How to Spot a Wolf
For the past several weeks in Sunday School, we’ve been in Acts 20, where Paul stops in Miletus and calls for the church elders from Ephesus so he can give them some final words. Paul is on his way to Jerusalem, and knows by revelation from the Holy Spirit that he will not get to meet with these leaders again on earth. In verses 25-31, Paul says:
Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
First, we have to recognize that these false teachers were going to arise from within the church itself. These wouldn’t necessarily be outsiders coming in and trying to take over. They would come from among the church members, and even from among the church leadership. They would seek to accrue power and influence for themselves and their own personal gain.
Secondly, when wolves are hunting for prey, they go after the immature, the weak, and the vulnerable. It is more difficult for a mature believer to be led away by bad doctrine. A new believer, who is still learning what Christianity is all about, is usually like a sponge ready to soak up all they can; it is therefore easier for them to be led astray by something that sounds good, but doesn’t line up with the Scriptures (the new believer doesn’t know the Scriptures well enough yet to spot the errors the false teachers are promoting). People who are going through financial trials or illness are also easier prey for the wolves due to the momentary weakness their circumstances bring about. Paul urges the elders to watch out for these wolves and protect the flock from their influence.
My friend Randy, who teaches the class, gave us several key points for identifying the wolves that will arise from within the body of believers and try to abuse the sheep for their own gain.
First, false teachers will say that the Bible is information about God, rather than God’s word. It’s a subtle distinction that allows parts of Scripture to be discounted as just what people thought about God, rather than what God has revealed about himself. They’ll say things such as, “God showed me something no one has ever seen before” (going outside what Scripture authoritatively reveals) or “That may have worked then, but we know more now” (cutting out the parts of the Bible they don’t want to apply to themselves). The individual and his/her interpretation becomes authoritative, rather than God’s own self-revelation.
Second, false teachers will try to convince you that you need them to know God’s will for your life. They claim to have a tighter relationship with God that gives them the inside track for your life. Now, we certainly need relationships with other believers, and even spiritual mentors, to assist us on our journey to the Celestial City (to borrow an image from Bunyan). But if that partnership relation turns into a control situation, then things are out of whack. It’s one thing to ask the advice of spiritual leaders concerning a new job opportunity or a dating relationship. It’s something else entirely when a leader makes you feel you must consult them about every decision. (Here’s a great article that gets into some historical examples of this in recent church history.)
Third, wolves also will tie your blessing to their own comfort; if you give them the offering they are asking for, then God will meet your financial need, heal your child, etc. While there is truth in the concept of sowing and reaping, there is a world of difference between sowing into the kingdom and sowing into a messenger. My friend Dr. Carmen Imes has a great analysis of a recent example of this here.
Fourth, false teachers will also try to convince you that God’s grace is simply about freedom from the shame of the sin you are currently involved in, rather than from the power of sin that has been controlling you. They give you permission to keep on living how you want, without having to actually surrender control to God. The message Jesus and the Apostles preached wasn’t simply “believe these facts and you’re all good.” It was, “Repent and believe the gospel.” Turn away from sin and toward God. My friend Dr. Matthew Bates, in his recent book Beyond the Salvation Wars, writes:
If your Christ permits theft, sexual immorality, greed, or other acts that Scripture calls sinful as an acceptable ongoing lifestyle under his rule, then your loyalty is to an idol of your own making, not the true king. (p. 78)
Some other great thoughts on the fact that God’s grace should lead to a visible change in how we live can be found in Thomas C. Oden’s The Transforming Power of Grace, and in John M. G. Barclay’s Paul and the Gift. (For a nice summary of Barclay’s work, see Griffin Gooch’s recent article.)
Fifth, wolves will also tell you that you are special and better than other people, which exempts you from obligations. We observe the outcome of this kind of thinking in religious leaders (or church members) who do something they know is wrong, but don’t see immediate adverse consequences (there isn’t a lightning bolt from heaven striking them dead; the church keeps growing and the offerings keep increasing; God still seems to use them in supernatural ways; and so on). How many scandals have come to light in recent years where misconduct or outright sin was covered up because leadership had to “protect the mission” of the church or parachurch ministry. The leader was considered “too big to fail” because of the “special anointing” on his or her life; they were placed on a “higher plane” that did not have to abide by the same rules that apply to everyday disciples.
Sixth, false teachers will make out people to be the enemy of the kingdom, when in reality people are at most tools in the hands of the real enemy. New Testament scholar Darrel Bock says, “People are not the enemy, they are the goal.” One way of looking at people who have been deceived by Satan is to see them as prisoners of war with Stockholm Syndrome; they have been held captive so long that they have begun to sympathize with their captor. They don’t need to be defeated as much as they need to be shown the light so as to be liberated from darkness and freed from bondage. We can attack the darkness without demonizing the people who are blinded by it. We should never call someone irredeemable, as God can break through even the hardest heart that opposed His work (I mean, look what he did with Saul of Tarsus, who is the subject of the passage from this week’s lesson).
Seventh, false teachers will try to enlist you in their campaign to “save society.” They try to trick believers into thinking their goal is to make the world a better place, instead of the real work of advancing the kingdom. Now certainly, as the kingdom of God advances, the world will be changed for the better. That’s something known as “redemptive lift.” But that is not done through a top-down imposition of morality or religious rules. It is done by the work of evangelism and discipleship, through one heart at a time being changed from stone to flesh. If you try to impose righteousness through authority and force, the natural tendency of the unregenerate heart is to rebel and fight back (often becoming more extreme as a sign of defiance). But if we as Christians focused more on demonstrating to a watching world that the way of Christ truly leads to a better society and human flourishing, because it is a life in harmony with the way God designed us to live, we might actually see people giving the claims of Christ a fair hearing, and even being convinced. In fact, I seem to recall our Founder comparing the kingdom of God to leaven that is put into a batch of dough. It organically works its way through the whole mass, having an impact from the inside.
Be on the lookup for these tell-tale signs of false teachers. They’re not looking out for your well-being, but rather to use you to satisfy their own appetites.