From time to time I've been on the receiving end of criticism about ‘playing the man and not the ball’—that is, for raising questions about the character of a speaker, rather than majoring on the content of their teaching. So people have wanted to say, for example, that it is impolite, rude and even ungodly behaviour to label a Brian Houston or a Rowan Williams as a false teacher in danger of hell, and to suggest, furthermore, that they are making their followers twice as fit for hell as they are themselves. (Oops, did it again! Let's move right along; nothing more to see in this paragraph ...)
It is, possibly, ironic to be criticizing the motives, character and godliness of someone for raising questions about motives, character and godliness. But we can pass over this small difficulty, for the more important complaint seems to be that such character attacks fail to do justice to the substance of what a false teacher is saying.
On the face of it, this is a reasonable objection. After all, it may well be that people who write books with titles like You Need More Money or Teresa of Avila are, indeed, promoting a false gospel. But how can we know unless we look past the speaker or writer, and read or listen attentively to what they have to say?
Well, fair enough, at one level. After all, one of the ways false character in wicked teachers reveals itself is not usually in an obviously immoral lifestyle, since openly immoral or violent people tend not to rise very far up the leadership scale. Even if they do, they generally manage to conceal their grosser sins from the eyes of churches they pastor. When Paul sums up his view of human sinfulness in Romans 3:10-18, notice that a significant number of his Old Testament quotes concern not so much our actions as our thoughts, and, subsequently, our mouths and what comes out of them:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Paul diagnoses the human condition painfully well: it's throats, tongues, lips and mouths that cause great damage—damage as great as any other body parts are capable of doing. His thought parallels James, who observed that “the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness” (3:6). So if we are trying to spiritually dismember lying liars, we need to pay at least some attention to their lying lies. How can we truly interact with the author of Teresa of Avila, some may ask, if we are unaware of what he or she said? (There are a few Teresa of Avila authors out there, not to mention the lady herself.)
All these thoughts were dashing through my mind faster than a one-horse open sleigh when I stumbled upon Romans 16:17-20, which I'm reading because I've been hurtling towards the conclusion of a series of Matthias Media Romans Bible studies faster than a blog post to a point. Have a read:
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
(Before you read on, make sure you check the immediate context to ensure that I'm not about to twist Paul's words a la your average false teacher.)
This is a good warning from Paul about false teachers. We ought to “avoid them”. It is also a great encouragement that God is going to judge them: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”. Even if we can't face down our false teacher problems entirely, we know that God will get them in the end.
But an important question remains: just exactly who are these false teachers? Well, if you want an honest answer, ‘I don't know’ is probably the best. If you want to do better and get a scholarly, thoughtful, honest answer, here's Doug Moo:
Identifying these false teachers is nearly impossible.
He says this on page 929 of his otherwise reasonably detailed commentary. Essentially, so out of the blue is Paul's attack on these false teachers that a few desperate commentators have even resorted to saying that this is not really a part of Paul's letter to the Romans. Someone, they suggest (perhaps Paul's Aunty Gladys or a helpful scribe) thought something was lacking from Paul's letter, and just popped this bit in to round the message out a bit. For there really has been no mention of false teachers and their beliefs anywhere in the letter up to this point (Romans 3:8 is as close as you're going to get). Unfortunately for commentators, however, the idea that this bit of Romans was added in after the event has not a single shred of supporting textual evidence.
To return to our topic, however, what exactly does Paul do to help his Roman readers identify and respond rightly to these false teachers? Simple: he attacks the character of the people doing the false teaching. As far as the content of their teaching goes, he has nothing to say. The only issue of substance Paul addresses is that they don't think the same as he does—that is, to quote Paul, they “create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught” (Rom 16:17). Beyond that, he just describes what these people are like: they don't serve the Lord Jesus, they follow their own appetites, they use smooth talk, they are flatterers, they deceive the naive, they sell their grandmothers, they hang around schoolyards and take photos using mobile phones, and so on.
All right, I admit the last couple of items on that list were completely made up. But even so, this two-verse dismissal of false teachers is darker and smearier than a piece of Vegemite. It is a complete hatchet job on Paul's part.
May the Lord Jesus grant us the courage to treat all false teachers with the same contempt.
