Eph. 4:14-15 – “We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ”
The prevalence of heresy in our world has reached pandemic status. Not only is heresy widespread, but it also takes various insidious forms. Some are outright and obviously heresy, while others are more subtle. Given the multifaceted forms of heresy that are dispersed in our world, it is no wonder that so many countless people have been captured in their web. But is the snare so tight that none can be loosed from it? No. There is still hope for some through the help of the Spirit and the ministry of the true Word of God. However, I find that there are two types of people who have been caught up with heresy – Those who are teachable and those who are not.
There are those who have been misled. They are more or less sincere persons, but have suffered from having been instructed by false shepherds. They have unwittingly been seduced into following their leader’s beliefs and ways. They may be Christians who are yet like “little children, tossed to and fro.” They are easily swayed by cunning and trickery. They believe the heretical doctrines they are taught, but not from a malicious intent, or because they are obstinate, but because they believed their leaders to be speaking the truth. They are not the type to fight for their beliefs, but rather have been taken in due to their ignorance and simplicity. They are not yet hardened in their error, but are still soft and impressionable – They are yet teachable. For these there is hope! O these are they for whom we must be diligent to “speak the truth in love.” These will not fight against you when you show them the Word of truth, these will yield to the clear portrayal of God’s truth. Puritan Obadiah Sedgwick says these are like, “the bow, when the string is taken off, returns to its own posture again.” And so too, there is hope for these true and humble believers. Though they are weak and sickly of spirit, when they are lovingly admonished by their faithful brethren, they heed the Word and repent.
But then there are always those who stubbornly cling to their heresy. They have come to love their false doctrine, their identity is wrapped up in them, they will fight you, and they will disregard your admonitions. For these there is only one hope, and that is in a conversion and new birth. These are lost men, despite the fact that they claim to be Christians. Their theological errors have denied them access to salvation that is only found in the light of truth. O when one such as this clings to their error despite the evidence of the clear light in the Word – what hope can they have? I have often found that when confronting those in such a posture with a clear passage of Scripture, they will try to flee to another, and then another, trying to find safe harbor for their opinion. But to wherever they flee, they further adulterate the Word – they take one passage out of context, they misapply another, and they twist and distort others beyond recognition. Thus they add sin upon sin, error upon error. No text is too clear, and no doctrine so sacred, that they aren’t willing to undermine and overthrow just to maintain their one heretical opinion. All doctrine and interpretation is fluid to them – the one constant for such as this is that they must be right, and woe to the man who tells them otherwise.
O the sad state of one so far gone that even the means of God’s clear Word, the loving ministry of the saints, and the inward light of conscience will not avail to move a heretic to repentance. Lord protect us each from such a fate.
Eph. 4:17-19 – “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
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