A DIVISIVE DEMEANOR AND DOCTRINAL DEPARTURE

Hatefulness and heresy are partners in crime. The one who deviates from the faith will also potentially divide the flock. Both are deadly viruses that can infect a church until it becomes sick, or even dies! 

These make mountains out of molehills while failing to embrace the fundamentals of the faith. Instead, they take a text out of context and use it as a pretext for some theological novelty they want others to embrace. Such preach that they have received some new insight—often in a “dream,” or “vision.”  What they do is package error as enlightenment. 

Paul brands such arguments as unprofitable and useless and tells us to avoid these erroneous teachings and the evil teachers themselves —unless they repent when confronted. 

To platform such and have prolonged discussions is to elevate the doctrinal deviant to the same status as the true teachers. Immersing your mind in the study of heresy is to contaminate your own thinking. You cannot walk through a coal mine without inhaling some black dust. Do you want to drink just an ounce of chicken manure stirred in your coffee?  

For a period of time, I had a section of books in my library as examples of false teaching, but I have since thrown them away. I never read them, but what if someone saw them, and it piqued their curiosity?  Or after I died, what if someone got hold of them and wondered if I subscribed to those errors as those books were found in my library?  They went where such teaching belongs—in the trash!

At best, the study of false teaching and striving with false teachers is a waste of precious time better spent immersing oneself in the study and of Scripture and proclamation of it. A bank teller can detect counterfeit money, but not because they spend hour after hour studying counterfeiters and their craft. Rather, they handle real currency continually and thus when a forgery comes their way, they spot it right away.

Study the Scriptures. Listen to and learn from faithful men. “New” truth is likely ancient error repackaged.  Don’t waste time sorting through garbage. Toss it and turn to the Truth.

THE GODLESSNESS OF GOSSIP

Name a sin—any sin.  What comes to mind? Murder? Adultery? Stealing? Lying?  I doubt many would say, “gossip.”  Yet, it is a hellish, hateful thing. In church life, we often mask it as a prayer request.  It sounds spiritual to tell another person that we have a concern about so-and-so.   God hears something else—gossip—and it is godless.  Consider these verses in Proverbs 26.

1.  GOSSIP FUELS THE FIRE OF STRIFE.  “Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; And where there is no talebearer, strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, So is a contentious man to kindle strife.” (v.20-21‬). How many churches are burning down?  I don’t mean the framework; I’m talking about the fellowship.  Gossip was the hateful spark, and the ongoing talebearing feeds the hellish flames. When you come across someone in the church—and you will—who wants to share some juicy gossip, you have a bucket of water in one hand and a bucket of gas in the other.  Which one will you use?

2.  GOSSIP FEEDS THE HUNGER OF PRIDE. “The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, And they go down into the inmost body.” (v.22‬). Pride causes us to think we are superior to others.  Gossip feeds that attitude. Secretly, smugly, we believe ourselves to be spiritually superior to the subject of the gossip. It is a sweet treat to a proud heart. We chew on it, savor it, and want to tell others who can enjoy the same.  The first one to yield to the sin of pride was the Devil, and it is no coincidence that he is also called the accuser and slanderer.  When we gossip, we are like him.

3. GOSSIPERS FLATTER THE UNSUSPECTING IN HYPOCRISY.  “Fervent lips with a wicked heart Are like earthenware covered with silver dross. He who hates, disguises it with his lips, And lays up deceit within himself; When he speaks kindly, do not believe him, For there are seven abominations in his heart” (v.23-25‬).  If someone will gossip to you, they will gossip about you.  They are experts at flattery, but this is only to hide the hatefulness in their heart. Solomon likens them to a cheap clay pot, covered with silver to make it appear expensive. Don’t be fooled.

I have one word concerning gossip: don’t!

CONNECTED

Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.  (1 Corinthians 1:10)

As I type these words I am connected to the internet.  That connection is important if I am to communicate with you.  When this devotional is completed, I will send it out to a potential worldwide audience.  There are times the connection is down and then the communication is disrupted.  That is not only a technological truth, it is a theological one, as witnessed in the first chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church. 

The church was a basket-case—as a host of problems plagued them.  Their carnality was showing.  Living in a corrupt environment, they were being contaminated by it.  When they were meant to impact the city, the culture was influencing them instead.  We think that our times are tough to try to live for God—when has it ever been easy?  This first century message is on target for a twenty-first century church.

Of all the problems that plagued the Corinthian Christians, the one Paul confronts first is the breaking of their connection with each other.  One of Satan’s chief weapons is division, and he was utilizing it effectively in Corinth.  While the saints were not cooperating with each other in building up the church, they were cooperating with the devil in breaking up the fellowship!

The Apostle reminds them in verses one through seventeen that they are to be connected in fellowship.  They have been set apart for God—each one.  This is their common experience of an uncommon gift.  Their position in Christ is that of saints.  No matter the other ways that humans segment society—by color, class, gender, age, achievement, and the like—all the redeemed were one in their standing in Christ.  We are reminded that since we are saints, we ought to act like it!  Jesus said that the world would believe in Him when we demonstrated love and displayed unity with one another (John 17:21).  If our connection in fellowship is broken by strife, then the communication of our message is lost.

Not only are God’s people to be connected in fellowship, but in faith (v.18-31).  God’s children share a common faith in an uncommon Savior.  Everything focuses on the cross of Christ, which is the only hope of salvation.  We come by the Calvary Road to heaven, or we do not come at all.  It matters not how much we have in the bank or how little, whether we are young or old, male or female, black or white, educated or uneducated—the ground is level at the foot of the cross.  The world scoffs at the image of a Savior hanging in bloody agony on a tree.  How can a Jew being executed in such a shameful way enable sinners to be saved?  This is God’s way—and it is in the cross that we glory!  It should be evident that this message is one revealed from heaven, for it would never have been dreamed up by humans!  To the Jews it was a stumbling block and to the Gentles it was foolishness, but to all who are saved the old rugged cross, so despised by the world, is the power and wisdom of God for salvation.

Let us stand together in fellowship sharing our faith.  The world is watching—and so is God.