“He speaks blasphemy.”
“He entertains the crowd.”
“He loves all that attention.”
“His congregation isn’t sound. In fact, they’re a bunch of liberals!”
“I hear they fellowship other believers!”
“I heard he actually stayed a couple of days in Samaria!”
“His close circle is mostly fishermen, for crying out loud! Not one scribe or lawyer in the mix. Of course, righteous men are too intelligent to have anything to do with him.”
“I heard that he let a wayward woman wash his feet and even ate in the house of a tax collector! Scandalous!”
“He preaches a message of love and service and completely negates the Law!”
“His followers certainly don’t obey the Law.”
“He doesn’t care about Scripture! He just wants to be a celebrity.”
“I heard he let a woman be the first to proclaim his resurrection! Doesn’t he know women can’t preach?”
“He’s not only radical, he’s reckless. If people follow him, they’re going to be lost!”
Sounds silly, right? But I wonder how many times one of these statements was actually uttered in the temple, home or synagogue. News buzzed around Jerusalem about this false teacher. The Truth came and they branded him a liar because he didn’t fit into their religious mold. He was different so he must be wrong, sinful and dangerous.
Jesus preached a message of love and grace and the church people hated him so much that they sought to kill him and they didn’t rest until they did.
Love your neighbor even the one you don’t agree with, even the one you don’t like, even the one who interprets the Bible differently from you and even the one you call a false teacher. Learn to disagree with love but be very careful who you judge. They may not be the false teacher you think they are.
“Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.” Romans 14:4
Paula Harrington is the mother of five children and resides in Calvert City. She is compiler and editor of the books, Once Upon a Bible Class, A Common Bond and A Sunday Afternoon with the Preachers’ Wives. Her work has appeared in Christian Woman magazine, the Christian Chronicle newspaper and numerous other sites and websites. When she’s not teaching at one of Marshall County’s finest schools, she’s helping her family at the Calvert Drive-in Theater (and by helping, she means eating the cheeseburgers). She can be contacted at harringtonseven@yahoo.com