THE TEST OF TRUE BIBLICAL DISCIPLESHIP

by Savvas Constantatos

“Now I Beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine [didache] which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such [the false prophets] serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple [the innocent].” Romans 16:17,18.

Unbelievers say that the Word of God, the Bible, is irrelevant to our times, but many of us Bible-believing Christians do not cease to be amazed how fresh and up to date the Word of God is! “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand for ever.” Isaiah 40:8. “For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.” Psalm 100:5.

It was God the Holy Spirit who inspired the apostle Paul to write and to exhort the Roman Christians [and of course all Christians] to “mark them which cause divisions and offences CONTRARY TO THE DOCTRINE which ye have learned; AND AVOID THEM.” Dear Christian friend, what is your attitude towards the truth of this verse? This very verse will put you to the test, and you will know whether you are a compromiser, or a true disciple of Christ!

Do you think that the apostle Paul who wrote these words, was judgmental, a mistaken separatist, an unloving rightwinger, and an unenlighted extremist, as many think of us today? Did he in any way imply that Bible-believing Christians are to join forces with the compromisers and the false preachers in their religious enterprises? No, of course not! He said “AVOID THEM”, and that is exactly what the Holy Spirit wanted him to say!

What then is your attitude towards this truth, and towards the compromisers and the false preachers of this apostate hour? Do you AVOID THEM, or do you reject the Word of God, and the people of God who have tried to warn you? Do you condone and tolerate the neo-Christianity of our time and its many false preachers, in the name of a false love, and in the name of a false unity?

If that is your attitude towards the exhortation and warning of the Word of God, then you are not a Bible-believing Christian, and you are not a true disciple of Christ! You are a compromiser, and in great danger.

Remember that with God there is hope! “For the Lord is good; and His mercy is everlaslasting.” If you have not gone too far into the apostasy of our time, and to a place of no return, of which God’s Word speaks about, repent to God, and become a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ!