Dealing With False Teachers

II Peter 2:1-3 warned that there would be false teachers among every group.  In the story of the tares among the wheat in Matthew 13, Jesus said essentially the same thing in his explanation in Matthew 13:37-39.   “He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.”  Satan deliberately introduces false teachers to distract and mislead God’s people with controversies or as Peter calls them, damnable heresies. 

In the parable, when the tares were discovered the laborers wanted to go out and pull them up.  The farmer told them not to in Matthew 13:29-30.  “But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”  Their efforts to eradicate the tares were likely to destroy the wheat as well. 

When we identify false teachers, we have a tendency to attack and discredit them, but doing so often turns away those who ae undecided or have been misled.  Paul instructs us to take the same approach the landowner used, in Titus 3:10-11.  “A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.”  If they refuse to listen after a couple of efforts to show them the truth, Paul; says we are to recognize they have been turned aside to follow Satan, and we should simply with draw from them, avoiding contact so that there is no question of our accepting their doctrine. 

We do not need to worry about the false prophets defeating God’s power.  In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “… upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  Peter 2:9-16 explains.  “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:  Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;  But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.” 

God is far more qualified to judge the false teachers than we are.  They walk in the power of the flesh, despising anything that limits them.  They do not hesitate to slander those in authority, or who do right, having no clue about the spiritual world, but are as ignorant as a bunch of wild animals.  They take great pleasure in passing themselves off as believing the same things while they seek to turn people away from the truth in an effort to get what they want, just like Balaam did in Numbers 22-24.    

While they may fool people for a while, eventually the truth will come out, according to II Peter 2:17-22.  “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.’

They make wonderful sounding promises that appeal to people’s natural desires, even attracting some who have been saved.  Eventually people begin to see that the promises are meaningless, and that even the teachers are slaves to same sins and problems they have, because they go back and do them.  Unfortunately they may cause some who claim to have been saved to go back into their old sins, leaving them worse off than they were before, as Hebrews 6:4-6 tells us.   “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”

Romans 16:17-18 instructs, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.   For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”  When we realize someone is teaching contrary to what God says, we are to stop fellowshipping with them, realizing they are no longer serving God, but realizing it is not our place to try to change them or destroy them.