The Believer’s Responsibility: Beware of False Teachers
My wife has such a servant’s heart.
When we were in college, she volunteered with the Harrisburg Association for the Blind. One day, they took the group to the circus so they could hear, smell, and feel the experience.
Afterward, one of the leaders asked Jen to drive two women home. She agreed, but there were a few challenges associated with the task. First, Jen didn’t know her way around Harrisburg. Second, she didn’t have a map and it was way before GPS or cellphones!
After a few directions, Jen started driving the only roads she knew to get the two women home.
At one point, they crossed the Susquehanna River, a major river that runs through Harrisburg, PA. As they were crossing, one of the blind ladies said, “Are we crossing a bridge? There is no bridge between the circus and my house!”
To make a long story short, the two blind women ended up giving Jen directions based on a combination of road noises and Jen’s description of landmarks. She thinks she dropped them off at the right house!
In many ways, Jen was a “blind guide” because she attempted to drive these women home without knowing where to go (we still chuckle about the irony of the situation to this day!).
But Jesus was not joking when he taught some very strong and clear warnings against following “blind guides.”
In Matthew 15, the Pharisees asked Jesus why his disciples broke their tradition’s rules. In response, Jesus asked them why they broke God’s rules and then called them hypocrites. He applied Isaiah 29:13 to their life and teaching: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Mt. 15:8-9, ESV) In response to his disciples’ question regarding whether he knew he had offended the Pharisees, Jesus replied, “Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” (Mt. 15:14, ESV)
Jesus said the same thing in In Luke 6:39: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?” In both instances, Jesus emphasized that we are responsible to learn, grow, and do our own internal work before we can help others. As he said in Luke 6:42, “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”
So, how do we apply this today?
We need to know the gospel so well that we can evaluate what we are being taught.
Since much of our learning happens within community, we are constantly receiving messages from others. Whether it’s a pastor giving a sermon or a friend expressing their opinion, there’s a steady stream of beliefs coming at us. But God clearly gives us the responsibility to evaluate everything we receive, both from the world and in the church.
Something we should be especially wary of is any kind of works-based righteousness.
The Apostle Paul wrote the following to the churches in Galatia: “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 – not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” (Galatians 1:6-7, ESV)
The problem with the Galatian church was that many were being persuaded to follow a “different gospel” of works-based righteousness and self-reliance as opposed to the true Gospel, that we are justified by faith in Christ. As Paul says in Galatians 2:16, “so we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”
Paul challenged the Galatians, and by extension, us, not to resort back to self-effort to follow the law and try to measure up to some standard so we can be accepted by God. We are accepted because of the finished work of Jesus Christ!
As Galatians 5 says, we receive this by faith and then walk in the Spirit so that we don’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh but rather, serve one another in love. Our good works flow out of reliance upon the Spirit and abiding in Christ.
Dear Saints, a common theme between Jesus’s teaching and Paul’s is that we are not to rely on our own strength, self-effort, or performance as we live out our faith in Christ. But this message continually and subtly works its way into our thinking and our churches. Have you trained yourself to see it when it’s being taught?
It is all by God’s grace. His grace saves us, and His grace teaches and equips us to do the work He prepared for us to do by “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives” (Titus 2:11-12, see also Ephesians 2:8-10).
So, if you hear the sound of a bridge leading you away from living by faith in Christ, know that you are not headed in the right direction. Let’s make sure our eyes are open to the subtle (and not so subtle!) messages that teach self-reliance instead of reliance on Jesus Christ.
Beware of blind guides.
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.