Guarding Our Hearts from Error Within

Our greatest problem is not cults but error.

Two philiosophies of the world have crept in bed with the church of God.

1) Hedonism

Hedonism teaches that self–pleasure and gratification are the greatest goals in life. Christians who have sucumbed to this thinking have compromised their devotion to the Lord by focusing on fulfilling their own pleasures.

Indulging in sexual fantasies, stuffing our stomachs or smugly coveting things are fairly tolerated in the church. We don’t hear, “Repent!” but ‘It doesn’t really matter. We all do it. God understands.‘ Surely the God of scriptures hates these things.

"For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18,19).

Pleasure in these cases becomes a person's lord. They follow after what they desire rather than the Lord and His Word. What does the Apostle say is the end of such people?

2) Relativism

Relativism teaches that ‘rightness’ is determined by what an individual particularly feels is right about a certain issue.

Relativism’s prized core value is toleration. Toleration teaches that a person is to be praised for whatever he believes so that he might be affirmed by another. This concept itself has been boosted up by the self-esteem movement. What happens is that the importance of accepting one another becomes greater than the truth. Many would say, though not in these words, that ultimate truth is accepting one another as he is. The scriptures, however, says, “Speak the truth in love” (Ephesisans 4:15).

"Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." (1 John 3:18).

Can a person honestly speak about doctrines, cults and religions with any kind of discernment if they are forced by their thinking that they all are okay if people want to believe them?

Summary

There are a host of other kinds of other philosophies and religions that try to perpetrate themselves. We have only mentioned two; others like secularism, views on sexuality, and feminism have caused His people to go astray. The key is to stay close to the Word of God by meeting Him each day in prayer and in the study of His precious Word.

We would suggest that each Christian be able to depict and define every false philosophy that poses a threat to His Christian life. Every elder should be warning their members of these dangers as well as portraying before them the glories of God's kingdom.

"Therefore I esteem right all Thy precepts concerning everything, I hate every false way." (Psalms 119:128).