by Jacob Ninan
There are some Christians who say that as long as they love Jesus, everything is fine and that trying to understand doctrines is quite an unnecessary effort. They think that doctrines are only for Bible colleges and scholars to argue about! But the fact is that everyone lives according to the doctrines they believe in their mind, which they have picked up from many different sources such as preachers, parents, friends, society, books, movies, media, etc. Many times these doctrines are not right, but the people don't realise that, because they are convinced that they are right (Prov.12:15). This is why God has given us the Bible, to reveal His truths to us. All of us cannot become Bible scholars, but each of us must become Bible students, learning for ourselves God's truths so that we can live all our life according to them (Psa.119:9).
But when we decide to follow God's ways and start listening to people preach or teach from the word of God, we are shocked to find that they are many different voices out there, some of them saying quite contradictory things. We would like to hear the voice of our Shepherd, Jesus, leading us (Jn.10:27). But these multiple voice can confuse us, coming from our own ideas, from other people and even from deceiving spirits. In order to distinguish our Shepherd's voice from all other voices including ours, we must be familiar with the word He has already given to us in the Bible. That should be our reference with which we check everything else (Acts.17:11).
Jesus spoke about the narrow gate through which we had to enter, and the narrow way through which we had to walk (Matt.7:13,14). The narrow gate is the choice we have to make to make Jesus our Saviour and Lord, and the narrow way is the life of discipleship that we follow afterwards. Immediately after saying this, Jesus pointed out how false prophets would come in and try to lead people astray (vv.15,16). One way these false prophets do their work is to try and present the gate as being wider so that more people can get in without meeting the conditions that Jesus has placed there, such as having to repent from sins before receiving Him as Saviour, and making Jesus not only our Saviour but also the Lord of our life. Afterwards, they try to replace the way of taking up our cross daily, denying ourselves and following Jesus, with enjoying ourselves, living it up, etc.
One guideline we need to have when we listen to teaching (doctrine) is to see whether it will lead us towards a godly life (1Tim.6:3). Many Christians think of godliness as merely being religious, taking time to read the Bible, spend time in prayer, attend church meetings, etc. But godliness is about living in a practical way where God's character is seen in our lives. God's salvation is to lead us towards that, and giving us forgiveness for our sins is only the beginning of such a life.
But sadly, many are not looking for such teaching. They are happy as long as a preacher gives an interesting and entertaining speech (2Tim.4:3). Such preachers may look impressive because of their charismatic personality, their skilful way of presenting things, etc. But we need to be looking for 'sound' or 'healthy' teaching that will lead us along the narrow path that leads to a godly life rather than for entertainment.
Some wrong teachings are created by following human ideas (Matt.15:9). By claiming to bring out certain hidden truths that people have not known so far, emphasising some part of Biblical truth that they claim other churches have been neglecting, claiming that because of certain 'revelations' that God has given them they are the true bride of Christ or the true church of Christ, etc. However impressive such teachings sound, we must see if they are going to help us to overcome our sinful nature and lead us to godliness, or if they are merely impressive (Col.2:23).
Some other false teachings come from deceiving spirits who sometimes put those ideas into people's minds (1Tim.4:1). Many Christians do not realise that the western incursion into eastern religions and philosophies has brought in what is generally described as New Age influences into the church also. Since this influence is very subtle and not openly religious, many are unable to find anything wrong with it. Even though yoga is one of the different ways of hinduism to attain moksha, many Christians are happily involved in practising it along with the yoga (and transcendental) mediation which may open them to demonic influences in their life. In general, the New Age teachings imply that the whold creation is a part of god, and as such they assume that we human beings have hidden powers that need to be uncovered. The power of 'positive thinking' is one such attempt to make our thoughts produce the reality that we want. The word of faith movement that has influenced a large number of Christians believes that there is power in our words that can make things happen.
We should become mature in our thinking and understanding, based on our knowledge of the scriptures, so that we should be able to see through wrong doctrines that come up (Eph.4:14). We cannot idolise any preacher to imagine that wheatever he says must be true. We must not allow anyone to frighten us by saying that we should not touch the Lord's anointed! We don't want to attack anyone, but we must stand true to what the Bible teaches, irrespective of what so-called great men of God say. There are many examples of many godly people who have been deceived and ended up wrong. In order to be able to discern righty, we must have our personal knowledge of what the scriptures say. Also, it is safer to refer to many godly teachers rather than to depend entirely on any one man. It is also necessary to form our loyalty to the word of God rather than to any particular denomination.
In order to be able to discern the will of God concerning different teachings, one condition we need to fulfil is to have a willingness to obey whatever God reveals as His will (Jn.7:16,17). If we are arguing for the sake of argument or curiosity but we have no serious interest in obeying God once He shows us His truth, there is no guarantee that God will reveal the truth to us.
Let us seek to be true disciples of Jesus who value Him above everyone and everything else, and who are interested in obeying every single things He shows us.