March 16

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” —EPHESIANS 4:14

Throughout its history, the church has had to contend with many false teachings, and Scripture warns us about this. Countless people are deceived, especially in the popular materialist doctrines that include prosperity and physical well-being, which may be partially true, but is not the message of the Gospel.

Why are many blown around so easily? Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:12-13 that we need to reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, so there are two reasons – we do not know the faith and we do not know Christ in the way we need to know Him. ‘Faith’ is active trust in the Lord Jesus, and the term, ‘the faith’, is used in the New Testament of the body of Christian doctrine that constitutes the essentials we need to believe and live by. It concerns the nature of God and humanity; why it is humanity and God are separated, and the means whereby humanity is reconciled to God. These are essentials which are often deviated from, which is largely because we live in a world that operates outside of the truths of Christian doctrine. Consequently, huge barriers are set up between Christians and the world we want to reach. 

The two biggest barriers we face today are doctrinal and ethical. The doctrinal one is the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This is an exclusive statement Jesus makes of Himself, which closes the door to every other avenue of salvation. Ethically, the barriers are primarily in the area of sexuality, in which today’s culture is drastically alien to Scripture. An issue can be so fixed in society that we try to find a way around it by taking passages out of context, which construes the meaning in order to back up the issue. It is basically treating the word of God like play dough, and reshaping it to fit the norm in society today. 

We live at the end of twenty centuries of Bible study, debate and discussion, and we must connect our roots with those that go deep. Billy Graham was once told that his style of evangelism had put the church back 50 years. His response was they had failed then, because their goal was to put the church back 2,000 years, right to its roots. The best antidote to error and deception isn’t in getting to knowing them all, but in knowing the truth, and then, says Paul, we will not be blown away by every wind of teaching.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, help me to stand rock solid in your word, and to know and understand it, so that I am not blown away by other ‘winds of teaching’. Thank You, Lord.

TO REFLECT UPON: Am I spending quiet time reading and meditating on the word of God?