Small rodents called a lemmings occasionally engage in migrations.
Sometimes these movements lead them to a body of water. They plunge in,
thinking they can swim, but often, exhausted by the effort, they drown in what
looks like a mass suicide! People act
like lemmings sometimes, too.
Unthinking, caught up in the flow of events, they march straight into
self-destruction, victims of their failure to discern. History is replete with
tragic stories of people who fall under the spell of cultish leaders, some
political, some spiritual. The Nazis
rose and fell on the charisma of Adolf Hitler. We look at him today and wonder,
“How did he lead so many to such a terrible end?” His speeches look like
ranting and ravings in retrospect. The
Rev. Jim Jones deceived thousands and eventually led nearly 1,000 people in a
mass suicide in the ‘utopian’ town he created in Guyana.
Are you discerning about what and who you accept to guide
your life, to shape your spirituality? Peter warns us that “there will be lying religious teachers among you. They’ll smuggle in
destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the
One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They’ve put themselves on
a fast downhill slide to destruction, but not before they recruit a crowd of
mixed-up followers who can’t tell right from wrong. They give the way of truth a bad name. They’re
only out for themselves. They’ll say anything, anything, that sounds good to
exploit you!” (The Message 2 Peter 2:1-3)
These teachers don’t look like the Devil when they show up. Often they
shine brightest with a polished presentation that uses all the right words in
wrong ways. Peter says, "They mouth empty, boastful words and,
by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people
who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom,
while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever
has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome,
they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning." (2
Peter 2:17-21, NIV)
Recently while reading the blog of a ‘Christian’ teacher,
the Holy Spirit stirred in me. I had
been reading the man’s writing for some time and found myself nodding along
with his ideas. Then, I began to see a trend that was unbiblical, an expression
of bitterness that was a common thread.
As I went back and took a long look at the writings I had found so
compelling, I prayed that the Spirit would give me discernment. And He did! What had looked like novel,
engaging ideas were actually the reactions of a rebel bent on stirring up division
in God’s church. I asked myself, “how
did you not see this before?” Such is
the nature of deception. It starts so small, just a few degrees off of the
Truth, but left uncorrected leads us far, far from God and good.
Now, with so much teaching is available on the Internet or
on our television screen, the spiritual gift of discernment is more critically
important than ever! It is almost impossible to know if our favorite media
teacher is just “mouthing empty, boastful
words” because we have no access to his/her daily life. Paul pointed out
the false teachers that had come to spread their lies in the Church and then
offered this about his own ministry: "But
you know what I teach, Timothy, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is.
You know my faith and how long I have suffered. You know my love and my patient
endurance." (2 Timothy 3:10, NLT) The proof of his teaching was in the daily
discipleship that could be observed. Know how your teachers live!
Here’s a word from the Word.
"But as for you, continue in
what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from
whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:14-15, NIV) Don’t be a lemming!
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