Measuring Up

Measuring Up

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (ESV)

I have to admit, when I was reading the text for today’s devotional my first thought was, “false teachers, again?”  Yes, false teachers again!  If it is Scripture, it’s worth taking a look at; if it’s in Scripture multiple times, there is a reason for that.

Let’s think about something before we go any further; when was the first time God’s people dealt with heresy?  Long before the Judaizers, the Gnostics, the Nicolaitans, or any other cult that we read about in the New Testament; the first incident of heresy was in the Garden.  God had set up paradise for His children, everything was good.  In fact, it was perfect.  Then the serpent was able to deceive Eve.  He spoke a gospel that was contrary to God’s.  He promised her knowledge, he offered her godhood.  Lo and behold, sin and death entered the world and it has never been the same.  Satan offered her a gospel of self-promotion, and he does the same today.

We often refer to the Bible as canon.  That word comes from a reed used as a tool of measurement.  The idea is to see if our ideas and beliefs “measure up” to God’s.  So, when we hear something, we must measure it to God’s Word to see if it is correct, even if it sounds good to us.  The truth is that every false teaching glorifies ourselves over God.  They make us the hero of our stories; the truth is that we are all villains.  Many false religions will tell you that through your works, you work your way to God; or that God affirms you just the way you are.  The truth is that we are all villains, and that Jesus is the hero.  And that God loves us and accepts us for who we are initially, but by having the Holy Spirit, we become more like Jesus through sanctification.  We did no actual work, we cannot take any credit (Eph. 2:8-9).

The long and short of it is that we, on our own merits, do not measure up.  But when God sees His child, He sees the work done by Jesus and sees perfection.  We cannot do anything to earn God’s love, we could never accomplish anything to get to a level to access Him.  He had to come down to our level and bring us up to Him.  He did that because He loves us despite our inability.

I love you all,

Justin