False Teaching and Truthful Living – II Peter 2:1b
“False Teaching and Truthful Living”
“But there were false prophets … even as there shall be
false teachers among you, ” II Peter 2:1b
“Come to Jesus; be saved and all your problems will be
solved!” Such fallacious preaching has produced so many
casualties among conservative Christians as the wild extremes
of “faith healers” and the “wealthy-healthy” cults. In this
respect, one is as bad or dangerous as the other. The
unconverted man who sincerely comes to Christ, not only
trusting for his soul’s salvation, but also for “all his problems
to be solved,” faces deep frustrations and bitter experiences in
the months and years that follow. And why? For the reason
God has made no such promise to His children in all the
31,175 verses of Holy Scripture!
A full month’s instruction in Luke 14:25-35 would be one
of the best ways to demolish some of the destructive illusions
that accompany such untrue representations of God’s gift of
eternal life. We are saved to serve, as these verses
demonstrate, and Christ relates these passages strictly to
serving: Right priorities (vs. 26), cross-carrying (vs. 27), the
cost of building (vss. 28-30), fighting a war (vss. 31-32), and
forsaking things that are clearly sinful (vs. 33). It is
noteworthy that Paul concluded his first missionary journey
by sternly admonishing his converts, “we must through much
tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22b).
Over twenty years later, Paul ended his service for Christ by
instructing his convert Timothy, “be thou partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;” (II
Tim. 1:8). – R.P.
Prepared by Roger Fulk, from the “Baptist Bread” APRIL 23, 2023 devotional by author DR. RANDY PIKE, Missionary Statesman, Greenville, SC. With permission from Tim Green, editor Baptist Bread.
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