"Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene... They are upsetting the faith of some.”
2 Timothy 2:14-18
From Adam and Eve to the present, mankind has always been easily deceived into believing a lie rather than the Truth. Satan has been the biggest liar of all time. He deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden by adding a word that God had never said. God explicitly said that they would die in the day they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan added the word “not.” It was easy for Satan to lie and deceive them. Because both Adam and Eve believed Satan's lie, they died.
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:17)
God permitted Adam and Eve to do anything they pleased in that beautiful Garden except to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They would die! God did not give them a long list of prohibitions. He only forbade them one thing that is recorded in Scripture. It was something that was not essential to sustain life. Sadly, when Satan tempted them, Adam and Eve surrendered to that temptation. They violated God's law.
Although they continued to live physically, they died spiritually. They were separated from a close fellowship with God, their Creator. Why? Because they had sinned and rebelled against God's will. Our iniquities or sins separate us from our Creator. They build a wall of separation between us because God hates lawlessness, which is sin.
"Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness." (I John 3:4)
Sin is lawbreaking. It is breaking God's Law! The Old Testament is full of examples of people who disobeyed God’s Law and the consequences of that action.
When Jesus came to this earth, He challenged and defeated the Jewish philosophies that disregarded the Word of God. He warned His disciples of false teachers among them. Jesus used Isaiah 29:13 in Mark 7:6-7, applying it to the Jews of His time.
"And the Lord said: Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men." (Isaiah 29:13)
"This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." (Mark 7:6-7)
Jesus rebuked them because they had abandoned the commandments of God to follow the traditions of men. Likewise, the early church had to face departures from the Truth. False teaching was as bad as lawlessness and immorality. Many among them turned the hearts of the disciples away from God’s Truth. They created walls to keep themselves from obeying the Truth. Take, for instance, the first letter written to the Corinthians, which dealt strongly with some serious errors that needed to be corrected.
In the letter to the Thessalonians, the disciples who jumped to the wrong conclusions about the second coming of Christ were causing problems. The apostles expected this to happen and warned them about straying from the inspired Word.
"And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability." (2 Peter 3:15-17)
There is no doubt at all that Satan and his false teachers have twisted and continue to twist and pervert the revealed Word of God to their own destruction. They pervert the pure Gospel of Christ, changing God’s Truth to their liking and making it a different "Truth" than what it is supposed to be.
"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, le t him be accursed." (Galatians 1:6-9)
"Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." (Col. 2:18-23)
You see, one of the biggest systems of false doctrine in the first century was Gnosticism. It created numerous errors that allegorized the Scriptures to get to “the real meaning” of what they supposed was missing. They had a false attitude about love which was predominant in Gnosticism just as it is today. Another of their major errors concerned the person of Jesus and the nature of God. The apostle John answered them accurately by using their own definition of love, demonstrating what real “knowing” and genuine “love” meant with the Scriptures.
"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says 'I know him' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.'" (1 John 2:3-6)
You see, real knowledge comes by revelation rather than subjective thinking and feeling. The Gnostics (and many other similar groups today) failed to prove what they claimed. Each generation of Christians must continue to look into the "Perfect Law of Liberty" to make sure that they are in the only true faith. In the first century, apostasy came quickly, and it increased in the centuries that followed. What was once sound and solid Bible teaching or doctrine strayed or deviated into mere human inventions. Sadly, digressions and divisions have afflicted God’s children ever since. You see, all this started with Adam and Eve back in the Garden.
Such attacks plague every generation of Christians. They strike at the foundations of our faith:
- The person of Jesus.
- The nature of God.
- Creation.
- Unscriptural unity in diversity.
- A new “hermeneutic.”
- And divorce and remarriage.
Today, many have compromised doctrine for the sake of unity, disregarding God’s commands or authority. God never allowed disobedience in either of the Great Covenants, Old or New! God has already spoken His mind to us through His revealed Word. He has also given us specific instructions that we must pursue to understand the authority of God’s Word. These instructions may be in the form of commands or statements. Did you know that even the parables in the Bible contain instruction? Thus such statements must be considered in determining any specific teaching. Likewise, examples may contain implications about a particular instruction.
Many make distinctions between the Gospel and “doctrine,” employing a liberal hermeneutic and the so-called “Unity in Diversity” propositions. To them, the Gospel is just “the basics,” “the fundamentals.” The Gospel, according to them, is believing in God, Christ, repentance, and baptism. That is basically what the Gospel is all about to them. However, if you will study the use of these words through the New Testament, the Gospel is the good news of the New Testament, precisely because everything that God has revealed to us is good news about our eternal salvation. The Gospel is the Truth, the faith, the Word, and sound doctrine.
To limit the Gospel to what they call just “the essentials” is to nullify or make void the rest of the New Testament, allowing false doctrines to be multiplied. From the beginning, God has given us instructions or rules that must be followed. God's instructions or regulations must rule our conduct even today. Consider some rules or instructions that must be followed.
- Marriage:
"He answered, 'Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.' 7 They said to him, 'Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?' 8 He said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.'" (Matt. 19:4-8)
- Sexual Immorality:
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral... will inherit the kingdom of God. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, 'The two will become one flesh.'" (1 Cor. 6:9-16)
- The Roles of Men and Women:
"For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man." (1 Cor. 11:8-9)
"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.'" (Ephesians 5:22-23)
"I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control." (1 Timothy 2:12-15)
- Principles of Righteousness:
"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." (Romans 1:24-32)
- Moral Conduct:
"For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous... Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." (1 John 3:11-18)
Many other rules are found in the Scriptures.
CONCLUSION:
God has given us regulations about marriage, the roles of men and women, principles of righteousness, and moral conduct. These are rules established by God Himself since the beginning of Creation. God has given us everything we need to know to complete and furnish us to every good work in His revealed Word. God expects us to use our own discernment and judgment of good and evil so that we may know how to apply what He has taught us.
May we be on guard against all the deceptions that Satan inspires in the hearts of men. May we be masters in the understanding of God's Word and never compromise the Truth, disregarding God’s commands or authority.
"Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ." (Galatians 1:7)
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
Luci
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