Flying With Peace of Mind Requires Precaution
Flying has never been easier, but TSA can be a hassle.
While some of the hoops they make you jump through seem silly, we understand the reason for the inspection.
Real damage can be done if things are not inspected carefully.
Teaching has never been easier because of the internet, and Christians need a little more FTA (False Teacher Awareness).
False teachers are sneaky. They dress to mislead (Matt 7:15) while secretly smuggling in things that destroy (2 Peter 2:1).
Christians must be wise to watch out for the deception and division of false teachers (Romans 16:17–18).
While the Scriptures bring a host of passages into this conversation,1 I thought it’d be helpful to start with one.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith.
1 Timothy 1:3–4
Paul tells Timothy to command the false teachers to cut it out. In this, Paul leaves us a few clues that can help us catch wolves in sheep’s clothing.
False Teachers devote attention to unclear things.
People who devote the majority of their attention to speculation are a threat to your spiritual health. Please remember that false teachers were usually calling themselves Christians! Paul wanted Timothy to remember that professed Christians who speak most, and most energetically, about things that are not clear or central to the Word of God are not leading you toward Christ. If someone wants to keep your attention fixed on things that are not clear in God’s Word–beware.
False Teachers advance speculation, not the mission.
The false teacher pulls people inward, down a spiral of continual discussion, conjecture, suspicion, and hypothesis. A true Christian knows that the Word of God is very clear in ways that give us lots of work to do. The Great Commission and the clear commands of Scripture will keep us plenty busy. If someone is pulling you into controversy and theory but never serving alongside you or stirring you to reach the lost or love your brother and sister–beware.
I’d like to mark out three contrasts we can see that will help us walk as a church in a way that makes false teachers uncomfortable.
Attention to what is local.
Paul went to Macedonia and told Timothy to speak and work in Ephesus. In the digital age, it is worth remembering that God wants us to work in a specific place with specific people.
Attention to what is clear.
A church that prioritizes discussion of the clear Truths of God’s Word and works in obedience to the clear commands of God might as well have a large “False Teachers Not Welcome” sign!
Attention that advances the mission.
A church that has a sense of urgency about the seriousness of sin and the situation of the lost will not find endless discussion attractive. Paul tells Timothy not to be entangled in civilian affairs. Timothy shouldn’t be consumed with the local news if he is fighting a spiritual battle. How much less the tabloids!
Be careful when you are scrolling. Be willing to inspect what you are hearing. Be discerning in measuring what matters to those who are trying to influence you.
The church is beautiful and mature as it develops the ability to withstand and repel false teachers with their fantastic theories and fruitless fascinations.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Ephesians 4:14–16
For starters, check out Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:17-18; 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 1 Timothy 4:1-2; 2 Timothy 3:13; Titus 1:10-16; Ephesians 4:14; Colossians 2:8; 2 Peter 2:1; Jude 1:4.