false teaching

There are a lot of different things said about God these days, ranging from “He doesn’t exist,” to “He’s going to take everyone to heaven.” Most of them are obviously wrong, but sometimes it’s hard to be certain. Are people bringing us true words of God or not?

It turns out there’s a way to know that, too. John tells us how, in 1 John 4:6: “We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

Ever notice there are some people you can’t even talk to? They dismiss everything you say at best; at worst they won’t even discuss things with you. Well, John says that’s a surefire way to identify a false prophet.

That’s because humility is a consistent trait of God’s true servants. No real Christian will ever refuse to sit and seek the truth from scripture with you, or pray over your differences. People who are really living close to God will be gentle and patient in persuading you, and will also be open to counsel themselves. 

So, no mic-drops between Christian brothers and sisters. No one-way conversations or lectures. No final words or destroying opponents or shutting them down. Jesus-followers are always willing to listen to others.

You can see why it’s a clear way to spot someone bringing false teachings. It’s so counter-cultural, so radically different from the way everyone else acts.

It’s also a good way to tell when we’re getting off track. When we’d rather shut down someone else than listen, it’s a good time to ask if we’re talking truth or just our opinion or preference.

how we know

I think every Christian wonders once in a while whether he or she is really saved. Often, we wonder because we look at the way we live, or maybe just all the things hidden inside.

When we do that, we’re on the right track. Look at this from 2 John 3:24: “The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”

There is, John says, a way to know for sure. If we sense the Spirit, then we know that we belong to Jesus. The Spirit, after all, is a way we know the triune God, so that evidence is as conclusive as it gets.

But how do we know if the Spirit is in us? Well, Paul told us that in Ephesians. He explained that the Spirit will produce fruit in our lives, and he even told us what that fruit would be. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

You see why we wonder?

Sometimes, in traffic or at work or when we disagree at church, we don’t see the fruit. Those are barren seasons, times of no harvest. Our spiritual tree seems bare. But even in those bad times, there are signs of green life.

Because other times we see fruit. Maybe not on every branch, and maybe it isn’t very big. But sometimes we’re thoughtful and kind and generous. Sometimes we have gentle words instead of harsh ones, and joyful thoughts instead of cynical ones. Sometimes we promote peace instead of conflict. On certain days we can even wait patiently instead of demanding answers or solutions. And we know, because that’s not how we are by ourselves, that the Spirit is at work.

There is a way to know for sure. Jesus himself told us you’ll never get good fruit from a bad tree.

adjectives

One of the rules we were taught in office training was this: write it first with no adjectives or adverbs. Just verbs and nouns, subjects and objects. That will communicate information at it’s most basic. Then, add the descriptors only where the basic message doesn’t communicate adequately. It’s hard to do, but in a bureaucracy like the government rules encouraging plain communication are helpful.

Maybe for that reason, I tend to pay attention to the absence of adjectives. Those missing words caught my eye this morning in 1 John 2:9-11: “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”

Notice there are no adjectives related to “brother or sister.” It doesn’t say good or godly or honest or friendly or hard-working or beautiful. It doesn’t say bad or untrustworthy. There is nothing here to hint at whether our brothers or sisters deserve love or hatred.

I can’t believe the Holy Spirit, guiding John in this letter, was not aware that an adjective is a good way to add necessary meaning. Instead, it seems more likely that in this case adjectives would add nothing at all. If true, that would mean that to John, and to God, the degree to which our brothers and sisters deserve love or hatred has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

This isn’t about them, it’s about me. Showing love proves I’m a person of the light, a person close to God. Hatred shows the opposite. This isn’t about what others do to provoke a reaction in me, it’s about how I reflect God’s nature to people around me. God is love, therefore Christians love.

I wanted there to be adjectives because I’d like this piece of God’s word to give me a little more wiggle room than this. But it doesn’t.

light and darkness

My dad used to say, “Nothing good happens after midnight.” He’d say that when we were discussing my curfew, so I don’t think he was making any grand metaphysical statements, but regardless how narrow the scope of his argument, it captured a core truth. Bad things happen in the dark because bad people don’t like to be seen.

The John used darkness and light as a major theme in his letters, starting right away in 1 John 1:5-7: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

I sometimes think of God as a flame. Close to him there is light and warmth, but the farther you walk from the fire, the more shadows there are. Eventually you move out of the light and into the darkness where no one can see you.

But here’s the thing: you can’t be in the darkness and be in the light. You have to choose either the fire or the dark. In the same way, if you metaphorically live your life in the darkness, you can’t claim to be a child of the light. If you shun the firelight and love the shadow, that reveals what you really are.

That’s because evil cannot exist where God is, just as bright light drives away darkness. In fact, darkness isn’t actually a thing by itself; darkness is just the absence of light. Anywhere light goes, darkness recedes. Darkness has no power whatsoever against light.

That’s really cool, for this reason: even a small candle, like I am compared to God, pushes back the darkness. When I’m close to God there is no darkness at all. When I enter someone else’s darkness, even my little bit of reflected God-light is enough to start pushing the evil back.

Light and dark are absolute opposites, which is why no matter what we say, our deeds show our true selves. True Christians are drawn close to the light; anyone who is drawn to the dark therefore is lying if he claims to be a Christian.

So the key is to make my actions and my affinities, the things I’m attracted to, prove my claims to be a Jesus-follower. And if that’s hard, I’d better start digging into why.

spotless

It’s been a long time since I was a cadet (officer in training, not Calvinist Cadet Corps, which was even longer). I was reminded just how long recently when I listened to a young former officer talk on one of the news networks. This young man obviously went through a different training regimen than I did.

When I went through, personal honor was a big deal. Right was right and wrong was wrong, situational ethics were not a thing, and officers were expected to do the right thing. “An officer does not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do.” The military code of honor and your personal code of honor defined who you were, and officers routinely did hard things to ensure there wasn’t the hint of a blot on their honor. 

I don’t think I have to explain why this way of training and thinking makes me feel old. We’re in a different world now.

We shouldn’t be, but not because of out-dated notions of military honor. 2 Peter 3:14 says, “So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.”

The “this” that Peter explains we’re looking forward to is the culmination of our salvation in heaven. But his expectation is the same as my tac officers all those years ago: not a spot on my name. Blameless behavior. Not because my own name is so important, but because I bear the name of Jesus. 

God’s standards are higher than any expectation I faced as a cadet, yet I’m far less concerned about an occasional smudge on my Christian honor. I care enough not to let others see them, but I know God can tell. I need to think about that. 

springs without water

Boy, Peter really didn’t like false teachers. Anyone who argued a different way of life than following Jesus was a bad person in Peter’s book.

Look at the names he has for them just in 2 Peter 2: followers of corrupt desires, bold and arrogant, blasphemers, unreasoning animals (born only to be caught and destroyed), blots and blemishes, experts in greed, an accursed brood, springs without water, mists driven by a storm, slaves of depravity, dogs that return to their own vomit, sows that return to wallowing in the mud.

Is Peter too hard on people? Because we’re more tolerant than that. We call them unfortunate and misguided. We say they’re just followers of a different lifestyle, making different choices than us. We say they have illnesses or disadvantages. But we would never use harsh terms like the ones Peter used.

I can put a name to drunks and partiers, to idolaters and adulterers, to atheists and syncretists and greedy people and power-mongers who live their lives unchallenged as part of our churches and communities. It’s probably OK that we don’t challenge unbelievers in the community, but I wonder if we shouldn’t be bolder calling out sin in the church.

Because isn’t that a courageous form of love? Peter not only is right, he points out in verses 4 through 10 of 2 Peter 2 how God has judged unrighteousness in the past. Do we really not love each other enough to want to save each other?

Because Peter isn’t saying sinners aren’t worthy of love. He says God’s wayward people are so precious that anyone who lures them away from God through bad teaching or bad examples is an especially heinous person. Peter is against all those voices in our culture who, like the woman Folly in Proverbs 9, lure others to join them in their sin.

Here’s the thing I’m wrestling with this morning, though: when we as the church wink at sin in the church, we may not be encouraging it but we aren’t discouraging it either. So when have we crossed the line and become springs without water ourselves?

everything we need

I don’t always have life together, but when I don’t, it’s my own fault. God provides generously, and he has never shorted me the things I need.

Peter put it this way, in 2 Peter 1:3-4: “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

I don’t lack anything necessary to live well and please God. I have it all. If I don’t live that way, it’s because I didn’t do my part. If I work at knowing God better, then I’ll remember and tap into everything he’s promised me. That’s what Peter reminds me of here, that knowing God and his promise in some mysterious way helps us be more like God and less like this world. 

So on my hard days, I can remember that God has promised that he has a plan to prosper me, and that he’ll work all things together for my good. I can recall his promise to always give me a way out of temptation. I can remember his promise to be a loving God who provides for me. And if I remember those things, then I can live the way God wants me to live. I’ll be able to resist evil desires and escape corruption.

Everything I need, if I just live out what I know to be true about God and what he’s committed to. But I have to have that knowledge to start with. If I’m not spending time reading about him and getting to know him personally, I won’t have anything to fall back on.

As with so many things, it comes back to Scripture and prayer.