December 12 2025

Friday December 12

Don’t Be Deceived by False Teachers

Ephesians 4:11-16

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ-- 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Today we're continuing to look at Ephesians 4:11-16. These verses are vitally important to the unity of the church, to the growth of the believer, and to the witness of the church in the community. That's why we're taking so long continuing to look at this passage of Scripture. Remember the leaders of the church are told to lead and teach the people to grow in their Christian maturity, to grow in faith, and to understand how that as a body of believers that are diverse, that have different opinions, have different ideas, maybe even different cultural backgrounds, that it is vitally important that they love one another, and care for one another.

Read the New Testament. Read the book of First John. Read all the Epistles. Almost all of them speak about this love for one another. Jesus, in His last words in the upper room were that His disciples might be one. His prayer was that they would be one (John 17). That they would be one in Christ, one in unity, one in love, caring for one another. Then they would be a witness to the world around them. That's why this passage in Ephesians 4 is so important.

Now, one of the things that will happen whenever God's at work, you can rest assured that the devil is also at work and he has his angels, agents of false teachers to lead people astray. Today, my friend, the internet and churches are full of false teachers who would cause people to follow after them with false doctrines. That's why Paul, Peter and others writers of the New Testament wrote about these people. Even in the first century church, Jude wrote about them. John, warned of them in his epistles of 1^st and 2^nd John. Almost every New Testament Apostle, teacher, leader warned about these false teachers.

Even here in Ephesians 4, where Paul is saying to build up the people in the unity of the faith he goes on to say in verse 14 that we should “no longer be children tossed to and fro”. Tossed to and fro by what? Because we would be “carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting”, by the false teachers. In Acts 20:28-31, Paul in his last visit to the church at Ephesus, warned the elders: “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”

In 2 Peter 2:1-3, Peter warned the believers he's writing to about these false teachers: “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words…”.  Like Paul, he is warning us not to be deceived by false teachers with their false doctrine.

A characteristic of a Christlike Christian is that he is not only bathed in the truth, living in the truth, walking in the truth, but he is stable. He is steadfast. He's not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Everybody that comes along with some new teaching about this or that or especially about the Lord Jesus Christ and who He is. My friend, you must be careful what you're listening to and make sure you look at everything in light of the context of the entire word of God. Then listen to faithful teachers and preachers who have stayed the course over many many years.

Again, these are very important words because the devil is at work to destroy the unity of the church with false teachers. We must be aware of them. They're everywhere. So be aware, don't be children about this danger. Grow up, listen to the truth, and walk in the truth.

God bless!