Two ways to look at it....

Today we are continuing to look at the question that many unbelievers and believers alike can struggle with - why is the coming of the Lord delayed?
We mentioned last time that there are two ways to look at this: a right way and a wrong way!

The wrong way is the way of unbelief. We find it laid out in verses 3-7:

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (V 3-7)

The scoffers almost seem to have the same view of the Deists, many years ago. A good metaphor for what the Deists believed is that God was a very skilled clock-maker who formed the earth and wound it up -- then He walked away and left it ticking along on its own. But Peter says they forget two three things..... he also says they "deliberately" forget, and we mentioned yesterday that they push these concepts aside. They wish to ignore them.
But it's hard to ignore that in the beginning, the earth, the water, and the dry land was formed suddenly and solely by His word. He simply spoke and they came into being. And then, instead of walking away from that ticking clock, He intervened in the time of Noah.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:5-8)

He looked and observed wickedness rampant in the earth. And He also saw that Noah walked justly and righteously in the midst of the sin. He saved the eight members of Noah's family, and two of every living thing upon the earth. Does this sound like He walked away and took no notice of man's activities in the world that He created?
Nope!
The flood waters came. The deluge happened. The world "that then existed" was deluged and perished. Then the rainbow -- the promise of God that He would not allow this again.
But we don't need to "forget" that there is another intervention coming! This time it will be the judgment of our holy God, and it will come by means of fire (v 7).

So what is the right way to view His delay in coming?
Let's review verses 8-10:

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. (II Peter 3:8-10)

There it is!
One reason that God is delaying Jesus' return is that He is holding off in patience for sinners. God offers through the gospel a sincere invitation to all to turn away from their sins (to repent) and to come to Christ (to believe on Him).

God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (I Timothy 2:3a-4)

He wants all to have the opportunity to be saved, and He will save those who ask:

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10) 

This free gift is the gospel message that we are to keep proclaiming:

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. (Revelation 22:17)

There are some God means to save who are not saved yet. Aren't we glad that He waited for us? Oh yes!
Then we should rightly rejoice that He is delaying judgment for the sake of many others, yet to be saved.
Verse ten also tells us that He is holding to His plan for sin.

For God will bring every deed into judgment,    including every hidden thing,
    whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:14)

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. (Luke 12:2)

He has not walked away. He is not unaware of what is happening. He is not asleep.

but they do not realize    that I remember all their evil deeds.
Their sins engulf them;    they are always before me. (Hosea 7:2)

He is observing. He is waiting. He is patient.
But His plan for sin and for sinners has not changed.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

It's our responsibility - our joyful task - to spread the word!

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. (Romans 1:16)

Verses that inspire

A verse in I Corinthians stood out when I was reading:

So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit,but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. (I Corinthians 14:15)

Do we always pray "with understanding?"
Do we sing "with understanding?"
I guess sometimes the reason that we think we've not seen answers to our prayers is that we are (without meaning to, sometimes) praying outside of the will of our Father. We are praying without understanding exactly what we're asking for, or what the consequences will be.
The reason that verse stuck with me is that I was thinking of some old, familiar hymns that we may sing without "understanding." Sometimes the words and phrases are not what we hear much today - it can make it hard to know exactly what the hymn-writer was trying to say.

How many times have we sung, "Here I raise my Ebeneezer..." and not really thought about what it meant? (Grin)
I'm guessing that many folks today probably have an immediate mental image of whichever "Christmas Carol" movie they have seen -- they imagine Ebeneezer Scrooge berating poor Tom Cratchit for putting that one piece of coal on the fire to warm his numbed fingers; not to mention that a little warmth would thaw out the ink so he could write his figures!

Hmmmm. That's obviously not what the writer meant.
Let's look in our Bibles.....

When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. When the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. 8 They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” 9 Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.
10 While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. 11 The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar.12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”13 So the Philistines were subdued and they stopped invading Israel’s territory. Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. (I Samuel 7:7-13)

Fearing for their lives, the people begged Samuel to pray for them in their impending battle against the Philistines. God listened to Samuel and caused the Philistines not only to lose the battle, but to retreat. To go home!

The scholars tell us the word "Ebeneezer" means "stone of help." It's a monument, a stone set up to signify the great help that God granted. I guess we can't go around raising up monuments for all the times that God helps us, but our lives and our words can be a testimony!
We can acknowledge His blessings and help in our lives, both when talking to unbelievers and to believers. Don't be embarrassed! Speak right up!

I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly;    I do not seal my lips, Lord,    as you know. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;    I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help.I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness    from the great assembly. (Psalm 40:9-10)

The next time we sing "Come thou Fount of many blessings..." we can sing with the understanding that we are praising God for His help in our lives!

Starting II Peter 3

Sometimes when new believers begin to read books of our Bible, they wonder why the book was written. Peter leaves no doubt as to why he wrote his letters!  Especially why he wrote this second one:

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. (II Peter 3:1-2, NIV)

We mentioned before that Peter most likely wrote this to the churches of Asia Minor (we find evidence for that in I Peter 1:1) which is now present-day Turkey. Jewish Christian believers had been scattered across the northern part of Asia Minor after persecution both from the Jews in Jerusalem and the Romans. The scholars tell us that it was written in about 67AD, after Peter had escaped the outbreak of war in Jerusalem and had arrived in Rome. (We know it's Rome because of the "special code" that is used, calling the city "Babylon." Peter sends his own greetings and greetings from John Mark (the author of the gospel), who stayed with Paul when he was under house arrest. We aren't certain who carried the letter, but some say it could have been John Mark.

So Peter, in a Roman jail, writes to encourage and warn these believers. His first letter serves as a defense against threats from outside the church, but the second focuses on defense against threats from within the body of believers . . . namely, false teachers, as we studied last week:

 False prophets appeared in the past among the people, and in the same way false teachers will appear among you. They will bring in destructive, untrue doctrines, and will deny the Master who redeemed them, and so they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction. (II Peter 2:1, GNT)

And also scoffers, who we will study this week.

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. (II Peter 3:3, NIV)

Since this letter was written so close to the time of his death, it could be viewed as Peter's farewell.  He has announced that he is near the end of his earthly life; he has reminded the Christians of what he has taught them; he has commanded the believers how to live -- now he is warning them of future events.

As we look at this chapter, we will see that Peter is concerned primarily with the issue of Christ Jesus' second coming, and the delay (or perceived delay that some believers were concerned about) before the event. There were false teachers who were claiming that it would never happen. (Does that sound familiar? Some people say that today, too!)

Peter explains their "deliberate oversight" and says that they alter doctrine to justify their own sinful desires:

They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (II Peter 3:4-7, NIV)

Did you notice that? He says they "deliberately forget."  So these are folks who know better, and in order to follow their own desires (v 3) they push those thoughts away.
Then he begins to encourage and exhort the Christians to understand the actual reason why the Lord's return appears to be delayed. There's a wrong way and a right way to look at it. And that is what we will study next.....

Friday slowdown and prayer requests

Thanks for sticking with me on an intense week of study!

We want to be sure and pray with each other when difficulties come.... if you have a prayer request, I hope you will leave a comment and let us pray with you.

Have a blessed weekend!

False teachers, conclusion

This last post on false teachers is going to raise some eyebrows, I know. It's going to be brutally frank - and that is not the way things are usually done, nowadays.
So now, you've been warned, and let's begin!
We've seen so far that we can know false teachers when they teach false doctrines, when they lead lives of immorality, and when they are greedy, motivated by money.

I hope you have read the second chapter that we are studying....verse ten says that the false teachers despise authority. They don't want to be accountable to anyone; they want to be the final word on what they do and say -- a law unto themselves, so to speak. About a decade ago, here in the United States, a Senate investigation utilized tax return data and looked at six extremely large ministries that were suspected of possible fraudulent practices. They were asking specific questions, not just casting a net to see what they found. The names of the people investigated read like a "Who's Who" of the evangelical world today. (Or like a cable television listing, if you prefer!) Randy and Paula White (Without Walls International Church), Eddie Long (New Birth Missionary Baptist Church/Ministries), Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, and Creflo and Taffi Dollar. . . . want to know what happened? These ministries declined to be open and transparent. Accountability? No way. They gave incomplete answers or simply refused to give any information at all.  These ministries receive and control millions of millions of dollars, mostly from people who have very little to live upon, themselves. Instead of at least answering enough to prove they are honest and above-board, these people did not want any accountability. Instead of providing just enough information to be Biblically correct in their relationship to authority, they avoided authority completely, and cast real shadows on their own honesty and integrity.

False teachers not only despise authority, but they have a foolhardy way of looking at problems. What do I mean? Verse ten also tells us that the false teachers are bold and arrogant; their focus is on themselves.
If you are listening to (or watching) a false teacher, you may hear the words, "I bind Satan," for example. As if! We cannot control the adversary.....of course, it's true that Satan does not have power over us, but here's the difference -- we are not the ones who have power over Satan! God does. If we check the book of Jude in the New Testament, we read that the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil, didn't bring an accusation against him. Instead, he said, "The Lord rebuke you!" But some false teachers will claim to have the ability to bind and control all of the forces within the demonic realm. And sometimes they speak foolishly of "shaking off serpents" (alluding to the serpent that bit Paul and then was shaken off into the fire) as if health issues and financial problems can be gone that simply..... they are speaking of things that they really don't understand.

In verse twelve, Peter says that they are like brute beasts -- what does he mean? Well, scholars say that the difference between humans and animals is our power to reason and make rational decisions. Perhaps Peter is referring to a false teacher's inability to be rational or logical in their speech and their teachings. Their arguments do not make sense, especially if we are comparing what they say to the scriptures, as we need to do.

Verses thirteen and fourteen say that false teachers are shameless. This is very similar to the charge of immoral living in the previous verses. They think nothing of the wrong they do. Verse eighteen is along the same lines; let's look at both of them:

With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable;they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! ......For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.  (v 14, 18)

Their consciences are cold and calloused. They think nothing of sinning "in broad daylight." They have no shame. What's Peter talking about, when they entice people who are just escaping?  We studied earlier that the first century was dominated by worship of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. Their worship was actually sexual sins and perversion. Orgies were considered to be a way of worshiping these false gods and goddesses. In fact, going to one of their temples to worship would either involve having sex with a prostitute, or participating in an orgy.
The new believers were just emerging from this pagan way of life. But some false teachers were luring them back - promising sexual orgies with Christians, the scholars note. The teachers were justifying all of this, and acting on whatever their lustful hearts desired. We see this today in the Mormon church. Even today we hear of underage girls being married to older men who have multiple wives; these men think nothing of forcing these young girls to submit to sexual relations. It's happening in our country in the name of following God. We don't like to think about it, but we know it happens because some of the girls escape to tell their stories. We also know that there are many godly, Spirit-led believers in the Mormon church, too. We have to remember that as humans, we are all sinners, and we must point out wrong when and where we see it.

We do have false teachers all around us -- we must be aware of the dangers that we face!
Sometimes we may ask, "Why would God allow this? Why allow false teachers in the world today?" Well, we do live in a sinful world -- it's easy to get down and bummed out about it. But Peter encourages us with two important thoughts:
First, God will rescue the godly. Noah and his family were saved from the flood, and Lot's family escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Secondly, God will make sure the ungodly are judged. A favorite psalm for believers under pressure is Psalm 37. David looks at the wicked all about him, but he is reminded that he doesn't need to stress out about them - the wicked will be destroyed and the godly will be rescued.

The wicked lie in wait for the righteous,    intent on putting them to death; but the Lord will not leave them in the power of the wicked    or let them be condemned when brought to trial. (Psalm 37:33-34)

In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. (II Peter 2:3b)

Their destruction will come....it will not be delayed.

For the revelation awaits an appointed time;    it speaks of the end
    and will not prove false.Though it linger, wait for it;    it will certainly come    and will not delay. (Habakkuk 2:3)

I hope this study has been profitable to all of us this week. We must beware of false teachers.

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles?17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them." (Matthew 7:15-20)

It's easy sometimes to be taken in by them:

..and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  (Matthew 24:11)

Peter has spent this entire chapter -- I know, we divided things into chapters; he did not. (Grin) Anyway, he is giving us reminders of what we already know. We need to reject false teachers, and to do that, we must identify them! Let's commit ourselves to being students of the Word, and not hearers only, so that we may be like the Bereans. We can compare things to the scriptures and we will be certain whether teachings are true or if they are false!

False teachers, continued

Our focal passage this week is the second chapter of II Peter.
Peter is reminding us to watch out for false teachers.... last time, we saw that we can know them (first and foremost) by their teachings. We were exhorted by several passages to be alert and to compare teachings with the Word of God, to know for sure if they were true.
Next, Peter tells us in verse 2 of the chapter that many will follow "their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute." The idea expressed here is that they will have no shame -- they will act upon their lustful thoughts. Here is verse fourteen of the chapter:

With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; (v. 14a)

Oh, say it ain't so.
In the church? The body of Christ?
Sad but true. It's a very old, old problem.
It's been that way for many years..... remember what Paul said?

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?  (I Corinthians 5:1-2)

Yep, it's an old problem.
And from what Paul said as he continued, I just bet that the church members were saying, "Oh, we are such a loving bunch! We accept everyone, all sinners, no matter who they are or what they are doing."
Today we hear the same things..... "What's done in private should stay private!" "We're all sinners."
And they justify it in this way: "We have freedom in Christ - we aren't bound to the law anymore. We live under grace, instead of the law."
Well, Paul dealt with those comments, too, in his letters to the Romans and the Corinthians:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  (Romans 6:1-2)

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. (I Corinthians 5:9-11)

False teachers will often be soft on immorality. Often it's because their own lives are immoral.

Another characteristic of false teachers is that they are often motivated by money. They are characterized by greed. Verse three is where Peter tells us they will exploit us, often with stories that they have made up.
The word here is sometimes translated "greed" and other times it is translated "covetousness." In other words, they want what others have. They are consumed by a desire for money, or possessions, or wealth.
This has been around a long time, too. Have you studied in the past the story of Samuel's sons? Oh, they must have been alright, seeing what a godly dad they had, right? Uh, no.

But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. (I Samuel 8:3)

Samuel was a man of faith, dedicated to the Lord before he was born. He served faithfully as a prophet, priest, and judge for the Jewish nation. He would have set a good example before his sons, for he was a Nazarite - he didn't drink, and was faithful to his wife. As he aged, he appointed his sons to be judges. Imagine his heartbreak and embarrassment when he saw Joel and Abijah taking bribes and perverting judgement (ruling for those who had paid them the most money).
Now, his sons didn't lack knowledge of right and wrong. They chose to abandon their dad's teachings. We don't find a record of God rebuking Samuel for failure as a parent -- Joel and Abijah chose to disobey God and were held accountable.

In the New Testament, we see an example of another false teacher. Remember what Judas said about the money spent for a rare perfumed ointment? Remember why he said it?

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him,objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. (John 12:4-6)

Greedy Judas! He didn't care about the poor....he wanted to help himself to the money. Like Judas, we often hear of preachers and evangelists who "dip into" the treasury with greedy fingers and help themselves to the money they want. Their preaching and teaching might sound good for a while, but they will be found out -- they are fleecing the sheep! They are indeed false teachers.

So Peter has given us two more ways to determine if a teacher is false -- if we see immorality or greed in their lives, they are false.
Paul backed up Peter's assertion:

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  (Colossians 3:5)

Tomorrow, we will conclude our study with a few more characteristics of false teachers....

II Peter 2 - False teachers or true?

Peter has a lot to say in this chapter about what a false teacher looks like. Let's dig in!
The first, and most obvious characteristic is that false teachers put out false doctrines.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.  (v 1)

Here's a visual image of the false teachers:

These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.  (V 17a)

Peter reminded me here of what Jesus told the woman at the well; it is He Who gives us water to truly satisfy our souls. Peter says it's just like going to the well for a large clay jar of water.....you pull and pull and bring up the bucket, but there's no water there.

Many people attend churches on Sunday after Sunday. They are there on weeknights for prayer meetings and for studies. They go expecting to hear the truth of God's Word -- but time after time, they hear only a "feel-good" message, or a self-help-pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps-oh-and-don't-forget-the-Spirit-can-assist-you kind of message. Or maybe they hear a collection of stories and illustrations that tug on their hearts but don't illuminate the Word of God.
In fact, the Word is stunningly absent from many churches today.
Instead of the Word, what do they teach?
In the first century, there was a group called gnostics. Not to delve too much into their concepts, let's just say that they said spirit was good, and matter was evil - so Jesus was not human. He only appeared to be human. They taught that humans must work their way back to God, but must get past some hurdles in order to do it, and that if you were part of their group you would receive secret knowledge like passwords to help you make it.
Today, there are lots of false teachings: there's Kaballah, and the New Age movement; there are people who believe crystals, pyramids, and energy spots all have secret powers. And there are those who in the name of unity believe that all faiths have some good in them, and we just need to sit down and understand all the "ways of God," since there's a little bit of Him in all of the different religions.
Now, I happen to think that those are false teachings, because of verses like this one:

Jesus is“‘the stone you builders rejected,    which has become the cornerstone.’
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12)

I suppose you could say that I'm extremely narrow minded. Or that I'm mean-spirited. But neither of those is true. I simply believe that God's Word is true, and that salvation is in Christ alone! That doesn't mean that I look down on other people. Or that I denigrate them. But it does mean that I will share my faith and try to bring others to this wonderful knowledge!
After all:

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:14)

It's my responsibility, and yours, to help others find that road to abundant life.
Oh, and if you turn to that verse in your Bible, check out the very next verse......Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets that come to us in sheep's clothing!
Yes, it can be difficult sometimes to know if a teacher is false or true. They may sound really good, but not teach the truth. Or they may teach partial truth, and twist some other things to mean something other than the truth.
Oy vey.
How do we make sure? Here is one way:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!  (Galatians 1:8)

When we are listening to, or watching a teacher or evangelist, we need to not just be enjoying their speech; we need to critique their teaching to see whether it is in line with the gospel.

And here is another.....

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica,for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11)

Whether we have picked up a book from a shelf labeled "Christian books" or we've turned on the radio or television, we need to listen, really listen. Don't just listen without thinking. We need to not be passive listeners! A smooth talking teacher can lead many people astray if they are not alert to what he or she is teaching!
The Bereans examined the scriptures. Everything that they heard from Paul, they checked out in the scriptures. They were eager. They were inquisitive. They were not passive.
In Ephesians, Paul tells us how our discernment and our alertness will help out:

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 people in their deceitful scheming. (Ephesians 4:14)

There is a lot of false teaching in our world today, and we must beware. We need to test everything against the truth of God's Word, and we need to reject false teachers. This may not be politically correct. We may get labeled "narrow minded," or "bigoted," or worse. But we need to have discerning hearts and we need to know the truth and love it.

We'll look at more characteristics of false teachers next time!