Reading… and Thinking

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

— Galatians 1:6-9 (NIV)

This is really strong language. No prophet or apostle ever used stronger. Paul says that the ultimate punishment awaits anyone who perverts the gospel into something else.

And he has strong words for the Galatians, also, for being taken in. He goes on later in the letter to hammer at this point some more. Not only is the teacher of falsehood condemned, but those who follow that leader are led away from their connection to salvation.

All of which adds up to a clear teaching that truth is important. It does matter what you believe. Other “gospels” are not just as good.

It is clearly worthwhile, then, to carefully determine what the true gospel is, and what is false. How do we go about doing that? Regular reading and study of the Bible. What happens if you just listen to others and follow the one that sounds best? You end up like the Galatians, following something that isn’t right.

Here’s a standard I would recommend. The gospel is defined in Acts 8:12 as “the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ”. So anything that changes the teaching of Jesus and the apostles about the hope of the kingdom, or about Jesus himself, or about his saving work, is not just unfortunately mistaken—it’s fatally wrong.

If you don’t know what the real problem is, you can’t know what real salvation is. If your hope is a false hope, you don’t have the true hope. If you don’t know how to become linked to God’s plan of salvation, you can’t obtain that link. If you don’t know who Jesus really was and is, you can’t be in him.

Just like it was in Paul’s day, there are lots of preachers who use Bible language, but are teaching a different gospel—one that cannot save. Only by reading and studying for yourself will you be able to separate the false from the true. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t study with someone, but it does mean that you should ask questions, and be convinced in your own mind from the Bible, not just from what someone else says!