Until we are perfected, all of us have to deal with error in our beliefs. I look back at my early years and see that even though I was sincere in my beliefs, I was sincerely wrong. My actions reflected my error as well. The apostle Paul admitted his past error as well and his actions had a substantial negative impact on many believers while he was known as Saul. In Galatians chapter 1, Paul wrote by THE SPIRIT:
1 Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead),
2 and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:
3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
We often skim through the salutations at the beginning of each epistle but here we see Who selected Paul to be an apostle. He was not selected by the casting of lots but by Our Lord Jesus Christ AND GOD the FATHER. Paul knew that Jesus only spoke those Words FATHER directed Him to speak to Paul at his conversion. Paul knew THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY as FATHER thus he had the revelation of Love and wrote to the church at Corinth about this revelation. Paul had firsthand experience of being taught the error of another gospel. He was in error before his conversion, and his zeal was very destructive toward believers, yet FATHER forgave him, and he became a vessel of honor. He was then able to see problems arising in the churches:
6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
We must be vigilant to protect ourselves when we study or hear teachers preaching what appears to be the Gospel. When the Gospel is perverted in some manner, we will get a “check” in our spirit, and we must not disregard that check but search the Scripture to see where the problem lies. We must not let the high regard we hold for people to cause us to overlook errors in their teaching. Even a reported supernatural encounter must be validated even though we all long for such an encounter. Paul knew his writings might not be popular and would go against those who were attempting to defend their gospel and associated actions:
10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
I only answer to My Lord Jesus and FATHER and am willing to expose teaching in error to protect the flock from taking the wrong path. I do it out of Love for the brethren just as Paul found it necessary to correct those in Galatia. If I was taught in error and suffered judgment associated with that error, then it is incumbent upon me to share this with the brethren. Paul shares this reality in his writings:
13 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.
14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
It is up to each of us to seek out the Truth and not allow man’s teaching to be the final word in our lives. We were given The Holy Spirit to help us when we are exposed to teaching in order to determine its validity. As we seek to be sensitive to The Holy Spirit, our ability to quickly discern Truth will improve. If our ego gets stroked by the teacher, our sensitivity decreases because our ego begins to overpower that still small voice. As we mature, we will not allow men’s accolades affect our discerning of their spirituality and as a result we will not be moved away from the Truth.
Once we correct the error of what we have been taught, we must let FATHER deal with those who taught us in error rather than take it upon ourselves to evoke some sort of judgment. HE will deal with them in the appropriate manner while we go about doing FATHER’S business. It is up to each of us to guard hearts so that we can receive greater revelation from Above.