That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Ephesians 4:14
A few years ago, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life was astonished by the results of their survey of so-called evangelical Christians. The survey revealed that 57 percent of those people believed that people who follow other religions can have eternal life. So the Pew Forum repeated the survey with more specific questions. And the results were the same. These were people claiming to be born again, trusting the work of Christ for their salvation. And yet, their doctrinal ignorance was so profound that they lacked an understanding of the basic doctrines of the Gospel. Who, if anybody, is teaching these people? They are certainly not teaching them the Scriptures! The devil is flooding the religious spectrum with such fallacies as ‘Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism’ and other demonic teachings that lead people off into destruction. Why do people fall for this stuff? It’s very simple, really. They don’t read the Bible for themselves. They depend on someone else to teach them. And if the teachers go astray, they take the spiritually lazy with them. Which is what our text is warning us about.
Paul does not want the Christians in Ephesus to remain children in their faith. He wants them to grow beyond the stage where they can be easily led about with every wind of doctrine. Spiritual growth comes from only one source: the knowledge of God. And that knowledge is found only in one place: the Word of God. While it is true that we need godly teachers who will expound the Scriptures to us, we need even more the personal convictions that come from reading the Bible for ourselves. Unless we know from our own study of the Word what God says, how will we know whether the preacher is telling us the truth? We begin with our salvation, which is based on the Scriptures: ‘Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever’ (1 Peter 1:23). And we continue throughout our Christian experience drawing on the Scriptures for our encouragement, hope, comfort, guidance, and for our growth and development in the things of God. Listen to what Job had to say about his reliance on the Word of God: ‘Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food’ (Job 23:12). If we were to adopt that attitude concerning the Bible, we would experience the level of spiritual growth that would prevent the false doctrines from having any impact on us.
The devil’s liars are sneaky and nasty in their efforts to entice good people away from the truth. But if we keep reading and exploring the truth for ourselves, those liars will have no impact on us. – Jim MacIntosh