False Brethren

Many pastors and evangelists nowadays talk about love. They do not talk about hate, unless they are coming against the preaching of the gospel by unlicensed persons. To them, hate does not belong in the Christian's vocabulary, except to condemn lay preachers. But let us see how the apostle Paul used the word hate: "Let love be without falseness. Hate that which is evil; cling to that which is good". Romans 12:9. So here is a good use for the word hate: It is good to hate evil. Paul said, Let love be without falseness. Is it evil to love falsely?

Does Paul condemn false love as sinister He says, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. Today's loving churches would say that's O.K., let's just love them to death. But Paul here speaks of Satan and his co- workers (2Cor. 11:13-15) of which the Bible states again and again, "Be not partakers with them?" (1 Cor. 10:21, Eph. 5:7, 1 Tim. 5:22, Rev. 18:14). 

Perhaps, the false brother may say to himself, "fake love is almost as good as real love; just a few more touches here and there and she'll pass as real." And so it happens, he is surrounded with the praise of men and women who take his (or her) love as genuine and godly. My Bible says to watch out when all men praise you.

Is fake love an enemy of real love? Fake love has the same structure as false brethren. On the surface, they appear to be genuine, but somewhere within lurks the evil one, working iniquity through lies and deceit. Today's churches mostly hate to deal with the issue of false brethren or fake love. They say it is better to focus on love and the 'real thing', rather than dwell on horrible subjects like "wolves in sheep's clothing."

There is a reason for this. I'll give you a hint: They are most likely false themselves.

Now, are we trying to say that talking about love is evil? No, the apostle John would therefore be evil, but we do not make such a claim. As a matter of fact, we quote John when he says: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:7-8).

However, we are warned again and again throughout the Bible about false brethren, false prophets, false teachers, false gospels. The true Jesus Christ and his disciples gave us these warnings. They are meant for our good, not to get us astray. Why did Jesus and his apostles warn us? Because these false brethren diminish real love between the true brethren. Love is everything in the end; it must be sought after in faith. But we must be careful: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1 et al).

We must not be caught in the teeth of the false brethren. It is a lie of the enemy that tells us that we should pay no attention to those sheep with long fangs and blood at their muzzles. According to them, we are to cast a blind eye on their fruits and love them as brethren. Better to cast your right eye after plucking it out, Jesus says (Matt. 5:29). If not, pretty soon, we find ourselves sympathetic and become useless to God. The modern church calls this uselessness 'love'. God calls it lukewarm and He will spew them out of His mouth (Rev. 3:16, companion verse to John 3:16). Just in case the reader is actually looking up these verses to see if I'm a liar, please show me, by the Scriptures, where I'm wrong if that thought happens to pass your mind.

Now, I have not hereby given anyone a clue as to whom are false and how to spot them. For sure, Matthew 7:20 says you will know them by their fruits. We may have memorized the 'fruit of the Spirit' in Galatians 5:22-23 because this is the religious thing to do. The first fruit is, of course, love. But that is the very fruit that the false brethren fake, so we are back to base one, unless we know what the love is. Which brings us back to how we started this tract: "Let love be without falseness." Many people in today's churches think they can pretend to love and then as time goes along, God will help them by giving them the real thing. By cleaning up the outside, they think the inside will take care of itself.

This is, of course, the error of the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Matthew 23:27-28. Jesus also told his disciples, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod."

This leaven is the doctrine that it is O.K. to perform outward religious acts to show your love for God, and yet within, you are full of adulteries and thefts and covetousness.

Now, you may think that none of this has anything to do with love. You may be cringing in fear and loathing, hating the exposure of the light. Instead of going on and on about love, I would recommend you to the mercies of God, who will hear your confession of your own hate toward him. If you will acknowledge his charge of sin against you, if you will stop playing around with appearing to be loving, if you will come to the cross of Jesus Christ where your sins were dealt with once and for all, you will find mercy. If you continue on with showing your own love as though it is God's, and yet remaining unfaithful, then hell opens its mouth wide for you.

The end.

You may say to yourself at this point, "Where does it say any of that stuff in the Bible? "I am glad you asked. I hope you will read the following passages with great consideration to your own soul. They were written by men who have far greater insight to the things of God than you or me, and they loved without falseness.

Matthew 7:15-20 Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.

Matthew 24:11 Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Sat can disguise himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

2 Corinthians 11:26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren;"

Galatians 2:4-5 But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

Philippians 3:1-3 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,

2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

2 Peter 1:20- 2:3 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Revelation 2:2-6 I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place - unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.  

- Chris Simonson

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