For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their destiny will be according to their works.      2 Corinthians 11:13-15 HCSB

We live in a world today where we are expected to not only be tolerant of other people’s sinful ways, but we are encouraged to embrace it. We are not only expected to accept it, but to uphold it. As Christians, we are called to hate the sin, but love the sinner. In today’s society, however, we are having issues literally shoved down our throats everywhere we turn. We are expected to go along to get along. We must be very careful of this. We hear a lot about unity and they make it sound good. They make is sound like if we are truly a Christian, we will want this unity and peace in the world. We see things happening in our society today that would indicate movement to a one world government and a one world religion. We must be very careful not to align ourselves with a false religion. We must hold to the truth found in God’s word.

In the letter to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:2, Jesus says, “I know your works, your labor and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars.”  We must not tolerate evil. 

1 John 4:1 tells us not to believe every spirit, but to test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. He tells us that we know if a Spirit is from God if they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. We are told to beware of those who do not confess Jesus because they are not from God, but are of the antichrist who is already in the world.

When we love the Lord, we want to believe that all those who use Jesus’ name and scripture in their preaching are good and are called by Him and are serving Him. We must be very careful, many of these are serving themselves. They are lining their pockets with money paid to further their ministry. This money is being used to buy jet airplanes, extravagant homes, and pay for exotic vacations.

Many years ago as a new Christian, I couldn’t get enough preaching. In addition to my local church services, I began watching Jessie Duplantis on television and he seemed okay. I had the opportunity to attend a women’s conference at his church. I listened for about an hour as Gloria Copeland and Cathy Duplantis talked about all the wonderful things they had like their Harley Davidson motorcycles and the fine new home that the Duplantis’ were building. I was not surprised just a couple years ago when Mr. Duplantis asked for donations so that he could have as nice a jet as Mr. Copeland had. Joel Olsteen would like for us to believe that we can live as we choose to live and the world will just be filled with rainbows and lollypops. We must guard ourselves against false teachers. Some of these people should be regarded as motivational speakers at best.

With all the chaos in the world today, we all want peace in our lives. In order to obtain this peace, we must align ourselves with God and trust in Him (Philippians 4:7). We want to believe that we can all get along, but unfortunately this is just not the case. We must be very careful of who and what we believe. We must understand that the devil doesn’t come to us in horns carrying a pitchfork. Our scripture passage says that He comes as an angel of light. He comes to us as someone we can trust. He comes to us as something good and he will try to convince us that this is what God wants for us. I have been there, done that and got the t-shirt. The difference is that what he encourages us to do will go against what is found in God’s word. His tactics with us are no different than those used on Eve in Genesis.

This is why it is so important today to stay in God’s word. We must know what is in God’s word if we are going to guard against those things that oppose God’s word. It’s important that we not only read our Bible, but get involved in Bible study so that we can have a better understanding of the truth found in God’s word.

We must pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). We must ask God for wisdom (James 1:5) and discernment. We must stay close to God to guard against the devil’s schemes and must always remember to wear the armor that God provides (Ephesians 6:10-18). And whatever we do, we must never sacrifice the truth found in God’s word for unity. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck. Don’t let the devil fool you.

Have a great day!