God’s Constitution, Pt 30: Prophets

Matthew 7:15-20                   15“ Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.  16You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?  17A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. (NLT)

1Timothy 6:2c-5                       Teach these things, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them.  3Some people may contradict our teaching, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These teachings promote a godly life.  4Anyone who teaches something different is arrogant and lacks understanding. Such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words. This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander, and evil suspicions.  5These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy.

While we often think of a shepherd as benevolent caretaker in the finding of water and pasture for his flock, in the old days shepherds had the additional responsibility of protecting their sheep with guard animals and weaponry such as slings.  Jesus often used the shepherd/flock metaphor for the description of  the pastor’s relationship to the people of his community.

People tend to think of pastors today as more-or-less gifted speakers who tend to be overly critical.  But it is probably true that the most critical duty a pastor has is to protect his flock from predators.  We are used to thinking of predators as violent humans who seek out naïve persons of whom they can take advantage.  It is also true that there are people in the world who are intent in taking out God’s people; Satan uses them to good effect to destroy churches and pastors.  Many a church has been disbanded, or a pastor defrocked because of some cancerous imposter has invaded the community. 

So while a person might be inclined to view this verse as an outdated relic of a bygone era, he or she must not do so, for the threat is very, very real.  And import is given these verses as they follow on the heels of the narrow and wide gates.  Human sin nature hasn’t changed over the centuries, so it certainly would have been just as difficult then as now for people to avoid the draw and temptation of the world so as to focus upon life with Jesus.  By the end of the 1st Century false prophets were becoming an increasing problem, and I suspect there were many conversations which began with, “I know this is hard, but you don’t really think Jesus is the only way to salvation, do you?”

But the uncloaking of a false prophet is difficult because their entire modus operandi is to pretend to be a real prophet.  Jesus, though, has put his finger on the pulse of the false prophet’s problem.  There are a few things I’m absolutely sure of.  One of them is that Jesus is Lord, and the other is that the truth always comes to light.  A false prophet is a person who is deceptive, who wants you to believe he is on your side when he really is not.  Profession of Christ as Savior is easy, and even Christian behavior may be counterfeited, but what a man really is will inevitably show itself by the way he lives.  Being deceptive is a hard thing to do over a long period of time, because sooner or later such a person’s true nature is revealed.  But the problem for us is that it is also hard to tell the difference between a true believer who falls into sin, and the false person who never really left sin in the first place.  The answer lies in one’s motivation.  The true believer who frequently falls nonetheless has a repentant heart and is truly attempting to be a better child of God.  His point of view is to help other people through their difficulties partly because he is so aware of his own weaknesses.  The false person is also aware of other people’s weaknesses, but doesn’t care, and uses them as assets to help him gain his own agenda.  He is out for himself, period.

P. T. Barnum is quoted as saying, “I can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but I can’t fool all the people all the time.”  This is why believers should always be part of a community of other believers.  There is protection in numbers; God has created his church in such a way that everyone has something to bring to the community and everyone helps protect everyone else.

11So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  (Ephesians 4:11-13)

And James addresses this issue too when he says,

14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  … 17bfaith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead… 18bShow me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.  (James 2: 14, 17b, 18b)

So, dear reader, don’t let yourself be a lone ranger:  In doing so, you are an easy target; easily picked off by Satan’s arrows.  In modern terms, a false prophet is a con man who is determined to relieve you of your money.  But money is temporal and will fade.  Your salvation, possibly vulnerable to the false prophet who is determined to relieve you of it, is eternal and far more valuable.