Most of the posts I read are on Facebook and they go something like this, 'So and so is a false teacher'. There seems to be a vindictiveness about it as well.
First of all, do we really enjoy finding out about these 'false teachers'? Does it edify us to talk so much about them? What would be the reason we enjoy this so much? Could it be that we think we can get away with ripping someone else up, but in the name of 'exposing false teachers'? Let's look at our hearts first.
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus, and the Apostles give a lot of instruction on various things that involve our individual lives as well as the life of the church. Out of all the things that were given out for us to grow in and to serve the church with, are the instructions to expose false teachings. We are to stay faithful to the truth and defend it. That is one main reason we need to be in the word continually. We need daily bread. We need to feed upon the word. God's word builds faith in us and helps us to be discerning. It helps us to discern false teachings as well. But exposing false teachings is only one slice of the pie. There is so much more.
My second concern is, why aren't we telling our readers, about the greatness of God? What has God done in your life lately? Do you want others to know about Him, and to come to know Him personally? Then you need to be communicating to others who He is. The things we love we will talk about. This is Scriptural. Out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths speak.
If we speak about the things we love, do we love finding false teachers more than we love talking about God? Sure, we need to deal with false teachers as they come up, and they will come up, but to talk about them almost all the time indicates something is off.
Years ago, there was a man in our area who had a home church called 'Tree of Life'. Many from our church were leaving to go to this home church. We listened to the teachings from the founder of this ministry, and there was a lot of truth missing. This man believed essentially in Universalism. Our pastor talked with the congregation about this man and his teachings. They were dangerous and our pastor did not want those in our church to go astray. I think of two people who left the church to go there, and there are real problems now with them, sadly. I don't know if there was a connection between the false doctrine of Universalism and the results of their lives, but it is very likely. But we didn't have to continue harping about this man and his teachings. We exposed the false teaching. We exposed the false teacher. Job was done.
The third concern I have is for the fact that there really are corrupt doctrines that are creeping in the church today, that are serious and need to be addressed. The main corrupt doctrine we have to avoid is called 'Pelagianism' which is a doctrinal belief system that says that man is basically good and is capable of choosing sin or not choosing sin. Salvation is dependent upon Jesus death and our obedience to God. Sadly, some of my Christian friends have indications that they believe this way, possibly without even realizing where this doctrine came from. For example, my Christian evangelism friends hold up signs that say 'Repent! Stop sinning!'. While this might look like a somewhat plausible explanation of repentance, the fact of the matter is, human beings cannot stop sinning. If they think they have stopped sinning, then they are deceiving themselves. If they go back and do sin, they will feel like a failure before God. Many turn away because they subconsciously think they have to stop sinning in order for God to accept them. That is a Pelagian belief. But this is overflowing into the church and the church is buying into it without even realizing it. For more information on Pelagianism or Repentance being stopping sin, go to CARM.org and it will explain both of those concepts clearly.
And lastly, what does the world see when they see our posts on false converts and teachers? The Bible says that people will know we are Christians by our love. Love is listed as the first fruit of being a Christian, out of a list of several other fruits. Without love, we are nothing. In other words, if we don't have love, we have missed the boat. We could have 100% of the truth we stand on, but if we are lacking love, we have missed God. God is love. When we show hatred for someone, we are not representing God properly. We could get everything else right, but love is the key to representing God and reaching the lost. Are we showing love when we openly criticize someone with name calling and speculations? What does that say to the world?
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