26.11 | There Will Be False Teachers
2 Peter 2
‘But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.’
2 Peter 2:1
Lesslie Newbigin, a British missionary who spent over forty years in India, returned to my own city of Birmingham in 1976 to pastor a local congregation. In doing so, he brought missionary eyes to a postmodern world. And his reflections were revealing.
He described how 20th Century ways of thinking had kicked back against 19th Century missionary work, which had carried ideas of Western supremacy alongside the Gospel. This reaction, he said, had led to a basic loss of confidence in the things that are true. The celebration, in other words, of different beliefs had led to turning all belief into nothing more than personal opinion. Private spirituality. Faith had become about finding a personal viewpoint that helped each individual work out their own vision for the self.
Newbigin criticised this. He said it abandoned our ability to think—for the rational mind knows full well that some things are true and others are not true. There is either a God, or there isn’t. Jesus either rose from the dead, or He didn’t. Whilst our individual perspective may narrow our window on reality, and listening truly brings wisdom, not all things are a matter of individual perspective. There is reality, and there is unreality.1
Peter comes out swinging today:
…false prophets … destructive heresies … swift destruction … condemnation … destruction … chains of gloomy darkness. He reminds them of Sodom and Gomorrah, the flood, and the lust of defining passion. And he finishes his description of these individuals by likening them to a pig wallowing in the mud, or a dog returning to its own vomit.
All things considered, it’s not very postmodern.
False teaching appears a lot in the New Testament. It was a massive concern of the apostles, and it was a regular problem in the life of the Early Church. They began with truth—a message of Jesus who came, lived, died, and rose—defeating sin, the devil, and death, and leading humanity into a new way of being as we await His imminent return. And yet, different ideas came in. Different interpretations of Jesus. Different ideas of holiness. Different practices in the churches. And the apostles never saw these as matters of individual preference or personal perspective. They saw them as destructive.
And if this was an issue for them, we can also expect it to be one for us.
There will be false teachers among you.
So how do we discern which teaching is false?
Peter gives us an insight that helps. It has to do with the direction of the teaching. For the motive of false teaching, he suggests, is not Jesus, but the self.
My broken desires. My bank balance. My platform. My ego.
The motives lead the outcome. Pride leads to human empires. For if teaching begins in the self it will also end there. Is the outcome of the teaching you hear the fame and advance of the cause of Jesus, or is it the career and comfort and ego of the preacher? Is that which is stirred and motivated in you as you listen holy desires for how you can increasingly surrender to the advance of His cause? Or is it the justification of your existing ways and broken desires and the fleeting feel-good factor of the flattered ego?
Strong words, my friends. Feel them. Let them do a good work in us. Mix them with humility and love and grace and the readiness to learn and honour, for all Kingdom things happen in such an environment. And yet, in this heart of humility and grace, let us be confident in those things of simple truth.
Reflect:
Reflect on your own experience. Have you experienced teaching that feels like the ego-centred preaching Peter criticises today? What teaching have you experienced that feels like truth?
Pray:
Father,
Renew my mind.
For I stand in a world of much noise,
And of many voices.
I live with a soul that does not often feel
Still enough
To discern.
And so,
Grant me a discerning heart—
That I may see truth as truth
And untruth as untruth.
Would you mix in my soul
A blend of listening humility and honouring grace
Alongside the simplicity of clarity
That brings confidence, endurance, and steadfastness.
That I may bring steadying truth
Into a chaotic world.
With confidence
In the Name of Jesus,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Daniel 1-2 | Proverbs 28:23-28
If you want to read more, a great start is his book Proper Confidence.