The Need for Discernment (2)

Ephesians 4:14—That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive—is the most graphic description in Scripture of the immature, unguided, undiscerning Christian. There are several characteristics of children that apply to the spiritually immature Christian. First, they were ignorant, and second, they were impulsive.

Third, they are impressionable, they are carried about with every wind of doctrine. Carried about is periphero, which pictures being carried around in circles, that is, being directionless, just driven here and there with no guidance. As Greek scholar and expositor John Eadie puts it, “The billow does not swell and fall on the same spot, but it is carried about by the wind, driven hither and thither before it—the sport of the tempest.” It’s also significant that the definite article (“the”) appears before doctrine in the Greek—“every wind of the doctrine”—showing that false teachers are very deliberate; they don’t have a general doctrine, rather a definite, calculated, and well formulated doctrine to teach. Most cults illustrate this vividly; as wrong as the doctrine is, it is nonetheless systemized, organized, and well devised. As a result, whatever the false teacher’s doctrine is, the immature, undiscerning Christian is just carried along by it until the next teaching blows in and carries him somewhere else.

One pastor boldly asserts the habits of the spiritually immature Christian when he writes: “There is a flightiness and instability to their lives . . . They dash in a dither toward every new religious fad, they seem more excited about the latest religious book than about the one Great Book, they rush from seminar to conference, hanging on to the words of the latest Christian guru, they change their spiritual and doctrinal mindset as often as they change their socks. With them, prophecy becomes a hobby, and spirituality becomes the latest craze.”

How true! From the days of Bill Gothard’s “Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts” decades ago to Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” today, it’s been this fad, that book, and this other movement, one after the other, year after year. The picture painted by wind is also graphic. Just as the wind surrounds us when it blows, so all kinds of teaching surround us. This demands, therefore, that we discern its direction—we must examine where it comes from, what it carries, and where it’s headed.

Fourth and finally, children are indulgent. If there is one thing that characterizes a child more than anything else, it’s that he wants to play, he wants to be entertained, he wants to have fun, he is self-absorbed. And that is not only true of the immature Christian today but most of the Church as a whole. The seeker-sensitive movement has inevitably led to entertainment as the driving forced of Church “ministry.” This started decades with just children and youth ministries that kept the kids entertained, but now it defines the whole Church. There is literally every form of entertainment in the Church today that is found in the world: all genres of music concerts, dramas, movies, stand-up comedy, dances, sports, and even—I’m not making this up—gambling and strippers.

To raise money, one church in Surrey, England sponsored “Rodent Roulette,” in which they put a mouse in a box that has several holes in the sides of it, put a cup over the mouse, spin the box around a few times, take bets on which the hole the mouse will use to exit the box, and then release it. Christianity Today magazine reported an incident in Richardson, Texas where one church invited a woman from another church in their denomination to take part in the service. She did, and when the “exotic dancer” from a Dallas nightspot was done, all she was wearing was a G-string.

Yes, I freely admit that those—and actually many more I could document—are extreme examples But I also submit that PHILOSOPHICALLY they are no different than any church today that resorts to entertainment in any form. So-called “ministry” today is built on “giving people what they want,” “appealing to felt-needs,” and “user-friendliness.” It is specifically geared to the flesh and thrives in an atmosphere of spiritual immaturity.

But Paul is not done yet! Next time we’ll look at how false doctrine comes.