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 “Words taught by the Spirit”
(1Cor.2: 13)
An e-mail ministry for the Glory of God
INTEGRITY, CORRUPTION AND WARNINGS
CORRUPTION
As I was reading the Word of God, my attention was drawn by
the verse,
“For we are not, as so
many, peddling (AV: corrupt)
(watering down)
the word of
God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the
sight of God in Christ.” (2Cor.2:17 NKJV).
Then I said to myself: If, in the days of the apostles, there were “so many” who
falsified the Word of God, much more now, “…in latter times”, during
which “... many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.”
(Mt.24:11; Mrk.13:22) and “…some will depart from the faith, giving heed to
deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons”! (1Tim.4:1)
The word “to falsify” or “to adulterate” corresponds to the
Greek word êáðçëåýåéí (to
pronounce: “kapilévin”) which means
falsification that a wine merchant or an innkeeper makes for purposes of
dishonest profit. This verse refers, without any doubt, to Judaizers as
well as to false teachers who mixed human philosophy, morals or traditions with
the pure word of the Bible truth. Consequently, this word means, in its
context, “to corrupt” and is applied to those who adulterate or corrupt the Word
of God in some way in the interest of profit or
opportunity
or ambition.
The problem of falsification of the Word of God by certain
workers is not a phenomenon of nowadays. There were in the Old Testament
false prophets! Let us mention, as examples, what certain true prophets,
Jesus Christ and his apostles said:
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Jeremiah spoke about false prophets who made the
crowds deviate by dreams that they were telling and by stealing God’s words
every one from his neighbor (Jer.23:30); also, they spoke their own words
and made them as words of God. They were people that God had not, in
reality, sent or commanded… That is why they could not profit the people at
all (Jer.23:25-32). Jeremiah also said that in spite of the falseness
of the leaders who cheated the crowds, who misled them and who dominated
them, the crowds were taking pleasure in that. What could one make at the
end? (Jer.5:31). Consequently, the “people” had also their own
responsibility! (See also: Zec.1:3-4; 7:9-14;
Mic.3:5, 8 etc.)
Jesus Christ said:
“For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and
wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Mt.24:24)
Paul did not
prophesy in vain when he said that there would come a time when men would
not endure sound doctrine but, they would have itching
ears to hear pleasant
things and that they would heap up for
themselves teachers according to their own desires…
(2Tim.4:3-4). Why? Because certain teachers and many people
would have lost the good conscience and they would have made shipwreck of
their faith (1Tim.1:19). The Word of God warned us that these
people would multiply in latter times, departing from the faith, giving
heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons by the hypocrisy of false
teachers… teaching for the sake of dishonest gain (1Tim.4:1-3 and Tit.1:11).
“…For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their
own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive
the hearts of the simple.” (Rom.16:18). This is why he exhorted
believers that they 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 (Eph.4:14). And he prophesied
that evil men and impostors would grow worse and worse, deceiving and
being deceived (2Tim.3:13);
Peter prophesied
that – as in the past there were false prophets – there would also be false
teachers among us, who would secretly bring in destructive heresies,
even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift
destruction and that many would follow their destructive ways, because of
whom the way of truth will be blasphemed because
by covetousness they
would exploit us with deceptive words! (2Pet.2:1-3)
John, did he not
write in the same spirit that we should not believe every spirit, but
test the spirits, whether they are of God (1John 4:1)? In his
book of Revelation he speaks on several occasions about false doctrines: of
Balak, Nicolaitans and Jezebel (Rev.2:14-15, 20);
Jude, in his
epistle, warned that certain ungodly men would creep in unnoticed, who would
turn the grace of our God into lewdness and would deny the only Lord God and
our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 1:4)
Nowadays, the problem of Judaizers is, actually, non-existent
but it has taken other forms: a mixture, on the one hand, with
philosophy, sociology, psychology and interpretation of the Word of God
according to their desires; on the other hand, with the mundane
tendency “to modernize” the Word of God to make it more attractive to the
crowds! For this purpose, they use modern technology, psychology of
mass and ‘miraculous gifts’. In this manner, Satan aimed and aims at
corrupting the Gospel. In certain cases, the Christian ministry is exerted
by the power of the flesh and not by the power of God, because, like Nadab and
Abihu, certain preachers try to reach out to people with a
foreign fire,
not divinely kindled (Lev.10:1-2). Sociology, psychology, human
reflections, emotional healings, soft speech, peace at all costs without
sincere reconciliation, evangelization modernized by methods accompanied
by… a lot of decibels… attract people in mass, but
can they really save
souls? They speak on the necessity of reconciliation for the prosperity of
the church, of the family etc., but they do not make the first step to that end…
The false teachers or prophets, nowadays, can falsify the
Word of God:
1. By doctrinal errors
Certain people can falsify the Word of God by
‘disguises’ in order to
adapt it to men of carnal spirits. In this
manner, impiety is not easily detected since the false teachers seek people’s
applause or because they seek a
better post or because
they are greedy for money (1Tim.3:8). The word
adulterate
or camouflage
expresses well this falsification of the sacred Word of God.
2. By advertising campaigns concerning miraculous
spectacles
Certain modern “religious people” try to attract the crowds,
either in the churches, or in rallies of evangelization, by advertising
campaigns of healers, hunters of demons, famous musicians, famous speakers etc.,
by touching the sentimental cords of people… They try to instill faith and to
create spiritual revivals by such methods. Moreover, many are the
itinerant missionaries who try to lead people to believe in Christ by telling
marvelous miracles which occur in Africa or in Latin America or elsewhere.
They do not try to bring people to God and to the salvation of their souls by
the Word of God, by repentance and faith in Christ, but by impressive miracles!
The remission of sins does not come through miracles but through the
repentance and faith in the sacrifice of Jesus (Mrk.1:4; Act.2:38):
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that
times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Act.3:19).
This is the reason why we have weak and stumbling Christians because they are
not converted and are not consolidated by the Word of God,
by repentance
and faith. Jesus said:
“…If they do not hear Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead”
(Luke 16:31 and John 5:47). All these “spectacles” are accompanied by a
rain of “clapping”, “amen”, and “halleluiahs”! I wish that all these were
true miracles leading to salvation! I am neither against miracles nor
against miraculous gifts. I am simply against “Christian charlatans” and
people who pretend
to have miraculous gifts. Such people are
well received by people who are unaware of the Bible or who are not quite versed
in Bible truths… Emphasis should be laid on the Word of God by which
healing, deliverance and salvation can take place at any moment, in the name of
Jesus. The salvation of lost souls should be the target!
Did our Lord Jesus-Christ or His apostles apply methods of
healing or advertising campaigns similar to those which modern
evangelists/healers apply?
Let
us read the Bible carefully and let us compare!
Moreover, let us not forget that Satan himself transforms himself into an angel
of light and his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of
righteousness (2Cor.11:14-15). Indeed, Satan can make miracles up to a
certain point (Ex.ch.7 and 8) and he is also able to inspire the
doubt even
in relation to true miracles and to attribute them to other factors…
3. By erroneous traditions which cancel basic Bible
truths
The large churches or official denominations, actually, have
lost their way because of their traditions which make them deviate from the purity
and the simplicity of the salutary Christocentric Gospel! And even
the churches or denominations which have retained the good elements of a healthy
Bible teaching, have created new traditions of a spiritual and/or
administrative nature via their own constitutions… By their new
traditions, they make the commandments of God of no effect. They honor God with
their lips, but their heart is far from Him. And in vain they worship Him,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. If the blind leads the blind,
both will fall into a ditch
(Mt.15:6-14).
4. By the setting the accent only on certain
Biblical truths
Certain churches claim that they preach all the truths which
are included in the Gospel. It would be a marvelous thing, if it were true
and if it were not about a euphemism! Certain churches put the emphasis on
good works, others on the importance of the faith and others on
the gifts of the Holy Spirit etc. When the emphasis, for example,
is put on good works, then the importance of faith and of the grace of God is
minimized! When the emphasis is put on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and not on
His fruit, on worship, on halleluiahs, on “miraculous healings” etc., there is
something wrong! No! Preaching must, on the one hand,
tackle sin boldly, draw the attention of listeners to the eternal consequences
of sin, call people to repentance and, on the other hand, proclaim
the mercy, forgiveness, the grace and the love of God. Only the grace of
God can save, but the grace of God
saves only the sinners who have admitted their guilt,
who have repented, who have confessed their sins, who have understood the
dimension of the Cross of Jesus and who have made the irrevocable decision
to put their life in conformity with the will of God.
5. By false hopes, consolations and security
There are churches in which the words “Hell”, “eternal
judgment”, “eternal ruin” etc., which Jesus and the apostles often used, have
not been heard for decades! The Church of God does not need “soft”
speakers who have never wounded the feelings of anybody, who have never
irritated somebody but who seldom wake up a believer and seldom save an
unbeliever! Spiritual leaders should not give to their listeners
false hope, consolation and safety. How useful would it be if those who
preach remembered the preaching and the life of true prophets of God, of Jesus
and of the apostles! Any interpretation of the grace of God which relieves the
sinner of his responsibility for repentance
and change of life
is not of God and
is not in conformity with the revealed truth. God will not do for man
what man must do!
How regrettable it is that when John 3:16 is used it is to
present only the love of God and to comfort people! Nothing is mentioned
about eternal perdition and, in general, about the consequences of
incredulity!!! “…He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he
who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides
on him”! (John 3:35-36). It has to do with a
false
exposition of the Word of God! How sad it is to see workers of God, on
Sunday morning, when the Church is usually full of believers and unbelievers or
sympathizers, not to include five minutes, properly built-in in their messages,
to explain HOW man can be saved, OF WHAT he is saved and make a call to repentance and to
the faith in the Gospel of God’s grace!
(Mrk.1:15). Yes,
how sad it is not to give to the audience
warnings concerning the consequences of
disobedience and of sin in general! (Luke 13:3,
5). Sermons which do not contain warnings concerning the consequences of
disobedience to the commandments of God can be compared with
blank
cartridges. If the worker is not animated of an enthusiastic zeal
so that people do not perish and that they are won to Christ, he has lost the
zeal and sooner or later he will hear, “Remember therefore from where you
have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you
quickly and remove your lampstand from its place––unless you repent”
(Re.2:5).
Moreover, there are preachers who speak like the false
prophets that Jeremiah the prophet accuses: “They have also healed the hurt
of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.”
(Jer.6:14; 8:11). If they really wanted to save souls for eternity and
edify really the believers, they would do what Paul did:
“For
I have not shunned
to declare to you the whole counsel of God……… I did
not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”
Paul does not say “to comfort” or “to encourage” but warn with tears!
(Act.20:27-31, 27).
Why with tears? Moreover, they always
speak with optimism for the future, imminent revivals etc., and they prophesy
for full rooms to crack and that ‘all is well’! They
systematically avoid mentioning why there were no revivals during the previous
years!!! For some of them “faith” is equal to autosuggestion!
The majority of sermons nowadays have the character either of
courses of ethics, or of encouragement and of comfort of believers – and even of
unbelievers – who are facing difficulties of any kind (of health, money, work,
disease etc.), or of exhortation for a richer life, spiritually speaking, or for
a more active, more dedicated life and nearer to the heart of God. To
comfort and to exhort are completely commendable things! But,
what is going to happen if believers or
unbelievers do not obey the requirements of the Word of God? One does not
hear warnings any more! Many preachers are on the
mount Gerizim, to pronounce blessings to the people; not very many are those who
are held on the mount Ebal, to pronounce also
‘curses’
to unrepentant ones!!! (Dt.27:12-13). Or, certain Christian preachers who
love to preach on topics of the Old Testament preach like Jewish Rabbis! The
name of Jesus Christ is not even mentioned! Nothing as for the way in
which sinners can be saved!!!
We realize that whereas God sent
prophets among
the children of Israel to bring them to Him, they did not listen to the warnings
that they were receiving (2Chr.24:19). The same thing was reproduced when
Jesus Christ came! In almost all His teachings, there were
warnings for all those who would disobey God’s commandments. And what
should we say about the apostles? Let us read carefully
their writings and we will easily see, right from the beginning, that they speak
about two things, in an unambiguous way: First, that all those who
disobey will have undesirable repercussions on their spiritual development and
second, they will harvest the consequences of their disobedience to the
life beyond the tomb… The apostle Peter, in his two epistles, felt
obliged as long as he was in his “tent”, to keep contemporary Christians
awake by his warnings (2Pet.1:13 and 2Pet.3:1).
INTEGRITY
The apostle Paul, however, spoke
“…but as of sincerity
(e.g. honesty, purity and simplicity),
but as from God (sent by Him and acting by His
order), we speak in the sight of God
(as if His eyes were always on him)
in Christ (in the name and in Christ’s service)”.
In other words, Paul was seeking to exhibit the simple
truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He did not walk in craftiness and did
not handle the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth he
commended himself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God (2Cor.4:2).
All his being was imprint by the fear
of God! The fear
of God is the source of any virtue…
The honest man is he who has given his heart to
God completely and does not behave as certain employees who work as much
as not to be fired. It was not, therefore, in vain
that Paul had written, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan
himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great
thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of
righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” (2Cor.11:13-15).
For this reason, Paul wrote to Timothy, that honest young man of God, by
exhorting him to be diligent to present himself approved to God, a worker who
does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth and to shun
profane and idle babblings (2Tim.2:15-16).
Also, he was telling Titus: “in all things showing yourself to be a pattern
of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility”
(Tit.2:7). He also said: “For our boasting is this: the testimony of
our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and
godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more
abundantly toward you.” (2Cor.1:12).
We should never forget what one person of integrity,
completely committed to God, can achieve! Let us remember Paul, Esther,
Nehemiah, etc. Someone said that “integrity is the foundation of leadership.
You only lead people if they trust you. If you lose people's trust, you've lost
it all… Titus 2:6 tells us that a leader must be blameless”. That verse is
talking about integrity, which is the very first qualification of a
leader. Ephesians 5:3 (NIV) warns us, “But among you there must not even be a
hint of sexual immorality or any impurity or greed, because these are improper
for God's holy people.” A man of integrity is committed to honoring Jesus
Christ through obedience to God’s Word in the power of the Holy Spirit. He is
committed to keep his promises and biblical values. He is committed to
influencing his world by being obedient to the Greatest Commandment of loving
God with all his being and loving his neighbour as himself as well as the Great
Commission of reaching out the world (Mt.28:19-20).
Since always, God has asked us to serve Him in sincerity and
in truth (Jos.24:14), to celebrate Him with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth (1Cor.5:8) and that we may be sincere and without offense (Php.1:10).
That means that “integrity” is a synonym or rather equal to “honesty” and is
expressed by faithfulness. The man of God speaks always the truth in his
heart (Ps.15:2 and 51:6a). Consequently, the integrity of heart is
indispensable for the Christian life.
Paul, in his life of each day, showed his integrity, his
honesty and his purity! We can have proof of his integrity when we read,
for example, the way in which he wanted to transfer the money that the church of
Corinth had entrusted to him for the poor of Jerusalem (2Cor.8:19-20), or how he
behaved: “…in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: ……… by
purity, … by sincere love,… as deceivers, and yet true…” (2Cor.6:3-10).
Moreover, he worked with his own hands in order not to require anything from
others but, on the contrary, present the gospel of Christ without charge,
that he may not abuse his authority in the gospel (1Cor.9:18).
CONSEQUENCES
With regard to the consequences, there are two kinds:
consequences during
our
life and consequences after death. In the Old
Testament, we have several cases of crises through which the people of Israel
passed because of their rebellion and their sins. The Lord “was obliged”
to make them pass through captivity for their good (Jer.24:5) and
gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands (Neh.9:30).
With regard to the life after death, let us mention two verses:
“…he who does
not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him”?
(John 3:35-36) and “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap
corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap
everlasting life” (Gal.6:8).
Conclusion:
“He who
despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be
rewarded” (Pr.13:13 and Dt.18:18-19).
He/she who does not study the Bible and does not obey it
sooner or later will lose his/her way.
“Therefore,
to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
(Jas.4:17)
EXHORTATIONS
Dear friends! Let us be sincere! Let us be
honest! Let us be attentive to the reproofs of correction because they
constitute “the way of life” (Pr.6:23). If we love the truth of God
and we subject ourselves, with all our heart to His truth, we will ourselves be
saved and we will become useful instruments in the hands of God to save others.
Christ who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of
our justification will be glorified. It is very useful to remember what
Ezekiel the prophet tells us in his book concerning our responsibility to warn
the unjust and the just ones of the danger that they risk when they do not obey
God’s warnings (Eze.3:17-21 and 33:3-9). When a brother or the leader of
our church warns us, it is not to humiliate us but to do us good!
(1Cor.4:14).
Man may
humiliate his neighbor. Truth never! Truth sets free, does good and lifts man
up! Paul wrote:
“Him we preach, warning every man and
teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus” (Col.1:28).
Oh, Lord, help me, to always respond to your requirements and
to become
a true imitator of Paul as he was imitator of Christ…
(1Cor.11:1)
John BALTATZIS
baltatzis@skynet.be
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