FALSE MINISTERS

“Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:15 NKJV).

Here the apostle Paul is addressing the problem of false ministers. He speaks of the presence of false ministers, the person behind false ministers, the portrayal of false ministers, and the perdition for false ministers.

Presence of false ministers – The apostle Paul did not ignore or deny that there are false ministers, as some folks do today. Every age has counterfeits in the ministry. These men are not true ministers of God but are phonies. Thus, we should not be gullible as to accept every so called “minister” that shows up on the scene. We need to test them by the Word of God to see if they are true or false.

Person behind false ministers - “His ministers.” The “his” here refers to Satan. He is the one behind false ministers. While God sends out His ministers, Satan also sends out his ministers. From the false prophets of the Old Testament to false apostles in the early church to false preachers today, Satan is busy sending out his ministers to deceive folks.

Portrayal of false ministers - “Transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness.” Satan is the great disguiser who dresses up his false ministers to make them look like the real thing. These men come on the scene claiming to be one of us and claiming to be a preacher of Christ. But they are phonies; they do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and will only use their deception to get into the church to lead people astray by false doctrine.

Perdition for false ministers – “Whose end will be according to their works.” The false ministers will one day meet their end as they will be judged by God according to their evil works. So, while these false ministers are basking in their popularity on earth now, they will be judged for what they really are, impostors leading people away from the Lord Jesus. On the other hand, salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus is that which saves from such a future.

(Adapted from Butler’s Daily Bible Reading 2)

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)

Quotation of the Week

“If Jesus Christ is in a person’s heart, He will be revealed in the person’s life!”

Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917)

South African Christian Author, Theologian, and Pastor   

Word Study

Finish (keeps)

In Rom. 2:27 we read, “And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills (keeps) the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?” (NKJV).

“Finish (keeps)” is the Greek word teléō (τελέω = tel-eh'-o), and it means to bring to a close, to finish, to end, to perform, execute, complete, fulfil. It means to make an end or to accomplish and complete something, not merely by bringing it to end but bringing it to perfection. In classical Greek as well as in the Septuagint, the word also means to complete, perform, fulfill. In the New Testament, teléō means to bring to a close, finish, to perform, execute. It is especially used of completing a task or finishing an order in the sense of bringing about a result by effort. The idea is to achieve a goal or to conclude it successfully. This meaning is especially pointed and memorable in the context of the Lord Jesus’ life purpose which was to die on the Cross.

Did You Know…

According to 1 Kings 10:1, when the Queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s wisdom, she paid him a visit because she wanted to “test him with hard questions.”

Bible Quiz

King Darius made a law forbidding any man to pray to any god except him. How many days was the law made for?

**Answer to last week’s Bible Quiz

When King Herod put the apostle Peter in prison, intending to hand him over to the Jews to be killed, who rescued him? An angel of the Lord (Acts 12:7).

Prophecies Fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ

Born the Savior (Psalm 22:9-10; cf. Luke 2:7)

"But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God!” (Psalm 22:9-10 NJKV).

In context, the Psalmist David is reminding God of the care given since his earliest days, and he drew strength by remembering that God had sustained him all his life, even from his birth. While the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, He was subjected to continual verbal abuse by those passing by. However, contrary to the accusations of the mockers, the Lord Jesus knew that God brought Him out of the womb, a reference to the virgin birth (cf. Luke 2:7). In fact, the Lord Jesus was preserved by God through His perilous childhood. From His comfortless birth in Bethlehem to living His youth in polluted Nazareth, the hand of God was protecting Him. As the Lord Jesus suffered there on the cross, He was sustained by His trust in God’s faithfulness.

Did You Know – Christian History

John Raleigh Mott was born May 25, 1865, in Livingston Manor, Sullivan County, New York. He was an American evangelist and leader of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF).

Mott attended Upper Iowa University, but later transferred to Cornell University, where he received his B.A. degree in 1888. He was influenced by Arthur Tappan Pierson one of the forces behind the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, which was founded in 1886.

On January 14, 1886, twenty-year-old Mott had walked late into a meeting at Cornell University and heard C. T. Studd say, “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” Mott couldn’t sleep that night and sought out Studd for a private talk. That encounter changed his life, and the world. Mott was to demonstrate a living faith in Christ and became a notable evangelist, a YMCA leader and a co-founder of the Student Volunteer Mission. He labored to pull Christians together to win the world for Christ in his generation. Indeed, in 1900 he published a book which became a challenge for the young men and women of his day. It was titled The Evangelization of the World in This Generation. In it, Mott showed what he meant by evangelization, letting the whole world hear the news about Christ. Admitting that there were serious difficulties, he nonetheless insisted that the job could be done. He reminded his readers what Christians in the earliest days of the church had accomplished and given modern technology, he assured them that more could be accomplished in our day.

His influence was enormous. It is impossible to say how many people he inspired to go into missions. He was a major force in the church cooperation movement. In 1910, he helped organize a major conference in Edinburgh for the purpose of uniting Christians behind world evangelism. Mott became so well-known that heads of state greeted him. Even while still in his thirties, he was considered the Protestants’ leading statesman. At 81, he was awarded one of the highest honors given on earth, the Nobel Peace Prize. Mott died on January 31, 1955, in Orlando, Florida. He was eighty-nine years old. Death was a place to change trains, he had told a reporter some years earlier. A few days before his death, he sent a message to the World Council of Churches. “Old things are passing away. All things may become new. Not by magic, nor by wishful thinking, but by self-sacrifice and the will to bring them about in the name of Jesus Christ.” Church historian Kenneth Latourette described Mott as one of the outstanding leaders in the entire history of Christianity. He achieved what he did at an enormous expenditure of energy, personal attention to hundreds of letters, non-stop prayer and endless work.

A Little Humor

A Sunday school teacher asked her class why Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem. A small child replied, “They couldn’t get a baby-sitter.”

Thought Provoking Church Sign

“Searching for a new look? You can have your faith lifted by the Lord Jesus!”