Right or Wrong

We live in a world where everyone has an opinion. These opinions can be benign or bring harm to the minds of naïve people. When it comes to the things of God and His word, we cannot be naïve, nor can we be biblically illiterate because there is great danger in being so.

About a month ago I had an interesting conversation with a woman upset about her mother’s pastor preaching against a well-known T.V. preacher. She thought that pastors should not say anything negative about other pastors. Although I would agree with her up to a point, there was something that she was missing in her thinking. As a follower of Jesus, we MUST know God’s word enough to know when a so-called minister preaches or teaches something unbiblical, and they must also call out that false teaching.

We are not called to be mean or nasty about it, but to evaluate all that is taught from God’s word and make sure it aligns with the truth. We see this in I Timothy 6:3-5, “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”

We do have a responsibility to bring false teachings out into the light and correct it with the truth of God’s word. You see, there is such a thing as truth and false, right and wrong, and as disciples of Jesus, we must know and teach the difference. It begins with our children and then on to others we care about.

I guess my challenge, my warning is that although we are called to love and show love, we are also called to bring the lie out into the light and teach the truth always. The difficult part and what we must be able to do is call out false teaching in a way that shows love. Remember, we are called to win people, not arguments. No one cares if you are right until they know that you care.

Know the truth and you will always be able to see the false.