Today we won’t be tackling a specific heresy, but rather one of the great difficulties in addressing and confronting them. Most Christians are glad to hear heresies denounced – To an extent. They will nod, and amen, and even cheer if you disprove and discredit the heresies other people believe in, but you had better not even begin to suggest that they themselves have bought into one. Those who were most pleased with your calling out falsehoods in others, will often become those who turn into your most ardent critics if your eye falls upon them personally.
What this sadly reveals is that too much of our identity is tied to our pride. We happily look down on others for their misunderstandings, but we imagine that we ourselves are above such things – At least as it relates to the important stuff. O but nothing could be further from the truth! None of us are so advanced that we could never be taken in by Satan’s lies. This is why we are warned to be constantly on our guard:
1Pet. 5:8 – “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (NASB)
People are tempted to think that because they can quickly diagnose heresy in others that they are in a safe position themselves. But the instruction of the Scriptures is not for us to be watchful merely for others, but first for ourselves! When you start to think everyone else is prone to get it all wrong, but you have got it all right, you are in a dangerous position. In such a stance, you have probably come to a place where no one can confront you about anything. O how we might feign humility, but when someone challenges our beliefs we immediately become defensive. And in these scenarios when our pride is hurt, we immediately jump to the conclusion that the other person cannot possibly be right.
But we have to be careful here, because in this frame our emotions begin to rule us, and we will begin to see everything through jaded lenses. Our priority becomes justifying ourselves and our opinions rather than ensuring we are actually standing in the truth. And in our day, with access to the internet, you are just a few clicks away from finding countless articles, videos, and sadly even sermons that will validate you in just about any position you can imagine – No matter how faulty. O how many people have become solidified in their errors through this very means!
So what are we to do? Well, first we must be reminded of our need for genuine humility. 1Cor. 8:2 says – “If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know” (NASB). If we recognize that we personally have room to grow, we need not become defensive when someone shines a light on that fact. From that place of humbleness, we then ought to seek for sure footing in the only safe place to find it. The Word of God is that safe place – And it is the only safe place. We can’t rely on our wisdom, our experiences, how we feel about things, or even the sermons we have heard in the past. The only safe place is the Word of God – And that Word must be taken as a whole. We can’t justify our positions on one passage stripped of its context, but we must let Scripture interpret Scripture. We must allow the whole text to be the whole guide for our beliefs and understanding. O might we be willing to have anything we believe scrutinized by the Word of God – No matter how dear to us that belief is, and no matter how long we have believed it. Nothing is so precious as your very soul, don’t trade it by clinging to your pride – Allow the Word of God to do the work for which God has sent it.
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