Use Our Word Saturated Lives As Free Radicals to Destroy False Doctrine

The onset of late summer ushers in a variety of issues for the gardener that can not only be frustrating but can prove to be detrimental to the production of the garden.

Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that can affect a wide range of plants.  It is caused by several species of fungus that are often times introduced to the plant by means of a disease vector.

Wooly aphids or other sucking insects tap into the plant's flow of sugars that are being produced by photosynthesis and as they feed they produce digestive and fecal secretions that serve to inoculate the plant with the powdery mildew.

Once this pathogen has been established, it begins to reproduce after its own kind, leaving in its wake leaves that are covered or spotted with powdery mildew.

Although the mildew does not affect the fruit directly, it indirectly affects the production of the fruit by consuming the leaves and eventually killing the plant.

Scripture too warns us of spots.  Jude encourages the church to contend for the one true faith and warns of being inoculated by false teachers.

After a list of attributes of these false teachers, Jude refers to them as spots, blemishes or dangerous reefs at the love feasts of the church.

These are hidden reefs (or blemishes) at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

This is a serious warning to the church about false prophets that are partaking in the love of the Lord alongside the people of the Lord without being a part of the fold.

2 Peter 2 has much to say about these false teachers as well:

- Secretly bring in destructive heresies
- Deny the Master
- Follow sensuality
- Greedy
- Exploit people with false words (false flattery)
- Indulge in the lust of defiling passion
- Despise authority
- Bold
- Willful
- No fear of God
- Revel in their deceptions

Like the spots of mold that are transferred quickly to the demise of the plant, so are the destructive heresies that are sown into the garden of the church.  False prophets try to produce after their own kind and seek to decimate the people of God from the true vine.

The mechanism by which powdery mildew is transferred to plants reminds me of wolves in sheep clothing.

Like the wooly aphid carrying the pathogen to the plant, so are the false prophets who are "wolves" in sheeps clothing, lurking among the people of God to infect them with ideas that are contrary to the true gospel.

Matthew 7:13-17 warns us to be aware of false prophets and their desire to destroy the people of God.

"Enter by the narrow gate.  

For the gate is wide 
and the way is easy that leads to destruction, 
and those who enter by it are many.  

For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, 

and those who find it are few.

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing 

but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  

You will recognize them by their fruits... 

So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, 

but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

Should we live in fear with the knowledge from the word of God?  The answer obviously is a resounding "NO!"

But what is the solution to this dilemma? Obviously,  prayer and the Word of God.

Jude serves as a warning to the ungodly as well as a call to persevere and grow in grace.

One effective treatment for powdery mildew is milk.  A protein in the whey of the milk, when exposed to the sun, produces free radicals that damage the fungus.

We, as believers, need to manage our own hearts and like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk of 1 Peter 2

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy 

and envy and all slander.  

Like newborn infants, 

long for the pure spiritual milk, 

that by it you may grow up into salvation --- 

if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men 

but in the sight of god chosen and precious, 

you yourselves like living stones

 are being built up as a spiritual house, 

to be a holy priesthood, 

to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  

For it stands in Scripture:

"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,

a cornerstone chosen and precious,

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

Peter goes on to say that Jesus is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to those who disobey the word!

Oh Lord help us to desire Your word but also to obey it!

"What is more pleasing to the LORD: 

your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?  

Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.

Lord, help us to understand and submit to Your word and to Your Lordship over our lives.  Help us to DO the most important thing that Jesus told us to do!

Mark 12:29-34

Jesus answered, "The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  An you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'  The second is this:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these."

And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher.  You have truly said that he is one, and there is not other besides him.  And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength , and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."

Lord help us to live out Your words!  Help us to love you with all that we have and all that we are and to love others as ourselves so that we will be submitted to You and Your word and not be tossed about  by winds of doctrine and corrupted from the inside out but that we would grow in grace and truth and knowledge that You are ONE!  Let our hearts be so saturated with the truth of Christ that when we are exposed to false doctrine, our lives act as free radicals destroying the damning doctrines of deceit in the hearts of men and women around us.