Christ is Preached

CHRIST IS PREACHED

Philippians 1:12-18

As Paul is writing this letter to the church of Christ in Philippi, he is prison, probably in Rome. However, being in prison does not stop Paul or his work for Christ. He makes the statement that the things which happened to him had actually turned out to advance the gospel message. Sometimes what we think are bad things in our life, actually are for good. Paul would make the remark that the whole palace guard had heard of the gospel message because of his imprisonment and that most of the brethren were more confident because of Paul’s situation, even though he was in chains. Good things often come about in bad circumstances.

There were some though who were preaching against Paul because he was in prison. They were preaching out of envy and strife, from selfish ambition, and not sincerely. They were trying to add affliction to Paul but in doing so they were still preaching Christ. Paul would summarize their preaching in verse 18; “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”

Were these who were preaching Christ but preaching against Paul false teachers? They were preaching Christ but for the wrong reasons; did this make them false teachers? I do not think that it did. I do not think Paul would have condoned their preaching if it were false. Paul had already written to the churches in Galatia that those who preach a different gospel were to be accursed. “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8)

There is false teaching and there are false teachers. Jesus would foretell of false teachers in his day in Matthew 24. Three times in this chapter does he warn of their coming. In verse 5; “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.” These would coming either saying they were the Messiah or saying that they come in the name of Jesus. We have many false teachers who claim to be Christians and it is these who are most dangerous. In verse 11; “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.” He summarizes these statements in verse 24; “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”

Paul would warn the elders at Ephesus “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.” (Acts 20:29-30) False teacher would come into the church and try to lead church members after themselves. Some of these would arise from among the church. There are most definitely false teachers and false teaching in the church.

In 2^nd Corinthians 11: 13-15, Paul again warns of the false teaching among the church. “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.” If Satan himself can transform into an angel of light, you can bet that his teachers can be very deceitful in their appearance and teaching. Most false teaching today will contain 95% truth, if it did not people would reject it to begin with. False teaching is very deceitful and has to be to be successful in prying the elect away from Christ. “They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.” (Galatians 4:17) One of the primary characteristics of a false teacher is that they try to draw you away from Christ and to themselves.

Ephesians 4:14 reads; “…that 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…” As Christians we are to grow and mature so that we are not led astray by false teaching. We grow by staying in God’s word and we seek Scripture for all teaching. When something is contrary to God’s word, we should be familiar enough to recognize it as false. If we are not sure we should examine God’s word to determine the truth.

Sometimes we are deceived by thinking that the Bible is outdated and is not viable in the modern culture. We are warned of this also in Colossians 2:8 “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” False teaching can sound deceitfully good and up to date but it is still false when it is contrary to the teaching of Christ.

Paul would tell Timothy that the days will come when men will seek teachers who will teach them what they want to hear. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (2^nd Timothy 4:3-4)

Paul told Titus that certain false teachers needed to be stopped; “…whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.” (Titus 1:11) A false teacher is often in it for the money. Jude would verify this in verses 17-19 “But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual person, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.”

False teacher have been present since the Garden of Eden. Moses would present a test for false teachers in Deuteronomy 13:1-5: “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ ³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. ⁵ But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.”

The book of Jude and 2^nd Peter chapter two are very similar writings and both deal with false teachers. Both these passages identify three distinguishing characteristics of false teachers. One there is immorality in their lives. Second there is always greed, and third there is lying or no scriptural backing for their teaching. Turn with me to the book of Jude beginning with verse 3: “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴ For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵ But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; ⁷ as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

⁸ Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. ⁹ Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰ But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. ¹¹ Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

¹² These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; ¹³ raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

¹⁴ Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, ¹⁵ to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

¹⁶ These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. ¹⁷ But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: ¹⁸ how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. ¹⁹ These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. ²² And on some have compassion, making a distinction; ²³ but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.”

False teaching is ugly teaching. There is heresy, greed, immorality, and even a denial of Jesus as Lord. False teaching is of course completely opposite to good teaching which leads people to Christ. There is ugly teaching, good teaching, and there is also bad teaching; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Bad teaching may have been what Jude was referring to in the later part of his writing and bad teaching may have been what was occurring when Paul was addressing those teachers who were teaching Christ, but only with wrong motives. False teaching is by no means to be condoned. God will bring judgment against the false teacher and we are to be wise enough to not succumb to false teaching.

Our problem and challenge today is to distinguish between false teaching and bad teaching and there is a difference. False teaching is heresy, a tool of the devil, with the intent of opposing Jesus as Lord. Bad teaching can be a misinformed brother proclaiming false teaching out of ignorance. We see an example of bad teaching in Acts 18 when Apollos came to Ephesus as an eloquent speaker who was competent in the Scriptures. He spoke accurately the things concerning Jesus but he only knew the baptism of John. When Priscilla and Acquila heard him, they explained to him the way of God more accurately. (Acts 18: 24-26)

Apolos’ knowledge was not complete concerning baptism. Today we would proclaim that someone who disagreed with us concerning baptism, would certainly be a false teacher; well maybe not. They just may be a misinformed brother. Just because someone differs with us concerning an issue, that does not make them a false teacher and we need to be very careful in labeling them as such.

I do not believe Paul was labeling those who were preaching against him as false teachers in Philippians 1:18. These men certainly did not have the right motive in their preaching but they were still preaching Christ. This was a case of bad preaching; not false teaching and we must deal with these very differently.

The Lord’s church today faces further division because of bad teaching. There is way too much labeling and name calling and hatred not from false teaching but from bad teaching. We can disagree but we cannot refuse to love. So let us each be very careful in our judgment of others. Let us be attuned to God’s word, so that we know whether the teaching we hear is good, bad, or ugly.