"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some."
2 Timothy 2:15-18 (NKJV)
If you were cooking some food, how much poison would you add to the ingredients? The obvious answer is none, it is a foolish question. How about sickness, would it be OK to have a little bit of cancer or some other terminal disease? What about poverty? Is it a good idea to not be able to pay your bills and have some poverty? Again, the answer is that no one would want even a little of these bad things. But when it comes to spiritual things, the teaching we listen to, and the people we allow to influence us, do we sometimes allow just a little bit of wrong teaching because it is a well known speaker or it is a popular doctrine?
Paul told Timothy to be diligent and know how to correctly interpret God's Word. Paul also told Timothy to "shun" the wrong kind of teaching because it will lead to more ungodliness and spread like cancer. Many people are stricter about their natural diet than their spiritual diet and then they wonder why their faith is weak, they don't know what to do, and their life is generally in a mess. If we want to be strong stable Christians we need to be as diligent about our spiritual food as we are about the other important areas of our life.
In our information age with multiple channels on television, the Internet and an abundance of books, CDs, and DVDs it is easy to get access to people teaching something about the Bible. But we have to be careful to see if what we hear is really in agreement with what the Bible actually says or we could end up having our faith in God overthrown as Paul mentions in 2 Timothy 2:18. Be sure that what you are hearing is really based on God's Word so that you will not only be approved by God for yourself but you will also be a light to those around you.
2 Timothy 2:15-18 (NKJV)
If you were cooking some food, how much poison would you add to the ingredients? The obvious answer is none, it is a foolish question. How about sickness, would it be OK to have a little bit of cancer or some other terminal disease? What about poverty? Is it a good idea to not be able to pay your bills and have some poverty? Again, the answer is that no one would want even a little of these bad things. But when it comes to spiritual things, the teaching we listen to, and the people we allow to influence us, do we sometimes allow just a little bit of wrong teaching because it is a well known speaker or it is a popular doctrine?
Paul told Timothy to be diligent and know how to correctly interpret God's Word. Paul also told Timothy to "shun" the wrong kind of teaching because it will lead to more ungodliness and spread like cancer. Many people are stricter about their natural diet than their spiritual diet and then they wonder why their faith is weak, they don't know what to do, and their life is generally in a mess. If we want to be strong stable Christians we need to be as diligent about our spiritual food as we are about the other important areas of our life.
In our information age with multiple channels on television, the Internet and an abundance of books, CDs, and DVDs it is easy to get access to people teaching something about the Bible. But we have to be careful to see if what we hear is really in agreement with what the Bible actually says or we could end up having our faith in God overthrown as Paul mentions in 2 Timothy 2:18. Be sure that what you are hearing is really based on God's Word so that you will not only be approved by God for yourself but you will also be a light to those around you.
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