The Warnings of the New Testament #5
The message of many frequently
avoided New Testament passages.
by Anastasios Kioulachoglou
by Anastasios Kioulachoglou
5.10. MATTHEW 24:13: “BUT THE ONE WHO ENDURES TO THE
END WILL BE SAVED”
Along the same lines, and to return back for a moment to
the gospel of Matthew, the Lord Jesus said:
Matthew 24:9-13
"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death,
and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then
many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.
And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And
because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow
cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Some may say that the Lord speaks here about the last
days. And they will be right. But aren’t now the last days? And to
avoid opening an eschatological discussion here, which in any
case is not really the subject of this study, even if these days were
not part of the last days, would this make his last statement less
valid today? As He said: “the one who endures to the end will be
saved”. Exactly the same we saw previously in Hebrews: “For we
have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original
confidence firm to the end” (Hebrews 3:14). Faith is a race and to
run it we need endurance. Those who endure not a little, not till the
middle, but to the end, will be saved. The others, the ones who fell
away and who did not endure will not be there. That is why the
writer of Hebrews encourages us:
Hebrews 10:35-39
“Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great
reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done
the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, "Yet a little
while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my
righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul
has no pleasure in him." But we are not of those who shrink back and
are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
We have need of endurance, so that after we have done the
will of God we may receive what is promised. And as 1 John 2:25
tells us:
“And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.”
Eternal life is a promise, the chief promise, but to receive it
we need to endure to the end. Those who abandoned the race,
those who did not endure but shrank back will not receive the
promise. And the writer of the Hebrews encourages us again:
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings
so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We have a race to run and there is only one way to run it:
with endurance and looking unto Jesus, the founder and perfecter
of our faith. And running with endurance, having our eyes fixed
on Jesus and on what is promised to us, we will bear the fruit
which marks the true disciples of Christ, the fruit the people of the
fourth category of the parable of the sower bore:
“As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word,
hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”
The word “patience” is exactly the same Greek word
translated as “endurance” in Hebrews 10:36 and 12:1. The ones in
the fourth category are those who endure, who keep on running
having their eyes on the Lord and with patience, as they abide in
the vine, in Christ, they bear fruit. May all of us be in that category
and remain in that category and if any of us is not in it may he
repent and “run with endurance the race that is set before us”.
5.11. 1 JOHN 2:24-25 – “IF WHAT YOU HEARD FROM THE
BEGINNING ABIDES IN YOU”
Leaving Hebrews, let’s now go to 1 John 2:24-25. There we
read:
“Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what
you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will
abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he
made to us—eternal life.
Whom is John addressing here? This is clear from verse 21
where he said to his audience: “I write to you, not because you do
not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is
of the truth”. So his audience is believers, people who know the
truth. Now to these believers John said that if what they had
heard from the beginning i.e. the Word of God, abided in them,
they too would abide in the Son and in the Father. By this it is
obvious that it is possible that somebody who has heard and
knows the truth – as these ones here knew the truth (verse 21) -
ceases to abide (to stay) in the truth. This is what this “if” in the
passage means (“If what you heard from the beginning abides in
you”). As John makes clear only those in whose heart the Word of
God continues to abide, to live, abide in the Son and in the Father.
In other words and reading it differently: if the Word of God has
ceased to abide in the heart of someone then he too has ceased to
abide, to be in the Son and in the Father. And what happens in a
case like this? John clarifies it a few verses later, in verse 28:
1 John 2:28
“And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears
we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his
coming.”
See this “so that”. When we see a “so that” we know that
what follows it is completely dependent on what precedes it.
There is only one way we will not be ashamed and shrink from
Him in shame at His coming: this is by abiding in Him. And to
abide in Him, we read it in 1 John 1:24-25, we have to have His
Word abiding, living in us. Only then we abide in Him. To avoid
confusion, let us summarize:
i) we will not be ashamed at his coming, if we abide in Him (1
John 2:28).
ii) And abiding in Him means that His Word abides, lives, in
us (1 John 2:24-25)
Therefore, abiding in the Lord is not something we did
once and then we abide in Him forever and ever, regardless of
how we live, regardless of whether the Word of God lives really in
us. If it was like this there would be no reason for John, speaking
to believers to encourage them to have the Word abiding in them
and to abide in Christ. On the contrary, abiding in Him is a
decision which although we took once it also has to be our
decision today.
The phrase “abide in Him” is John’s way of telling us
“fight the good fight of faith”, “continue in the faith”, “continue in
His kindness”, “run the race that is set before you”, and the other
phrases we saw Paul and the author of the Hebrews using. It is his
way of telling us the same thing. And reading 1 John 2:28 in a
different way: since we need to abide in Him so that we will not
be ashamed at His coming, then it is clear that those that will not
abide in Him will be ashamed at His coming. This then gives us a
hint of how we are to understand passages like Romans 9:33:
“As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock
of offence: and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.”
Note that in this passage the present tense is used
(“whosoever believes”), declaring that the faith it speaks about is
a present reality. Unfortunately some overlook this and read it as if
it was speaking for something that happened once in the past, i.e.
as follows: “whoever, once upon a time, believed in Him
regardless of what he later did concerning his faith shall not be
ashamed”. But the truth is different, as according to John, we will
not be ashamed at His coming if we not only start in Him but also
ABIDE (i.e. stay) in Him. The “whosoever believes in Him shall
not be ashamed” of Romans 9:33 refers then to people who
“believe” ( now in the present) and will be found abiding in Him
at his coming, or the end of their life found them abiding in Him.
These will not be ashamed. However, those who His coming will
find them not abiding in Him will be ashamed. In fact the Lord
made this even clearer when He gave the parable of the vine:
John 15:5-6
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in
him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do
nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a
branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into
the fire, and burned.”
Again, some who have been taught that the grace of God
means that it is enough for salvation that somebody just starts in
the faith may feel uncomfortable with the above. As it is clear
from the above passages it is not enough that somebody only
starts in the faith but he also needs to finish in what he started. He
needs to abide in the Lord and His Word to abide in Him. Else, if
he does not abide, “he is thrown away like a branch and withers;
and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned”.
Some may think that it is without compassion, impolite and
unloving to speak about such possibilities. Unfortunately many
times in our age we consider it loving to consistently hide the
truth so that we do not make some feel uncomfortable. But the
hiding of the truth is a lie and in no way constitutes love. Let us
not succumb to what is nothing more than the spirit of this age. If
the Word of God, if the God who never lies and Who is the Love
itself, tells us such things, then the best I think we need to do it to
take them seriously into consideration.
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5.12. 2 JOHN 8-9 : TO “EVERYONE WHO GOES ON AHEAD AND
DOES NOT ABIDE IN THE TEACHING OF CHRIST
Moving on to the second epistle of John, in verses 8 and 9
we read:
“Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have
worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead
and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever
abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”
Again John uses the “abiding” as a measure. Abiding
means staying. To abide in something you need, after you have
started it, to make up your mind to continue in it, to stay in it. To
have the Father and the Son, to have them coming and making
their home with us, we have to abide in the teaching of Christ i.e.
to abide in His Word. Indeed as the Lord said:
John 14:23-24
“Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make
our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my
words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's
who sent me.”
Again there is an “if” and there is an “and” (in fact three of
them). If we love Christ then we will keep His Word, we will
abide in His teaching. And, as a result, the Father will love us and
He with His Son will come and make their home in us. But if we
do not keep His Word, if we do not abide in the teaching of Christ,
then this means that we do not love Him, and in turn it means that
we have neither the Father nor the Son. Many may not like these
words, but they are the plain truth of the Word of God.
5.13. 2 PETER 1:5-11 : “MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO SUPPLEMENT
YOUR FAITH”
Moving now to 2 Peter 1:5-11 we read:
2 Peter 1:5-7
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with
virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control,
and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness
with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and
brotherly affection with love.“
Does our faith need to be supplemented? According to
Peter yes it does. With what does it need to be supplemented?
Here it is: virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness,
brotherly affection, love. See that Peter does not say: “if you want,
here is a nice-to-have list”. In contrast, what he says is very
emphatic: “make every effort”. Being in the faith then does involve
effort, effort to add to our faith those things which Peter says. And
who makes this effort? Very simply: We. Yes with the help of the
Lord, but this help is not coercion but a working together with us
(see also 1 Corinthians 3:6-9).
What Peter says, Paul also tells us, with different wording,
in Galatians 5:22-26:
Galatians 5:22-26
“But the fruit of the Spirit [the new nature, the new man] is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions
and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the
Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another,
envying one another.”
And Romans 12:1-2
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to
God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing
you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and
acceptable and perfect.”
What both the apostles tell us is: “walk with the new man,
not the old man; renew your mind; supplement your faith”.
Back to 2 Peter: let’s now assume that, though the Word
says “make every effort to supplement your faith”, somebody
chooses not to supplement his faith and makes no effort in this
direction. What will happen in this case? We may find the answer
by looking at what happens when somebody does supplement his
faith. This is given in verse 8 of 2 Peter 1:
“For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you
from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ.”
So if we “make every effort to supplement our faith” with
these qualities then we will be neither ineffective nor unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord. This in turn means that a person who
does not do this and makes no effort (not to say every effort) to
supplement his faith will be both ineffective and unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter continues:
2 Peter 1:9
“For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is
blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.”
Whoever makes no effort to supplement his faith and
therefore lacks these qualities is called blind; a person who has
forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins, exactly like
the person in the parable of the debtor of the 10000 talents who
had forgotten the generosity of his master and from what He
cleansed him. And Peter carries on:
2 Peter 1:10
“Therefore, brothers, rather be diligent to make your calling and
election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never fall.”
Why should we be diligent to make our calling and
election sure if these were made sure in the past, once and for all,
the moment we believed? Because that moment we started in the
faith, but this faith has to also take roots; it has to be
supplemented; it has to become fruitful. And Peter continues:
2 Peter 1:11
“For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into
the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
“For so” means “by these means”, “in this way”, “because
of this” will an entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior shall be ministered to us abundantly. Because of what?
Because of what we read in the preceding verses: because of
making every effort to supplement our faith with what Peter told
us, which in turn means that we did not become ineffective and
unfruitful but we were diligent to make our calling and election
sure. By these means, for this reason, will be given to us an
abundant entrance into the Kingdom of God.
Now the above brings to my mind the following thought
and question: does it mean that those who were diligent to make
their faith a fruitful faith, as the fourth category of the parable of
the sower did, will get a very warm welcome into the Kingdom of
God, but those who did not do this and who were or became
fruitless will also get an entrance but a rather cool one? A look
back to chapters 2 and 3 and to the sayings of the King shows who
He will welcome. And from what I read my understanding is that
only the ready ones will be welcomed. This does not mean that
only faultless and sinless will get into the Kingdom. There is none
like this, except the Lord Himself. What it means is that we are
alerted, that we take care of our faith, trying to live it out. It is one
thing though to try to live out our faith and fall here and there and
quite another if someone lives out, practices, sin as a habit and
way of life, ignoring whatever faith he had. Neither the 5 fool
virgins, nor the unfruitful servant, nor the one that abandoned the
vine will find the door of the Kingdom open. Let these be for us
examples for avoidance.
Therefore, may we take care of our faith and despite our
mistakes and failures may we supplement it “with virtue, and
virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control
with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and
godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with
love ….. For in this way there will be richly provided for us an
entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.”
5.14. PHILIPPIANS 2:12-16: “WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION WITH
FEAR AND TREMBLING”
The next passage we will look at is Philippians 2:12-16. There we read:
Philippians 2:12-16
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not
only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works
in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all
things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless
and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a
crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights
in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ
I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”
walk like a follower, a disciple, of Christ. Now, is this optional? Is
it a nice thing to do but never mind if it does not happen? Well the
phrase “with fear and trembling” does not sound optional. This
phrase means that we should take the working out, the practicing,
of our faith, very seriously; so seriously to the point of fear and
trembling. To use the words that we saw Peter using in the
previous section: we should “make every effort”.
Furthermore, Paul tells the Philippians to “hold fast to the
word of life”. If they did this, then in the day of Christ he would
be proud that he did not run or labor in vain. This in turn means
that if they did not hold fast to the Word, the labor of Paul would
indeed be in vain. And the question is why? If these people,
regardless of what happened to their faith after they believed,
regardless of whether or not they held fast to the Word and
abided in the vine, would be in the Kingdom of God, then the
work of Paul would not be in vain, wasted. Correct? Some made it
into the Kingdom and this is not vain at all. Personally the only
reasonable explanation I have for this is that if the Philippians did
not hold fast to the Word, abiding in the vine, then they would not
be in the Kingdom and yes then Paul’s labor would be in vain, like
it never happened.
5.15. 1 TIMOTHY 6:10-16: THE LOVE OF MONEY
In 1 Timothy 6:10 we find a further example of people who
wandered away from the faith: those who loved money.
1 Timothy 6:10
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through
this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced
themselves with many pangs.“
“Wandered away” is the Greek word “apeplanithisan”
and it means “to be led astray, to be seduced”. People who have
wandered away, were once walking on the right path but then,
because of a deception they followed through, they were led
astray, they wandered away. As Paul says, the people he is
speaking about here “wandered away from the faith”, which
consequently means that they were once in it.
The deceitfulness of riches will cause those deceived by it
to wander away from the faith. Using the parable of the vine in
John 15, this is equal to wandering away from the vine. In turn
this will make them unfruitful – third category of the parable of
the sower – as there is no way to bear fruit without abiding in the
vine5. Finally, if there is no true repentance and return, the end
will be removal from the vine and classification of these
“branches” with what will be burned (John 15:2, 6).
Concerning the love of money, it is obvious that it is a
lethal enemy to the faith; it is a faith killer of the first degree. God
does provide material blessings for the covering of our needs, but
wanting to become rich, wanting to be “blessed” with riches is not
something we should do. Instead here is what we should do:
5 In any case, the deceitfulness of riches is mentioned explicitly in the parable of
the sower as a thorn and a cause of unfruitfulness.
Hebrews 13:5-6
“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you
have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So
we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear;
what can man do to me?"
Are we doing this? Are we content with what we have? Is
our life free from the love of money or we are running after
riches? Let us think and make any adjustments needed.
5.15.1. On God as a blessing machine. Is He really something
like this?
To make a digression from what we saw in this section, it
is surprising to me that, given the solemn warnings of the
Scripture concerning the desire to become rich, this very desire is
cultivated from the pulpits of some churches and quite frequently
through so called Christian Media and preachers shown in them.
So people are taught and told to give abundantly to the so and so
ministry (many times this happens under the non-valid threat of
the tithe – see also my book: “Tithing, giving and the New
Testament”) with the promise that if they do this then God is
obliged to “bless” them financially. Thus God is seen as a blessing
machine where from the one side one puts his money and his
“believing” (by “believing” what is usually meant is positive
confessions through which the person that makes them tries to
persuade himself that what he is asking will happen) and from the
other side God pours out, in exchange, His blessings, with health
and wealth be among the chief of them. However as it is clear
from the Scriptures, as well as from tradition, none of the apostles
nor of course Christ were rich. In fact according to tradition, all
apostles save John were assassinated because of their faith.
Despite this fact the churches of the preachers of the prosperity
gospel are filled with thousands. And though I do not have
numbers to support it, I am sure that they will go through a very
big trial when they find out - and I believe they will find it out -
that God, despite His mercy, patience and grace does not work
like a blessing machine. You cannot put God in a box as
essentially the preachers of the prosperity gospel present it. I wish
this was a fiction story, but unfortunately it is not. It happens now
and to many. I feel for all these people, for I was one of them,
moved away by promises of people that my life would essentially
be without problems and exactly as I wanted it. But at one point in
my life I came to realize the hard way that I was deceived. I
realized then that I had to submit to God instead of God
submitting to me. Also I realized that in Acts 12, before the widely
known and widely preached record of Peter being miraculously
delivered from the prison, you have the record of the apostle
James, the brother of John, killed by the sword. The one apostle
was delivered while the other was not. At the end even the one
who was delivered (Peter) died, after some years, a martyr’s
death, exactly like James did. Some also forget this. The idea some
have in their mind, is that God will deliver them from every small
difficulty so that they can go on living in their “blessings” forever
and ever and die happily (by this they mean rich, healthy etc.) at
an old age. Suffering for Christ has not even crossed their mind,
for in their view God is there to deliver them out of all suffering.
And yet the Bible says (and this is just a sample):
Romans 8:16-17
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are
children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we
may also be glorified with him.”
2 Timothy 2:3
“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus”
2 Timothy 3:12
“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted”
Acts 14:21-22
“And when they [Paul and Barnabas] had preached the gospel to
that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and
to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and
exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through
much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”
Many think that suffering is not relevant to them, for
Christ has already suffered for them. They will declare with
boldness the first part of Romans 8:16-17 i.e. that “we are children
of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs
with Christ”. But the passage does not stop there. It carries on
with a “provided”, with an “if”, a condition for the above:
“provided we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with
him”. Suffering for Christ’s sake is a honor. What happened to
James and to almost all the apostles (martyrdom) was a honor and
not a mishappening. The apostles themselves saw suffering for
Christ’s sake as something to rejoice in:
Acts 5:40-41
“and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and
charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were
counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.”
In the light of the above, I would like to ask us a question.
Tacitus was a Roman historian and eyewitness to the first state run
persecution started by Nero (64-67 AD). He wrote about the
events:
"In their very deaths they [he means the arrested Christians] were
made the subjects of sport: for they were covered with the hides of
wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or
set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the
evening lights. Nero offered his gardens for this spectacle”
(Chronicles, Book XV, para. 44).
Christians were put on fire as evening lights in Nero’s
garden! Can we really picture this? My question now: what would
we do if a soldier came to our house to take us away from our
family and “blessings” and put us on fire, unless we denied the
Lord? Would we go? Or would we deny the Lord and the faith to
save our blessings, because we perhaps believe that this Lord,
since He is so much of love, would just choose to close His eyes?
What would we do if God did not grant the most precious desire
we have (spouse, kids, job, health etc.)? I do not say that He will
not. I speak hypothetically. Would we still follow Him with no
conditions attached? Let each one of us answer for himself.
5.15.2. On false teachers
Forgive me for continuing in this digression, but here it is
perhaps a good opportunity to give some more information
concerning false teachers. Peter spoke about them in 2 Peter 2:
2 Peter 2:1-3
“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will
be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive
heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing
upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their
sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you: Their condemnation from long ago is not idle,
and their destruction is not asleep.” (ESV-KJV)
“Many will follow their sensuality”: false teachers have
apparently a large following. They are popular. Contrast this with
the narrow gate that leads to life. It is not many who find it but
few. The many go through the broad gate.
Matthew 7:13-14
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is
easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and
those who find it are few.”
The fact that somebody is a popular preacher does not
necessarily mean that he is also a true teacher. It may well be that
he is a false teacher and in fact his popularity is just because of
this: because he gives the people an entrance through the broad
gate and the easy way and many like this entrance and thus
follow him.
Furthermore as Peter tells us: “and because of them the way
of truth will be blasphemed”. There is only one way of truth and
this is the “hard way that leads to life”. It is the way through the
narrow gate. This way, the true and genuine Christianity, will be
blasphemed. It will be perhaps branded as “religion”, “legalism”
etc. as opposed to the “freedom” and the “grace” (but cheap,
falsified grace and not the grace of the Word) these false teachers
promise. Also, the world, seeing these impostors and thinking
that they are what they pretend to be (“Christians”), will come to
wrong conclusions about Christianity as a whole, again causing
the way of truth to be blasphemed. And Peter continues:
2 Peter 2:18-19
“For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions
of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in
error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of
corruption.”
“Freedom” is the main promise they sell but their
promises are lies, for they themselves are slaves of corruption.
And why do they do this? What is their motive? Again Peter gives
us the answer:
2 Peter 2:3
“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you”
I took this part from the KJV. The old translations use the
above rendering, which corresponds exactly to what the Greek
text says. The newer versions have the part “they with feigned
words make merchandise of you” as “they will exploit you with
false words”, rendering the Greek verb “emporeuomai” as “to
exploit”. However this verb does not mean to exploit but “to
trade, buy and sell, make merchandise” (Strong’s dictionary). In
other words, a characteristic of a false teacher is that he is greedy
and in his greed he makes merchandise of the people of God. I do
not know about you but to me this speaks volumes. Do you see
“preachers” amassing huge property (including but not restricted
to super luxury homes, jets, luxury cars, huge salaries etc.) all
through “preaching”? I would say: run away! You do not need to
hear anything else. This is the fruit of a greedy, false teacher who
has merchandised the people of God, extorting “offerings” from
them6, selling them bogus books (many of them written by ghost
writers), conferences and “advice” for big fees. “By the fruit you
will know them” the Lord said and greed is a definite fruit of a
false teacher that one can ignore only at his peril.
Now the greedy, false teacher “who perverts the grace of
our God into a license for immorality and deny our only Master
and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4) is not the only kind of false
teacher. There is another one, in the other extreme and this is the
kind which had plagued the churches in Galatia and was active in
other churches too. Their teaching? That Christians should keep
the law of Moses (see the book of Galatians), that they should
abstain from foods (Hebrews 13:9), that they should not marry (1
Timothy 4:1-4), that they should “observe days, months and
seasons” (Galatians 4:10), that they should worship angels
__________________________
6 Usually under the threat of tithing and the supposed horrible things that will
happen to the followers if they do not give their tithe to the “ministry” (more
accurate would be “business”) of the preacher.
(Colossians 2:18) instead of God only, through the Lord Jesus
Christ, that they should call to other mediators instead of the only
“one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1
Timothy 2:5) etc. Those who were preaching or preach such things
are false teachers too doing the same thing, as those on the other
side: leading people astray, from the true Word of God, this time
through false “humility” and “intruding into those things which
they have not seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind”
(Colossians 2:18 – KJV).
Therefore, false teachers appear basically as two extremes:
the one extreme is a perversion of the grace of God, turning it into
a license for immorality, while the other is legalism, and following
- through a cover up of false humility - after practices that God
never intended. We need to beware of both.
To close this section, I would like to add the following
clarification: though a false teacher messes up God’s Word,
mishandling it for selfish purposes, this does not mean that a
Christian who makes a mistake in teaching God’s Word is by
definition a false teacher. As James says:
James 3:1-2a
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you
know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For
we all stumble in many ways.”
“We all stumble in many ways”, says James, referring to
teachers and very graciously including himself also. Making a
mistake in teaching the Word of God does not necessarily make
somebody a false teacher. Else we would all be false teachers, for
according to James we all stumble in many ways. The truth is that
we all learn and as we learn more, we may have to go back and
teach more accurately what we had taught in the past. I am
thankful to God that He does not wait until we reach perfection
before He can use us! A false teacher is not somebody who,
despite his sincerity and respect for the Word of God, makes a
mistake in teaching it. The mistake of the false teacher is not “just
a mistake”. It is something much bigger. There is indeed a huge
difference between making “just a mistake” and “perverting the
grace of God into a license for immorality” (Jude 4) or “speaking
twisted things to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30)
or “through covetousness make with feigned words merchandise
of the people of God” (2 Peter 2:3). The former, the one who
makes “just a mistake” is not a false teacher, but a disciple that
needs to fix his message (example here: Apollos in Acts 18: he did
not have a 100% correct message but he got it fixed). The latter
though, is indeed a false teacher, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, an
exploiter of the people of God who leads them astray and after
himself. And though it is easy to imagine these exploiters as
complete outsiders to the faith, this is not always so. Some of them
are people who though they had started in the Lord they
apostatized from Him afterwards. 2 Peter 2 devotes a large part to
them. I have left the related passages, as well as the similar ones
from Jude, for the end of this chapter. For the time being let us go
to Galatians.
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