The Last Days Of The Church XLII

 Of all the things Paul could have listed as having been carefully followed by Timothy, he began with doctrine. He didn’t focus on the superficial, nor did he start out with delivery, inflection, tonality, or cadence. Paul’s desire wasn’t to make Timothy a good preacher or orator but to make him a soldier of the cross, a warrior fully equipped to do battle against the forces of darkness.

Doctrine matters. It’s not just a matter of belief, it is the bedrock of our faith. The fundamentals of what you believe, why you believe it, and whether or not it’s rooted in the truth of God’s word matter far more than whether you have gravitas or presence or any of the other things the church seems to prioritize today over doctrine.

You don’t have to look far to find examples of doctrinally vapid individuals who preside over some of the biggest congregations in the world just because they can fake a smile and wear a suit well. Whenever such individuals are pressed on what they believe, the word salad flowing forth from their mouths makes one question whether they’re sitting across from a politician rather than a pastor or teacher of the Word because their doctrine has not been established in truth and everything they claim to believe is situational.

If the Bible calls it sin, it’s sin unless you’re sitting across from Oprah and trying to ingratiate yourself with her. Then it’s no longer sin; it’s just not God’s best for you. But you know, heaven’s a big place, and God needs to fill it, and we can’t expect that He’ll only fill it with the righteous.

It’s like concert tickets that go on sale the night before the show because the venue is only halfway sold out, and they need to fill the seats. Wait long enough, and surely God will make some sort of concession. Time is drawing close, and plenty of mansions in the Father’s house are still waiting for tenants. The only problem with that mindset is that God didn’t take out a loan to finance the building of His mansions, so he’s not letting them go on the cheap to keep from getting foreclosed on.

Notwithstanding men’s high opinions of themselves, if God said nothing wicked or defiled would enter His kingdom unless there is a correction or retraction by God Himself, we would do well to believe Him at His word.  

Before knowing anything else about an individual who asserts any sort of spiritual authority in your life, first and foremost, carefully study their doctrine and see if they are in harmony with scripture. Don’t be impressed by their titles or the size of their ministry. They can call themselves prophets, bishops, elders, pastors, or evangelists to the nations, but if their doctrine is off, steer clear.

We get caught up in the superficial and fail to dig deeper to see if there is anything of substance. But he calls himself a prophet, and she calls herself a prophetess. Men call themselves women, too. It doesn’t make it true, now does it?

Setting aside that it’s a personal pet peeve of mine when someone introduces themselves by their title rather than their name first, anyone who insists that you view them through a certain prism or in a certain role without giving you the opportunity to vet them should be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism. No, I will not refer to you as a prophet, and as far as caring how you feel about my unwillingness to address you as such, that’s a you problem, not a me problem.

Paul did not present his life as a testimony or himself as a living witness as a means of garnering vainglory or the praise of men, but rather as a model of what Timothy would have to endure in order to be a vessel of honor in the hands of His master. They weren’t empty words or experiences he had not lived. Paul pointed to the reality of his own life and concluded that although it had not been easy, the Lord had delivered him out of all his predicaments. By reminding him of all he’d gone through, Paul hoped to encourage young Timothy to remain true to the calling to which he had been called and not waiver in the face of hardship, persecution, rejection, or afflictions.

Choose wisely who you model your life after because it’s one of the most important decisions you will ever make. That one decision will ripple throughout the rest of your time on earth, and whether for good or ill, you will have to live with the consequences of your choice.

We choose our mentors based on who we want to be. If your desire is to be a faithful, obedient servant of Christ, you will gravitate toward someone who is likewise walking in obedience and faithfulness, gleaning wisdom from their lives and their walk. If your desire is to be a pied piper who knows how to take up a good offering and gives people what they want rather than what they need, there are plenty of those within the church as well, and most of them are more than happy to take you under their wing.

Their desire will not be to make you more like Jesus but more like themselves, and with time, this will become obvious. For the sake of your soul and spiritual well-being, avoid anyone whose desire is to mentor you into becoming something other than Christlike, no matter how flattering it may be for your flesh or what fantastical future they promise you will have if only will follow the steps they’ve laid out for you.

It may sound jaded, but it’s the reality we’re living in, and while those who would exploit the sheep of God’s pasture for their selfish gains are too many to number, true men of God who walk humbly with their Lord are becoming rarer by the day, living their lives of obedience in obscurity, far from the limelight and accolades of the lukewarm.

I’ve known a few such men throughout my life, and everyone had something profound to teach me. Likewise, every single one pointed the way to Jesus as the one whom we should follow, giving Him the glory and honor for whatever calling they had been called to and whatever God had done through them, whether great or small.

There will be signs, there always are. It is inevitable as long as you are not taken in by the charisma of an individual, their title, or their presence. Do they fear God and keep His commandments? Since this is the whole duty of man, it must be evident in the lives of those from whom we would take spiritual succor.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.