The Lost ARt of Discernment

The Lost Art of Discernment
2 John 7-11
“Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward…If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting.”
In our age of information, influencers, and the internet, we can easily fall prey to false teachers.  Their message is appealing, for they proclaim what we want to hear.  While how their message is proclaimed is new, their message itself is not.  From the very beginning of the church, false teachers have influenced people and drawn them away from the gospel of Christ.  John writes to this small church to warn them that there are many deceivers in the world and even within the church.  Therefore, he warns them not to have any association with them.  Yet the challenge we face is how to distinguish false teachers from those that are genuine.  Within the pages of scripture, we find characteristics of their teaching that enable us to identify their error.

First, false teaching rejects and distorts the Scriptures. Their message is grounded in the wisdom of men rather than the message of. God.  In Jeremiah 23:16, Jeremiah warns of those who come proclaiming their own words rather than God’s.  In other words, instead of confronting and condemning sin, they justify sin and promise God’s blessing.  Their message is inconsistent with the message of the Bible, and they distort the truth to gain a following. Instead of calling people to obey Christ, they distort and reject the passages they disagree with.  They preach “their” message rather than God’s message.

Second, false teaching is not Christ-centered.  Instead of affirming the deity of Christ and that faith in Christ is necessary for salvation, they affirm all religions (1 John 4:1-6).  They reject the reality of hell and the certainty of judgment and promote universal salvation for all.  The grace of God does not mean that everyone will be saved but that the offer of salvation is available to all.  However, to receive this salvation, we must accept the message of Christ (1 Peter 2).

Third, false teachers promote salvation based on our works rather than God’s grace.  Like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, they encourage legalism, which is the belief that a person can obtain heaven by their effort. They fail to recognize that salvation is grounded in faith in Christ.

Fourth, they reject the morality of scripture. Instead of calling people to a holy life in conformity to God’s character and the teaching of scripture,  they promote immorality and sexual perversion.  Instead of teaching the scriptures, they justify their sin by claiming that the Bible is distorted by the writer’s cultural bias and must be deconstructed and reinterpreted for the modern reader (Romans 16:18; 2 Peter 2:2; Jude 16).

Last, while claiming to be from God, they promote themselves and their own agenda.  They are marked by pride rather than humility.  Instead of seeking to promote Christ, they promote themselves (1 Timothy 1:6-7; 1 Tim. 6:3-4).

Who we listen to is who we will become.  Therefore, we need to be discerning and evaluate people's messages.  Does it affirm us or transform us?  Does it point to obedience to God’s word or justify why our actions that contradict God’s word?  Is it Christ-centered, or is it man-centered?  Does it proclaim the totality of God’s message or only messages we want to hear?  Does it call us to surrender to Christ or make excuses for not obeying Christ?  The one thing we should not tolerate is those who distort and reject the teachings of Christ and the Bible.