Identifying False Teachers

One of the most popular Christian preachers in America sat in front of the one of the most-listened to interviewers. The interviewer asked him, “I don’t believe in Jesus. Do you believe I’m going to hell?” Joel Osteen answered Larry King that God wants us to lead lives of integrity. Pressed harder, he said, “I don’t know.” (June 20, 2005)
It would be easy to say that Osteen was scared of media backlash, “tarnishing his brand”, or driving away some of the tens of thousands who attend his church or lose some of the millions of dollars he earns from his best-selling books. I can’t help but think there’s another possibility: Telling someone the truth about God’s judgment is hard. It makes it all the harder when the world is filled with voices willing to say something that sounds so much better, so much more loving.
Is there a text in the Pentecost season that’s more out of sync with our time than the Old Testament lesson for this Sunday – 1 Kings 22:10-28? The gall of Micaiah! The lovelessness! He not only dared to prophecy against his own nation and predict the downfall of his king, but to look at other prophets who, it seemed, earnestly believed the message they shared, and call them liars. Why? Finally, it’s all about God’s love. God loved his people and was going to do what needed to be done to remove wicked kings. And God loved wicked kings, and never stopped warning them. And sometimes, that means a prophet gets slapped in the face.
There are a lot of “easy targets” with this text – and they’re worth preaching on. It’s worth taking time to remind our brothers and sisters that lying spirits are at work in false teachings. It’s fitting to sound an urgent condemnation against those who preach peace when none is to be found. These are things that kill men’s souls! But our first task is not to preach the law against Zedekiah or Joel Osteen. It’s to preach the law against ourselves. How many times have we failed to sound God’s warning because we were afraid of being seen as loveless or getting slapped in the face? Would Micaiah have kind words for us?

And remember, Jesus calls urgently in the Gospel, and in love. He loves us enough to call that no one comes to the Father except through him. And he loves us enough to call us with it still.

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