2Co 11:4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
People – wicked people – invent “another Jesus.” A counterfeit Jesus that is not the Jesus of the Bible. Who is not the Son of God. Their fiction is an idol crafted by the minds of Satan’s children. But why do they imagine a christ who is not Christ?
I can tell you.
They do so because they hate the real Jesus. They hate the gospel – BUT, they want to be regarded as “Christians,” as real followers of Jesus. It’s just that they do not want following Jesus to entail suffering on their part. They want a Jesus who makes them popular and wealthy. Who never demands that they must take up their cross and die to themselves.
I have seen this thing play out many, many times in my 40 years as a pastor. Here is someone who appears to be just the finest example of a Christian. Church member, faithful in church attendance, knowledgeable of Scripture, able to offer impressive sounding prayers, but….
As the days and months and years go by, the unwillingness of these counterfeits to suffer for Christ, to be unpopular with and hated by the world, to die to themselves in other words, becomes increasingly difficult for them to disguise. And as the real Christians around them do suffer for Christ, such an environment becomes more and more uncomfortable for them. It’s too narrow. Too rocky. Too, well, costly.
They serve another Jesus, you see. And so, off they go, claiming that they are following Christ when in fact change of course takes them onto the Broadway that leads to destruction. It’s wide. It’s comfy. It doesn’t cost anything, and there is lots and lots of company there made up of people just like them.
Turns out that their jesus is an agent of Satan, a demonic Pied-Piper sent to lead those who do not love God’s truth to hell.
Dawn
Wicked people LOVE being in the church because church people are completely gullible. SAY you are a Christian and voila, you MUST be one, right? Why bother actually looking at someone’s BEHAVIOR? Judge not, lest ye be judged, so if anyone actually uses discernment and concludes that these folks are not just the best of the best, why they are BAD for JUDGING!!!!
Grace
Wise words! Church people are not only gullible, but they have also been brainwashed to believe that since we are all sinners, all sin is the same. Thus, we are told not to judge because we are equally bad, even if their behavior is despicable and abusive, but just to let it go. Eventually, the behavior becomes so out of control and evil, that the decent people leave, and the unrepentant get to run the church and have their way.
See the religious script
At times when I read your posts, today being one, I feel like you must’ve read so many of my thoughts! Many are so much alike, from different roles, but so much of the experience is back to having lived through satan’s horrible script – Jesus is nowhere, and like you said, they have their crafted idol instead.
To this day the abuser, the servant of Satan himself right smack within the church, uses his ministry and church worshipper allies (not Christ worshippers, but instead the four-walled brick and mortar community worshippers) to do so much of his dirty work – it’s nauseating at best. All sounds so innocent – until you peel back the masks – they’re his puppets. I often felt like the abuser thought he was smarter than Jesus…… he could say the correct Bible and worship-ease but there was no true following Christ…in all seriousness it was never about loving and following Christ…. seemed too busy rallying his own worshippers as he spouted of his self-righteousness, superiority, ya da ya da ya da.
Maybe it wasn’t as much then – but Satan’s script is very transparent now….. it puts a whole new spin on religion, his religion.
Lynn
Hypocrites flock to Christ’s church because they know it is a place where they can assert their own power and control over others in order to build their own kingdom while calling it God’s kingdom. This happens in all types of churches – reformed and non-reformed. We see this with megachurch pastors especially. It doesn’t matter whether their doctrine is sound or not. Their goal is power and control. They will take the scriptures to craft the narrative that fits their desire for validation from others and financial gain. They want to be God and use deceptive practices to hide their intent.
Doctrine alone is not enough to provide genuine faith in Christ. Revelation 2 highlights that fact when God speaks to the church in Ephesus. Many reformed pastors operate like doctrine alone is enough. They think it doesn’t matter how you behave your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Their actions towards women show a belief of the inferiority of women. They believe it’s their job is to keep women shackled so they can’t become free. How do I know this? They refuse to lift a finger when women come forward with evidence of abuse. They believe they can send a Christian woman back to an abusive husband and still remain godly. This is a lie. They double down when confronted by their sin and refuse to repent. They blame the victims and stand by the abusers even after they have been convicted in a court of law. Their hardheartedness indicates they are not children of God but of Satan.
Oh that the true people of God would open their eyes and reject and remove the hypocrites in their midst. You cannot have a healthy church where evil is comfortable in the pew and the pulpit.
Let us seek to grow in God’s wisdom daily so we may be able to spot the hypocrites, lest we get entangled with one and have to learn the painful lesson that accompanies a relationship with a hypocrite. Walk in the freedom Christ gave you. Whom the son sets free is free indeed.
sue
It’s alot safer for wickeds to play their mind-games at church – not so, among barroom people. If mr. (or ms.) wicked’s mask slips, he or she can simply move on to another church. Among church people, Wicked won’t end up with a punch to the nose.
Grace
This is so timely and accurate because we just witnessed a scene where someone did something in a church meeting and basically got away with it. If this had been in a bar, he would have been punched.