“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” (NKJV)
“Some will depart from the faith” indicates that there will
be individuals who participate in church and claim to be a Christian with Jesus
as their Lord and Savior, but they will draw away or have drawn away to follow
a different gospel. I used to think they
were deceived, but the scripture above states that they will speak lies in
hypocrisy.
The Greek term translated for hypocrisy refers to ‘a stage
actor,’ and Webster defines hypocrisy as ‘a feigning to be what one is not or
to believe what one does not; especially:
the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.’ Hypocrisy is
nothing new. In the Old Testament, the
term hypocrite can be found in Job and Proverbs, such as Proverbs 11:9 in the
NKJV: The hypocrite with his mouth
destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered. The NASB on the same verse uses the term ‘godless
man’ instead of hypocrite. A godless
person is opposed to or forgetful of God.
Really, these people are in the church?
In the New Testament, we see hypocrisy was a frequent criticism that
Jesus had of the religious leaders.
When we invite people to church, we frequently hear “why
should I go to that church, those people are a bunch of hypocrites.” In general, I can see their point. From their perspective, we profess to be
Christians, or Christ-like, yet we sin. We
get mad, we hold grudges, we gossip, we judge. Shameful. Things the Bible tells us not to do. What an unbeliever does not understand is that
our Savior died for our sins past, present and future. I have heard it said (and said it myself)
“the only difference between a sinner and a saint is the Savior.” True indeed, but the difference should be
much more. We should be striving to live
holy lives through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God, and repent
to God when we fail and seek forgiveness from those we have hurt. If someone does not feel conviction from the
Holy Spirit during or after committing a sin (or even thinking about it), that
person needs to consider whether their “conscience has been seared by a hot
iron.” Have they departed from the
faith? Did they ever have it? I thank God the faithlessness of man does not
disprove the faithfulness of God.
So we see a world view of hypocrisy about the congregation,
which is dangerous enough to the gospel.
Here, however, Paul is addressing something even more harmful: hypocrisy
in church leadership, in teachings. Even
though there are deceiving spirits, through prayer and diligent scripture study
it is possible to identify a leader, a church, or even a religion that is speaking
lies in hypocrisy, one that is opposed to God.
The Apostle John tells us in his first epistle “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether
they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world”
(1 John 4:1, NKJV). John continues,
describing one way to test a spirit “By
this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the
Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (1 John 4:2-3) Who is this Jesus Christ that John
confessed? The ‘Son of God,’ he says in
1 John 4:15. Also John described Him in
the beginning of his Gospel, “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
(John 1:1) A few verses later, John goes
back to stating that Jesus came in the flesh “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
(John 1:14) So Jesus Christ is the
divine Son of God, come in the flesh. Those
are good scriptures to test a spirit, and it is only a list of three. We encourage you to look for more.
What is this doctrine of demons? In the Bible there are two doctrines, the
truth of God’s doctrine, and everything else that is the doctrine of demons. Once again, use prayer and scripture. Anything that adds to or takes away from the
finished work of Jesus Christ is a doctrine of demons. Give me specific examples you say? False teachings such as you can only be saved
if you are baptized in a particular church, or you must worship only on a
particular day, or you must pray to another ‘god’ to intercede (such as Mary), or you
must speak in tongues to have the Holy Spirit, or you cannot eat certain foods, or that a religious leader
cannot marry. Stop and think about each
of those individually. It makes it easy
to argue we are in the latter times because the doctrine of demons is thriving.
Be careful out there. “Behold,
I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents
and harmless as doves.” (Matthew
10:16) Ask God for wisdom and He will
grant it.
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to
pray for you, and to ask that you may be
filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding
(Col 1:9).
May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
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