I remember how my pastor when I was growing up used to wrap up every sermon. At the end, he’d say: “Test my witness to you this morning against these words of St.” whoever and then he’d read the text. It was a beautiful practice. It made clear to the congregation that none of us were simply to accept what he was saying just because he was saying it. Dressing a man up in white robes and putting him in a pulpit has never been anything like a guarantee that what he says there is God’s truth. It is up to each member of the congregation to hear and to judge what is said. Today’s readings make that abundantly clear.
Above all, in the Gospel reading, Jesus says: “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Jesus is telling you “Don’t believe everything a person says just because he says that it comes from God; check it out, test it out, make sure that it is true.”
Jesus gives a test: “By their fruits you will know them.” I don’t think he is referring so much to what we call the fruits of the Spirit in their own lives – love, joy, peace and so on. Rather he is referring to the fruit that follows from such a teaching.
Think about the Old Testament reading for today. God says: “I have not sent these prophets and yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, and yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, they would have turned them from their evil ways and from the evil of their doings.” The “fruit” of the teaching of these prophets was that sinners were not turned from their sin in fear of the wrath of God, but that they were confirmed in their sin and continued in it, thinking God didn’t care a bit! Jeremiah says the result was that the people of God forgot God’s name for Baal worship – they turned aside to idolatry. Teaching that leads to idolatry is obviously false teaching – and all false teaching ultimately IS false because it turns people away from trusting in the true God!
“By their fruits you shall know them.” So we look at the fruit of particular teachings and ask the important question of where this teaching leads: does it lead to repentance, turning from sin and toward God? Does it lead to humble hearts that tremble at God’s word (Is 66:2)? Does it lead to true and lasting joy and peace?
That’s one important test to make of anyone’s teaching. “Where does this teaching lead? What is its fruit?” But there is also another test.
In the second reading today, Paul warned the Ephesian pastors to take heed to themselves and their flock because he knew that savage wolves would come in among them and even from themselves false teachers will arise who will speak perverse things and draw off disciples after themselves. What were they to do to combat this? Paul says: “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified!”
He commended them to the Word of God, the Word of the Good News of Jesus that they had heard from him. He says, use that as your test-stone; this Gospel is able to build you up in faith and give you an inheritance with God’s holy people. If someone comes along and wants to add something to the Good News of God’s grace that I have preached to you, Paul says, you know that you have a false teacher, a wolf, on your hands. Don’t listen to them!
It’s just like what the Apostle wrote to the Galatians. They too were troubled by false teachers who came in after Paul left and taught that in addition to believing in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, you must also be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. Paul retorts: Look if we or even an angel were to come and preach a Gospel different than the one you received from us, let him be anathema, eternally condemned! Because to add anything to the Good News of Jesus that we must do is to take trust away from the Lord and place it on our own doings; and that’s just another path to idolatry.
So, in addition to asking: “where does this teaching lead? What is its fruit?” we should also learn to ask: does this teaching tell me that I need to add something to Christ’s work of redemption? Does it in any way imply that the sacrifice which our Lord Jesus offered once and for all people upon Calvary’s cross to wipe out sins and bring forgiveness to all is in anyway not sufficient for my salvation? Does it imply that what our Lord did does most of the job and now you need to add your little piece in too? That’s checking out the teaching by comparing to the Word of God’s grace!
Standing vigil over what is taught has never been easy, but it is increasingly difficult in a day and age when all around we are told that there can be no absolutes, that all things are relative, and contingent and a matter of interpretation - when each person has his or her own truth and no one thinks they are in a position to pass judgment on anyone else’s truth. Today’s readings sound a clarion warning to us as the people of God not to be fooled by such lies - they come from Satan. Rather, we must be all the more vigilant over what is taught in the Church in these days.
And don’t let yourself get fooled into thinking that you have no business judging what a pastor, who has studied the Word, says, when you are only a lay person. Long ago a pastor in the city of Jerusalem named St. Cyril told those who listened to him: “Even to me, who tell you these things, give not absolute credence, unless you receive the proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures. For this salvation which we believe depends not on ingenious reasoning, but on demonstration of the Holy Scriptures.”
No, the pastor has no greater access to the Word than you do. And you have been given two sure tests to check out every teaching: what fruit does it produce? How does it square with the Word of God’s grace in Jesus Christ? Using these two tests you can heed the words of the Lord Jesus “beware of false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing” and so by holding to the Word of God’s grace you will be “built up and given an inheritance among all who are sanctified” through faith in Christ to whose kingdom may we all attain by His grace and love for mankind, and to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory forever and ever. Amen.
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