Gullible

“The naive believes everything,

But the sensible man considers his steps.”

Proverbs 14.15

We have recently begun a series of sermons in the book of Jude – that fantastic little epistle which warns so strongly against false teachers, and urges its readers to “contend earnestly for the faith.” And one of the things Jude points out is that the false teachers against whom he is writing have “crept in unnoticed.”

In other words, false teachers don’t generally walk into the church wearing a badge on their lapels with the word heretic inscribed in italics under their names! They creep in. They may unfold their heresies only in bits and pieces, here and there … such that people often inhale them quite calmly, like cigarette smoke, without realizing the long term destruction that is being slowly but surely wrought upon them. And so it seems to me that, implicit in Jude’s warning against false teachers is not only that we must “contend … for the faith” (and, thus, against their errors) when false teachers arise; but also that we must be alert to the fact that they are creeping in in the first place! We must not let them sneak into the sheepfold right under our noses without us ever smelling a rat! We must not be like the “naive” man who “believes everything” (Proverbs 14.15).

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, we must not be drowsy when it comes to assessing that which we are being taught – whether in our own congregation, or over the internet, or on radio and TV, or in books! Some of it is quite helpful and accurate. Much of it is pure froth – fairly harmless, but not really all that helpful either. And some of it is outright dangerous. But I wonder how many church-goers actually see the danger? Do our antennas go up when preachers preach a gospel that says little or nothing about our sin? Do we sense that something is wrong when men (and women) teach us about heaven, or hell, or the last days, or how to have relationship with Jesus based on their own visions and experiences, rather than on what is printed in the Book? Could we piece through the Jehovah’s Witnesses' Watchtower and see in it the signs of false teaching? Or does it go right on the coffee table next to our family Bible? Do we trust someone’s teaching simply because it’s on the radio or television, or do we do a little research to find out exactly what they believe (and how they live!)? Same thing with Christian music artists – from whom many people get an entirely disproportionate amount of their theology. Do we believe what they sing simply because the local Christian radio station chose to play their song? Or do we compare what we hear with scripture?

I am not suggesting we be alarmist. But what I would say is that, if false teachers had an inroad in Jude’s day … how much more in our own, what with all the additional media they have through which to communicate their message! And so we must be on the alert. We must not be naïve, but test everything against the plain teaching of the Bible.

“The naive believes everything,

But the sensible man considers his steps.”