Romans 16:17-18
I urge you, my dear family, to watch out for those who cause divisions and problems, contrary to the teaching you learned.
Avoid them.
People like that are serving their own appetites instead of our Lord the Messiah. They deceive the hearts of simple-minded people with their smooth and flattering speech.
I love this simple sentence by commentator Douglas Moo on this passage: “The false teachers are interested in their own pleasure and ease, not in helping people know God.”
All we want in these writings is for you to be assisted and encouraged to know God, and to know God more and more deeply.
That’s it.
Because when you get closer to God with an open, ready-to-learn, and accepting heart, the Spirit will guide you into doing what you need to do. That’s why I always try to nudge people closer to God instead of telling them what to do.
But some people have their own agendas which are self serving.
Avoid them.
They disrupt unity and cause problems by presenting their own brand of the Gospel which is different than the one preached by the apostles of Jesus.
Avoid them.
They are interested in their own pleasure, not in helping people to know God. Celebrating Independence Day, we are reminded that their are many so-called Christians who put their country higher than God, screaming national pride instead of Godly humility.
Avoid them.
They use eloquence and flattery on the “simple-minded”, or we could translate as “innocent”, therefore, unsuspecting of others’ deceit because they are not given to the wiles of this craft themselves. Some people, whose worldview is not that of Christ’s, are very skilled and persuasive speakers. That does not change the content of what they’re preaching. They corrupt the purity and simplicity of the Gospel.
Avoid them.
Our goal with the Weekday Ripple is not to win a writing award, or to butter you up so you’ll listen, but to speak in the power of the Spirit who alone can penetrate the hearts of people. (1 Cor. 2:1-5)