Be careful that you do not believe any false teachers. The ideas that they teach may seem clever. But they really want to deceive you. They are ideas that have come from the human minds of our ancestors. Or ideas that come from spirits that belong to this world. They are not the true message about Christ.
Colossians 2:8 EASY
Unbelief renders a life dead – like a dead branch that has fallen off the tree. It cannot bear any fruit but will dry up and thus, be used as firewood. We must be vigilant in guarding our faith. We read from Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome, chapter 11, that it is the faith of a man that keep him connected to Christ, as a branch to the tree. When the devil fails in his attempt to kill a man’s faith, one of his alternative plans is to replace the man’s object of faith. He knows that when a man’s faith is no longer in Christ, it is as good as a dead faith. Hence, he mobilises his agents. Wolves but in sheep clothing, who go about heralding false teachings. Their aim is to replace Christ in the heart of the believers.
Their teachings may seem clever. But if we would bring it under the light of Christ, we would realise that they are empty teachings. They are also devoid of Christ and so, void of life. False teachings can seem appealing, but they can lead us away from the truth found in Christ. This issue of false teachings is such a critical one even in the early church. It was so much that Paul, in most of his letters, never ceased to warn believers about this reality. To the Romans he wrote.
Brothers and sisters, I want you to be very careful of those who cause arguments and hurt people’s faith by teaching things that are against what you learned. Stay away from them.
Romans 16:17 ERV
So, God’s word is coming to us again today. It is issuing a warning that we must take caution lest we fall prey to the false teachers. By studying the Word of God and deepening our relationship with Jesus, we can guard against deception. When a man is rooted in Christ, he also grows in faith such that he is not only nourished for fruitfulness, but he also becomes more matured, empowered to withstand the heresies of the false teachers.
