A Warning

John’s message on I Peter 5 warned against pride. He also included a warning about listening to any message offered as an alternative to the message of Peter’s letter. I would like to extend that warning.
When I was a kid, I loved the book store. As I grew and became interested in God and accepted Christ, I was drawn to that area of the book store that sold “religious” books. Years ago there would be a section of books that were messages from the Evangelical subculture of which I was a part and in adjacent shelves were the “New Age” books that seemed to me to just be creepy. It was not difficult to know what books I wanted to stay away from.
Today, most of the book stores are gone and instead of browsing shelves we browse the Internet. But more distressing is a new kind of Christianity that is getting lots and lots of digital ink. If you grew up in the same Evangelical subculture as I did (at least from age 19 on), you know all about (and reject) the “health and wealth” gospel that misreads scripture to promise the good life to its followers.
Today’s temptations are more subtle. They often start like this: Christ is Love and we are called to love our enemies.
Wait a minute! That is exactly right!! But wait. Many of these new voices are talking about the “trajectory” of scripture and learning to extend Jesus’ teaching to our current culture. They are unhooking our moral code from scripture. Once there is a disconnect with scripture there is no end of directions you can go.
Discernment and a foundation of scripture have never been more important. The new messages sound great and usually contain true elements, but beware the talk of “extensions” and about the “trajectory of scripture”.
Another caution: It is not our place to Judge our brothers and sisters. It is our duty to God to work to understand His will for our life and to make the proper moral decisions based on scripture, the Holy Spirit, prayer, and the wise counsel of other believers.