<\/p>\n
Colossians 2:8<\/span>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Early on in their development, caring parents teach their children the phrase \u201cstranger danger.\u201d It\u2019s not that Mom and Dad are paranoid or afraid of everybody, just cautious and safe. Spiritually speaking, adults should adopt that same level of caution.<\/p>\n
When new people come into our lives, getting to know their doctrine is wise before we form spiritual bonds. It is essential to be on guard because false teachers don\u2019t say, \u201cHey, I\u2019m here to lead you astray.\u201d Heresy never presents itself like that. It\u2019s more like a virus\u2014small, easily shared, and sometimes deadly.<\/p>\n
Viruses need a living organism to survive, making every human just\u00a0another opportunity to covertly infiltrate, duplicate, and dominate. Once inside, a virus hijacks the host\u2019s\u00a0cells\u00a0and spreads its infection\u2014a tactic that resembles that of false teachers. It\u2019s an ugly word picture, but an effective one.<\/p>\n
Doctors say washing your hands is the easiest way to ward off a virus. Water won\u2019t dilute the pathogen, but it doesn\u2019t allow it to stick. Likewise, if you saturate yourself in the whole counsel of God, deception will not take hold.\u00a0You can fight off false doctrine by cleansing your mind and heart with the pure water of God\u2019s Word.\u00a0Read it, study it, memorize it, pray it into your life, and keep yourself spiritually strong by discussing what you\u2019ve learned with like-minded believers.<\/p>\n
Be cautious and wise, and you\u2019ll recognize false teaching for what it is\u2014an attack upon the health of your soul. (Hibbs)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colossians 2:8\u00a0\u00a0See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Early on in their development, caring parents teach their children the phrase \u201cstranger danger.\u201d It\u2019s not that Mom and Dad are paranoid … Continue reading “63.c. Colossians 2:8\u00a0\u00a0“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195617,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195614\/revisions\/195617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}