

Paul helpfully warned his protégé Timothe about the false teachers who were roaming around in those days. We read in 1 Timothy 6:4-5, 9-10 what Paul thought about such teachers. “Anyone who teaches something different is arrogant and lacks understanding. Such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words. This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander, and evil suspicions. These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy. … But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows“.

We pilgrims have a straight but narrow path before us. There will be many attempts to turn believers away from the way of truth, attempts coming from both inside and outside the church. False teaching may sometimes be difficult to discern, because it often starts with a subtle, almost imperceptible, emphasis on a particular Scripture, and those believers who swallow it head off down a path that extrapolates into a place where they shouldn’t be. Some preachers will focus on their own passions and inadvertently introduce an over-emphasis on particular Biblical truths. This can lead to a church out of balance, not necessarily venturing into “false teaching” but neglecting other truths in the Bible. But in it all, we have God’s Word. His whole counsel encapsulated in a place where we can find Him and His heart. So we pray for protection and guidance daily. And we check out what we hear through studying God’s Word.

Father God. Once again we pray that You protect us from false teachings and lead us in the truth everlasting. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

An Afterthought

Posted on by korgrocker

“And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people.”
Romans 16:17-18 NLT

Paul suddenly remembered something. Probably a thought popped into his mind, put there by the still small voice of the Holy Spirit within him. And it was a very important thought, a warning even, in those days before the canon of Scripture had been established. Paul’s concern was for the integrity of the faith in the Roman believers, and he started his warning with “watch out for people”. In those days without Google and social media, without media outlets or TV, it was through travellers that news was shared, and apparently some travellers had funny ideas about the Christian faith. Such people would potentially “cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what [they] have been taught”. 

Those were the days in which the Gnostics were emerging. These people taught that salvation could be found by special knowledge, and redemption could be found within us. Gnostics believed that there is a “spark” of God within us that could be released into self-redemption where we could be freed from our corrupt body and reach God. This was a doctrine that seemed attractive to many and it was supported by a quasi-religious belief system that seemed to dovetail well into the true faith. All the characters were there, such as God and Jesus, but they bore no resemblance to the true God, and His Son Jesus who died for us at Calvary. Sadly Gnosticism is still present today, and, arguably, has emerged in the transgender ideology, which involves a person ‘escaping’ from the body they were born with and instead choosing their gender based on how they feel.

Pastor Paul was concerned about the flock in Rome, warning them to look out for people who preached ideas and doctrines counter to what they had been taught originally, about Jesus and Him crucified for their sins. These wayward preachers are just “serving their own personal interests”, he said. Perhaps they hoped to get some financial benefit from sharing their divisive messages. At the end of his first letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, “Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge. Some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness. May God’s grace be with you all (1 Timothy 6:20-21). The old Apostle John was also aware of error and wrote in 1 John 4:3, “But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here”. John also recorded what Jesus said to the church in Pergamum, “But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching” (Revelation 2:14-15).

Erroneous teaching was rife in the first century, but we can’t be complacent today. There are different denominations that have doctrines or Biblical interpretations that disagree with each other. Sometimes, there is an emphasis on a particular Biblical truth to the exclusion of another. And, worse, there are church leaders in established denominations who question, dilute or abandon Biblical truths and try and absorb worldly practices into their churches. Just the other day there was a news report about a Bishop in the Anglican church who said that referring to God as “Father” was a problem, in spite of what the Bible says to the contrary. As in Paul’s day, we too must “Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what [we] have been taught“. Thankfully, in 21st Century Planet Earth, we have God’s Word, the Bible, to refer to, and as we hold fast to the Bible’s teaching we will continue to walk the path that leads to eternal life.

Father God, we thank You for Your Word and the teaching of Your Son, Jesus. Please help us to hold fast to the Holy Scriptures, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Empty Words

Posted on by korgrocker

“Let no-one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.”
Ephesians‬ ‭5:6-7‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

What is an “empty word”? The word “empty” would imply nothingness. So an empty glass is devoid of anything, except for air of course. But regarding words, I can remember some years ago, we had a laugh in the office about a literary device consisting of a number of columns, each containing words or phrases. If a word or phrase was taken from each column at random and strung together to form a sentence, the result was grammatically correct but had no meaning. Gobbledegook. Sometimes our politicians are guilty of “empty words“. One such example is the frequently used and often meaningless phrase, “lessons will be learned”.  But perhaps I’m just feeling a bit cynical today.

In the Epistle of James, we find the following verse, “Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?” (James 2:25-16 NLT). Was James writing about the problem of empty words? Did the phrase “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well” fall into the category of empty words?

But “empty words” can be deceptive, according to Paul. In Paul’s day there was a danger that people could fall into error, because there was no Canon of Scripture to provide New Covenant guidance. That came a few hundred years later. Of course there were various Epistles but Godly information was often lacking, heavily dependant on word of mouth, and movements such as the Gnostics, sprung up with their equivalent of “empty words“. Even today, it is possible to fall victim of false teaching – it is very easy to be plausible in what we say, allowing subtle shifts in emphasis to divert us from the purity of the Gospel. And before we know it we are into “empty words” territory. In Acts 17:11, we read “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.” This is the key – if what someone is saying cannot be backed up by Scripture then what they are saying can be “empty words“. Over the years I have been a Christian, I have heard messages from the pulpit that don’t sit easily with me. Not often, I should say, but the result is that I seek the counsel of the Bible and of other trusted Christians, and discard or at least ignore, messages that are in danger of being deceptive.

God takes a dim view of erroneous or meaningless words. Words that would seek to divert His children away from the purity of His ways. The Psalmist expressed the situation well in Psalm 24:3-4 (ESV), “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” The word “false” implies that we have access to the truth, and, of course, we do. 

In the nineteenth century two cults sprang up, both claiming that through the revelation given to their founders they were the true Christian church. I am of course writing here about the Mormon and Jehovah Witness churches. Their beliefs challenge the basic tenets of the Christian faith – for example, the Jehovah Witnesses do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, in spite of the Scriptural references to the contrary. I would suggest that what Paul was writing about in this verse was a warning to all who would try to add or subtract something from the purity of our faith. As pilgrims we need to be constantly on our guard, resisting the devil’s ploys, never deviating from the path before us, even though the “empty words” coming from those around us sound so good and plausible.