‘What is truth?’
Those men are not true apostles – they are false apostles, who lie about their work and disguise themselves to look like real apostles of Christ. Well, no wonder! Even Satan can disguise himself to look like an angel of light! So it is no great thing if his servants disguise themselves to look like servants of righteousness. In the end they will get exactly what their actions deserve. (verses 13-15)
Jesus warned his followers to beware of false prophets. Paul here gives the same warning to the church at Corinth. And both give the warning to us in our day.
It is out of fashion to claim that one religion in our age of multiculturalism, has the truth, the only way to God. People, including many Christians, are being seduced by aspects of eastern religions, where the emphasis is on striving to earn your own salvation. And the New Age ideas of ‘the divine self’ are seductive and are even taught in some churches as being Christian. And, in Christian churches, some leaders pander to the ‘sophistication’ of the age by denying the resurrection and Jesus’ miracles.
So how do we know who is genuine? One way is for a church to continue to teach pastors to study God’s word in great depth, according to tried and true guidelines. The other is for laypeople also to know their Bibles and to make sure all teaching points to Jesus and his work for us. Only if we know what we really believe can we be alert to false teaching.
And we have God’s own promise that his word will never fail; the gates of hell cannot overcome it.
Father, grant that I may have such a thirst for your word that I will not be deceived by those who teach falsely. Amen.
by Robert Turnbull, in ‘Renewed Hope for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2000)
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