To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 11:4 “For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”

Are you gullible?  Surely, no one wants to think that they are, but the truth is that some, perhaps many, are very gullible – otherwise we wouldn’t have warnings like the one in the verse above. 

Have you looked at the things available to watch on “Christian” TV of late?  There are so many channels to choose from. As I’ve perused these channels, I’m amazed at how few teach sound biblical truth. Many of the teachers are focused on ways to pry money from their viewers’ wallets. Invariably, they ask for money within a few minutes of turning on the program.  Others are given to fanciful dreams, visions, and all kinds of prophesies, none of which are rooted in any Biblical truth.  Yet there are apparently thousands of people flocking to these shows and services either in person or by way of giving to the so-called “ministries” that keep the programs up and running.  How can this be?  What in the world is going on? 

Then there are all the church scandals, reprehensible conduct by pastors and priests, yet people continue to follow along, supporting such “ministries” with their money and presence.  And of course, there is the deception of promised health and wealth for those who support the pastors and their flamboyantly claims.  Surely it’s all rooted in biblical illiteracy as one cause. 

Paul warned the church at Corinth of these things, and his warning extends to us in that God has made certain that his words have been preserved for us.  Paul warned them, and us, that succumbing to such false teaching does nothing but “make slaves . . . devour . . . and take advantage of” those taken in by it (2 Corinthians 11:20).  The Pharisees were known for “devouring widows houses” (Mark 12:40), i.e., they were experts at squeezing money from the poorest people in the society by their underhanded religious schemes.  And no wonder, in that they were all being motivated by the one who has come only “to kill and steal and destroy” (John 10:10). 

May God help us to resist the temptation to follow the smooth talkers, the charismatic, the self-promoting and confident-sounding men and women who are doing nothing other than preaching another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel than the Truth.  Jesus warned that there is a broad way that leads to destruction and many are going that way.  It’s the way of the crowd, the way of the gullible, the way of those who have little discernment regarding the things they listen to.  By contrast, the way to life is narrow, and the few there be that find it are those who are careful to always compare what they hear with the Truth of God’s Word, meditate on that Truth, and believe and obey what God has said, for He’s the One and only One who has come to give us life.