Do Not Tempt The Lord
Mt 4:6-7 And he said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down. For it is written, 'He shall give His angels charge concerning You, and in their hands they shall bear You up, lest at any time You dash Your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"
Luke 4:9-12 And he brought Him to Jerusalem and sat Him on a pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here. For it is written, 'He shall give His angels charge over You, to keep You; and in their hands they shall bear You up, lest at any time You dash Your foot against a stone.'"
And Jesus answering said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"
Jesus took God at His Word. Faith makes no demand for constant testing. God's promises hold and will be delivered, sometimes in ways we don't understand. Throwing yourself off a building to prove God loves you means an act of pride, foolishness and a need to prove God when faith requires no proof. Had Satan thrown Jesus from the tower, God would have saved Him. Had Jesus followed temptation, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Keep Proper Discipline In The Church
Mt 18:15-17 But if your brother shall trespass against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.
"But if he will not hear you, take one or two more with you, so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
"And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he neglects to hear the church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax-collector."
Luke 17:1 And He said to the disciples, "It is impossible but that offenses will come. But woe to him through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
"Take heed to yourselves. If your brother trespasses against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he trespasses against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turns again to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him."
Beware of False Prophets
Mt 7:15-17 "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit."
Mt 24:10-12 "And then many will be offended, and will betray one another, and will hate one another. And many false prophets will rise and deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will become cold."
Mt 24:23-25 "Then if any man shall say to you, 'Lo, here is Christ!' Or, 'There!' Do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders; so much so that, if it were possible, they would deceive even the elect.
"Behold, I have told you beforehand."
Mark 13:22 "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will give signs and wonders in order to seduce, if possible, even the elect."
Overlap of commandments yet again. If we keep the admonition for Church discipline, disregard signs and wonders as a proof of a prophet and look instead to his teaching and if it holds love up instead of quenching it, if we see the fruit of people accepting Christ and following Him instead of the teacher, then we follow His command. It requires that we know the Scriptures ourselves and that we read them with unvarnished attention to the Spirit. Modernizing the words: "You have to do the work, People!!!" :)
I hope you follow these instructions concerning anything you read here. Test it against the Scriptures. By it's very nature, this enterprise "shorts" the text, can be accused of "out of context" at any juncture, so always read "around" the quoted verses in the Bible. Ask any teacher you respect and have tested. Check EVERY teacher or source you find on the internet or on TV, on any medium. Test the word of everyone you hear quoting Scripture or you can find yourself up on that tower, foot hanging over the edge, ready to step off cause someone told you that's what it said.
We aren't Christ and we can be deceived. Satan quoted the Lord to Eve and things went very wrong, so we know the trick and, unlike her, we can look up the answers, not just that the quote is in the Bible, but the lines of thought around it, that led to it. Focus on the Lord clears up a lot of the mistakes we can make.
And, when we find the false teacher, we have the order of things to do about it.
