Paul warned about these times in 1 Corinthians 4:15.

“The teachers among believers were supposedly instrumental in instructing them further in the knowledge of Christ; or as the Arabic version reads it, “in the love of Christ”; yet they had no hand in their conversion. However, Paul the apostle first preached the Gospel to them, and ministerially laid Christ the foundation among them, and directed them unto Him, and was the minister by whom they believed. These teachers at most and at best built on his foundation, but sadly only wood, hay, and stubble; and whereas they were only a sort of schoolmasters, and not fathers, they taught with:

1. mercenary views, and for lucre’s sake (2 Corinthians 2:17a),
2. severity, as such men do, and not with such a single eye to their good, and
3. not with that tenderness and affection a parent has, and in which relation he stood to them:

As it is in nature, so it is in grace; how many masters and instructors soever a child may have, whether together or successively, he has but one father; and so how many after instructors, either nominally or really, believers may have to lead them on, or who pretend to lead them on to a further knowledge of Christ; yet have they but one spiritual father, who has been the happy instrument and means of their conversion, as the Apostle Paul was to the Corinthians—John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

So, where does this leave us in the construct of the church today where many by reason of mobility or other reasons, the person who led them to Christ is no longer at hand! Dearly beloved, you have a responsibility to scrutinize closely both the doctrine and lifestyle of such teachers.

Too many believers are lazy, presumptuous and unwilling to diligently and prayerfully study the word of God. They are satisfied by the charisma and crowd-based approval of men, and not the strict counsel of the Lord (Matthew 7:16-20). Even Christ subjected Himself to such scrutiny (John 8:46). Such disposition informed the apostolic declaration of John the beloved (1 John 4:1-5), and of Paul when he was saying his goodbye to the elders of the church in Ephesus at Miletus (Acts 20:25-35)! Your quiet abetting of evil, deceitful teachers makes you a partaker of their sins and more because your life is also not right with God. Either way, you will lose your crown, if not your life. You cannot make nonsense of the grace that empowers to live above sin.

This is a wakeup call for the remnant in the backslidden church in Nigeria. Shalom.



Pastor Afolabi Oladele