“You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:10-15 ESV)
I believe the Lord Jesus would want me to share here a personal example of such persecution as this from my own experience. And I will state ahead of time that this situation is not necessarily an exact duplicate of Paul’s experience, but that there are similarities and some parallels. For this does have to do with deception and false (misleading) teachings of the Scriptures based on man-made religion and not on the truth of the Scriptures. For many are altering the Scriptures to fit with their own personal preferences.
A few years ago I was watching and listening to another woman’s online (live) Bible studies. This was a person that I knew, so she was not a stranger to me. And I had written her several encouraging responses to some of her Bible studies. But then she misquoted Matthew 7:21-23, primarily verse 21 which says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (but he who is doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens).
But she changed the wording to say, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who is in relationship with me.” And this was to fit in with her theology of being saved and on our way to heaven based on a profession of faith in Jesus Christ which is absent of God’s requirements of us that we must die with him to sin and now walk (in conduct) with him in obedience to his commands in daily practice. Sin and disobedience to our Lord, in practice, should no longer be what we do.
Now this woman had thousands of people following her online, but I did not know how many of them were watching her morning devotions. But she was leading them astray by telling them that they could believe in Jesus and be guaranteed heaven when they die but that obedience to God and to his commands is not required of them for salvation because that is works, and we are not saved by our works. It is true - our own fleshly works do not save us, but God requires works as part of us living the salvation he provided.
See: [Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:44; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-12; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:24; Rom 11:17-24; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; 2 Tim 1:8-9; 2 Tim 2:10-13; Heb 9:28; Heb 3:6,14-15; 1 Pet 1:5,9; 2 Pet 1:5-11; 2 Pet 2:20-22; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
So the Lord led me to write to her privately and to ask her just 3 questions: 1. How approachable are you? 2. How committed are you to making certain that what you are teaching the people is the whole counsel of God? 3. Are you open to having your words tested against the Scriptures?
Well, she responded with hostility, and she said she was not approachable and that she is not willing to have her words tested against the Scriptures. Then she got very defensive. She felt that having someone test her words against the Scriptures would be a deterrent and might keep her from saying anything at all. And then I mentioned that we who teach the Scriptures should make ourselves open to have our words tested because we want to be certain that what we are teaching is the truth.
I mentioned that she had misquoted a Scripture which is “a life and death situation” if the people that she teaches believe it wrongly. She responded back by telling me that my “life and death” comment was disturbing to her because comments like that turn people away from teaching and spreading God’s word. She wanted me to just encourage her and she felt that I was rebuking her instead. And then she told me that I should not be the reason someone runs from spreading the word instead of embracing it.
The next morning I sensed that I was to listen to her next devotion, so I did. The passage was from James about confessing our sins one to the other so that we may be healed, and about the prayer of the righteous person. She focused on the subject of prayer and did not talk about confessing our sins one to the other, as I recall. But then she spent about 20 to 25 minutes blasting me, although publicly she did not name me, though she did talk to some people privately about me and she may have named me to them.
She admitted publicly that she is not approachable, and she said that the Scriptures do not say anything about us testing one another and what we teach against the Scriptures, and so she said publicly that she did not want anyone testing her words against the Scriptures. But, in the same sentence, she told them that they could challenge her if they thought she was wrong, but then she went right back to saying that they had better not try testing her words against the Scriptures.
Then she claimed that what she was teaching was straight from the Scriptures and she went off on how we are saved merely by a profession of faith in Jesus and not by works. And since I said nothing of that at all to her, I believed she knew the Scripture she misquoted, and why she misquoted it, that it was because it did not fit in with her “not by works” theology. She was very hostile in what she said about me, and she took a lot of liberties in how she described our conversation. And she was definitely trying to paint herself as the persecuted and me as her persecutor. End of story.
All this came about because I asked her those three questions. But all of us should ask ourselves those 3 questions:
1. How approachable are you?
2. How committed are you to making certain that what you are teaching the people is the whole counsel of God?
3. Are you open to having your words tested against the Scriptures?
For if we are going to be teachers of the Scriptures, or merely those who are sharing the message of the gospel, as we understand it, with others, we should be diligent about making certain that we are teaching the whole counsel of God and not a diluted and altered gospel message which uses Scriptures out of context to support their theologies. And if we teach the truth, and not the lies, and if we confront the lies, we are likely to be persecuted by those who do not accept the gospel that Jesus taught.
Songs in the Night
An Original Work / December 18, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84
Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.
I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!
Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.
I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!
Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.
Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!
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Deceiving and Being Deceived
An Original Work / February 12, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
