Wrong Teaching and False Religion: Deception through the Word

He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.’”

-1 Kings 13:21-22, NIV

In the 13^th chapter of the book of 1 Kings, the man of God from Judah was commanded by God to bring a word to King Jeroboam. He was also commanded not to eat bread and drink water to the land of Bethel, and not to return to Judah by the way he came. After the man of God brought the word to King Jeroboam, he went back to Judah and took a road different from the road when he came to Bethel. However, a prophet from Bethel came to him while he was on his journey back to Judah offering bread and water. The man of God from Judah did not accept the offer, but the prophet told him that an angel by the word of the Lord told him to come back to the prophet’s house to eat bread and drink water – but it was written in verse 18 that the prophet was lying. The man of God, then, accepted the offer and ate bread and drank water from the prophet’s home. Then the Lord talked to the prophet and told him the consequence of the man of God’s disobedience, that he would not be buried in the tomb of his fathers.

In this event, God revealed to me that like the prophet who used God’s word to make the man of God from Judah disobey God command, His Word is also being used by many in this world to deceive people and disobey God’s commands. Many false religions and wrong teaching of God’s word has spread all throughout the world and has deceived so many people. And also, because of this false religions and wrong teaching of God’s word, many haven’t noticed that they are being led to their death, like what happened to the man of God from Judah, which is very horrible.

So what should we do so that we wouldn’t be deceived like the man of God from Judah? Well first, we should fill ourselves up with the word of God to increase our defence against the false religions and wrong teaching. Our knowledge about the word will help us discern what is right and what is wrong – that is why we should always study the word of God and read the bible.

Second is that we should always hold on to the truth the Lord Jesus Christ and obey His commandments. We must always remember that anything that goes beyond or against the truth of the word of God is a deception or a lie of the enemy which will surely cause us to sin. The man of God has sinned because he did not detect or realize that what the prophet was saying goes against God’s commandment to him. He didn’t held on to the truth of the word of God, which I believe God Himself has spoken to him personally.

Now we should learn from this mistake that the man of God from Judah has done. We should just continue holding on to the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and His word and continue to obey it. We should not easily believe on what other people might say that could make us disobey the word. By this I believe, we could easily detect and ignore the deception being used to trick us.

Original link for the photo: http://covenantcommunity-church.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/557px-Singapore_Road_Signs_-_Warning_Sign_-_Danger.svg1_-300x264.png