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Our church’s mission statement says that we “share the love of Jesus” two ways: “….through Biblical Teaching and loving relationships.”  The second part of that is easy to understand. We have a loving relationship with Jesus and that makes us prioritize having loving relationships with others.

Agents of Truth

But sometimes it doesn’t occur to us that another way to share the love of Jesus is through “biblical teaching”. I’ve already read this passage a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to point something out that we skipped over the first time.

“[11] And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, [12] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, [13] until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, [14] so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:11-16)

Now, the first time we went through this, the emphasis was on how God calls us to work together even though we are different people who do different things – together but distinct. This time I want you to notice something else. I want you to notice – and I read a great post this week explaining this better to me – that these special offices are all agents given to share biblical truth. The apostles are the authoritative, foundational witnesses to the truth. The prophets are charismatic speakers of the truth that apply it with supernaturally guided pointedness. The evangelists share the truth of the gospel in regions where the apostles have plated the church. And the pastors and teachers take the truth and use it to feed and protect the flock of God.

All these people are agents of truth. And, as I said before, they have a special job to build up the church in that truth.

Loving With Your Gifts

But now, keep reading and see how these agents of truth are supposed to be doing this:

“[15] Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

Here we see the means and the goal of these agents of truth. Yes, they have an important job to help people get more spiritually mature, correct error, teach doctrine, combat deceit – but they are supposed to be doing it “in love”. That’s a big deal. In fact, we can go so far as to say that the primary way that they are to show love for the people of God is to tell them the truth.

Let me say that again. These people are built to be truth agents. Yes, we are all supposed to tell the truth, but these people – the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, are the guardians of the truth. It’s their special gifting and is what gets them most excited.

If you’re a musician, there’s nothing that you like better than music. You are most happy when you’re listening or playing. If you’re an artist, you are most content and passionate while creating. If God built you to be a teacher, then there’s nothing like the feeling of helping someone gain knowledge they didn’t have before. If you’re built as a helper, then you don’t get excited about being in leadership, or meetings, or talking – you are most happy when you’re helping.

In the same way, if you’re a truth agent, specially gifted by God to combat error and tell the truth, then there is nothing you’d rather be doing. This is me, so I’m going to personalize this. I’m a truth agent – I fall in the prophet, teacher section of that list. Nothing gets me more excited than exercising my gifts of being a truth agent. And it is the primary way that I show love to the people in God’s church. It’s not the only way, but it’s the primary way.

If you have the gift of exhortation, then you will show love to people – and feel most loving and loved – when you are encouraging people. If you have the gift of administration, then you will feel most like you are loving the church, and loved by the church, when you are organizing people and things toward accomplishing what God wants us to do. If you have the gift of evangelism, you love people best by telling people about the gospel. You feel like you’re loving them, you feel loved by being allowed to do it, and they feel love because you’re doing something that you care deeply about.

And conversely, if you are not able or allowed to use your spiritual gifts, you won’t feel like you’re doing things right. You won’t feel like you’re loving others properly – because you’re not doing it the way God built you. You won’t feel like you’re being loved by others – because they aren’t allowing you to express the deepest part of you.

It’s the same for an agent of truth. Our Mission Statement is crafted by a group that realizes that “loving relationships” is not the only way to show the love of Jesus, because those loving relationships need to be guided by “biblical teaching”. Truth agents – and I’m not the only one here, there are others – are given to the church to help everyone in the body of Christ exist in loving, biblical relationships.

Loving, Biblical Relationships

And that’s what we want in the Christian church. Not relationships built only on love. Not relationships built solely on truth. But relationships built on “truth in love”. Now, what does that mean? 2 Peter 1-2 helps us dig into loving, biblical relationships.

The first section, from verse 2, is all about living the Christian Life. He says,

“[2] May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. [3] His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, [4] by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. [5] For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, [6] and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, [7] and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. [8] For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. [10] Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. [11] For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

You can hear the passion as he writes. The letters of 1^st and 2^nd Peter are written to a church that is under attack from outside and from within. In 1^st Peter he addresses how to deal with the persecution from outside forces and in 2^nd Peter the apostle talks about dealing with the false teachers and evildoers who have come into the church.

And so he starts the letter with a reminder of their special calling as Christians, their election by Jesus Christ to salvation, and the qualities that God calls them to. He says, if we want to be effective and fruitful in the knowledge of Jesus, we need to make sure we live by the conviction and in the power of Jesus Christ.

“[12] Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. [13] I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, [14] since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. [15] And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.”

Next, he says “I’m going to remind you of these qualities over and over because I want you to be ‘established in the truth’”. Remember, he’s an apostle, an agent of truth, and there is nothing more loving he can do than to remind them of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus, His love for them, and the standards God has called them to live by. He says, “I’m going to die – I’ll be ‘putting off of my body soon’ – so I’m not going to beat around the bush. You gotta get this right.”

An Agent, Not the Source

He starts his reminder he makes sure they understand that he’s not making this stuff up. He’s a truth agent – not the source of the truth. He’s like a police officer. Like they say, “Cops don’t make the law, they just enforce them.”

Vs 16, “[16] For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. [17] For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” [18] we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. [19] And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, [20] knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. [21] For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

See how he takes the weight of the truth off his own shoulders and places it on Jesus. “I’m not making this up, and these aren’t just things we heard. We actually saw it.” Peter was there on the mount of transfiguration when Jesus showed a portion of His glory, met with Moses and Elijah, and the voice of God came down from heaven. That was a memorable moment in Peter’s life – to say the least.

And vs 19 on builds the case even further saying that it’s not just Peter’s experience that the truth relies on, but the whole of the Old Testament scriptures that point to Jesus. He points to them and says, “God wrote it all down, gave lots of prophecies over hundreds of years, and a whole lot of them came true in the life of Jesus.” He’s saying, “Don’t just listen to me, or go by my experiences, look at the written word of God. It confirms what all of us apostles have been saying.”

Therein lies an important point about being a truth agent – for all of us. That when we are telling the truth, we had best be sure that it’s not just our truth, but God’s truth. It’s not merely our own thinking, not “cleverly devised” things from others, not merely based on our experience, but based on the perfect, unchangeable, powerful, word of God. I stay out of a lot of trouble by making sure that what I say isn’t my own ideas, but simply teaching and speaking while standing on the truth of the word of God – which is just what Peter’s doing here.

Telling You What You Want To Hear

Now turn to chapter 2 and see why this is such a big deal.

“[1] But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. [2] And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. [3] And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

Herein lies the danger of false teachers – they will tell you what you want to hear, framed in the language of love, but full of half-truths and lies – and you will thank them for it. You may even feel loved by a false teacher because they present themselves as an agent of God who can remove your guilt and give you license to do what you want – all in the name of love.

Secret and Destructive

Look at what Peter says about their message. In verse 1 he says that they “secretly bring in destructive heresies”. These false teachers don’t stand up and announce themselves, but come in and act like Christians! They are sneaky and nefarious. In fact, these deceivers will be so convincing that many believers will be absolutely taken by them – and give them leadership and preaching positions. Some of them are such good liars that they’ve even convinced themselves that they’re telling the truth!

Jesus warns,

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)

The Apostle Paul had to write to the church in Galatia that there were people teaching salvation by works, not by grace, and said,

“This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.” (Galatians 2:4)

In Jude 3-4 we read,

“I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. [4] For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Do you see the words used there? “Wolves in sheep’s clothing”, “infiltration”, “spies”, “crept in unnoticed”. These false teachers aren’t obvious, and neither are their lies. Peter writes to this church (as Paul and Jude do) and reminds them that there is a rock solid truth that all teachings should be held against – it’s called scripture. All of these false teachers can be identified because they preach against the clear teachings of scripture – but they are very crafty and very slick. It’s not going to be obvious! And, Peter says, you all need to make sure you know it back and forth because these false teachers are incredibly sneaky.

And their best trick, and the worst part, is that these false teachers do this under the guise of LOVING PEOPLE, which is why so many Christians accept what they say. These wolves will say things like:?\

• “It’s not loving to judge others, so we don’t talk about sin.”
• “It’s not loving to exclude others, so everyone should be allowed to do everything they want to do.”
• “It’s not loving to hate, therefore any condemnation of anything is unloving.”
• “It’s not loving to make people feel uncomfortable, so we must never say anything that comes close to correction.”

And well-meaning Christians lap-it-up.

Half the Gospel

Why do Christians lap-it-up? Look back at 2 Peter 2:2 “And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.” Why do these false teachers gain so much popularity? Because they tell people what they want to hear, letting them follow their feelings, and then supporting their teaching by giving only half the gospel.

A false teacher will say: “God loves you, wants the best for you, and created you to be who you are, and wants you to be happy…” Which is all true… but there’s more.

Other false teachers will say, “God hates disobedience. God is righteous and perfect and cannot be in the presence of sinners, degenerates, liars and idolaters. God hates sin so stop sinning!” Which is true… but there’s more.

A truth agent stands up and says, “God is full of grace, amazingly patient, gloriously kind, and loves everyone. AND God has standards. God has commands. God has laws. God has given us directives on how to live. And we are expected to live within those boundaries. Judgment is coming on believers and non-believers alike. AND God hates sin, but He loves sinners. There’s no knot you can tie that Jesus can’t untie. But He requires you to repent from your sin and humbly come before Him before He’ll untie it for you. ”

People want the half-truths because they are easier, give us excuse to sin, and – here’s what’s weird – feel more loving. We want a God that loves us no matter what and doesn’t get involved in our business or wreck our plans. We want a God that allows us to define who He is and what He wants us to do, and then bless it and take us to heaven when we die. We want a God that will be impressed by all our good religious works, and condemn all the people who aren’t as good as we pretend to be. We want to be part of a group that never makes us feel bad, affirms everything we do, pats us on the back no matter what, and celebrates everyone equally. All of that sounds so great, and so much more loving to our disobedient, unbiblical, worldly ears.

They are Exploiters

Verse 3 tells us why they do it. “And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.”

Their motive is to fulfill their greed by taking advantage of gullible Christians. They know Christians want to believe, love, hope, help, and forgive. Most don’t want to fight or argue. They just want to get to know Jesus better, love and be loved. Which is awesome. But these people pray on ignorant Christians who don’t know the scriptures well enough to combat error. So these ignorant believers fall for these unbiblical, worldly-wise, lies, which have been fluffed up with biblical language and Christianese.

Believe it or not, there’s actually a movie coming out about this right now called “Believe Me.” Here’s the story line from the website:

“Sam (Alex Russell) stands on stage as thousands of fans go wild. Smart, charismatic, handsome, he moves them with his message, and when he calls for donations to his charity, the money pours in. Only thing is, Sam doesn’t believe a word he’s saying.

Just months earlier, Sam was a typical college senior focused on keg stands, hookups and graduation. But when a surprise tuition bill threatens his dream of law school and leaves him thousands of dollars in the hole, he’s forced to think outside the box. Convincing his three roommates they can make a killing exploiting the gullible church crowd, the guys start a sham charity and begin campaigning across the country, raising funds for a cause as fake as their message.”

Except – this isn’t just the plot of a movie. It’s real and happening all the time. False teachers, using false LOVE and unbiblical teaching to exploit Christians. They want fame, or power, or money, or something else – and gullible, foolish, deceived, Christians give them what they want.

Guardians of Truth

And so, we come back to where we start. Jesus sets up truth agents to ensure that the Bible is followed as people are trying to love one another. False teachers who sound loving lead people to hell. Agents of truth, even though their message sometimes isn’t that popular, are the ones who point people to Jesus and salvation.

And so what is our application today? For each of us, we need to remember a few things:

Let’s remember that we all have a responsibility to both truth and love. Loving someone with lies, misinformation, or simply omitting things they need to hear, isn’t loving. Love must be guided by truth, but we are all responsible to tell the truth. Certainly, there are some who are specialized in the area of studying, teaching and preaching biblical truth, but every Christian bears the responsibility of believing and speaking the whole counsel of scripture, the whole gospel, the whole truth – not just the parts we like, or the parts that make us most comfortable, in truth.

Second, let us be thankful for the truth agents that God has given to us. For the good Sunday School teachers, elders, preachers, evangelists, and prophets that God has brought into our lives over the years who take the truth seriously, and loved us enough to tell us the whole truth.

Let’s be thankful for the ones who took the challenge of 2 Timothy 4:1-5 which says, “[1] I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: [2] preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. [3] For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, [4] and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. [5] As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Third, Let’s be careful that we don’t have itching ears ourselves, looking for false teaching that simply tells us what we want to hear and gives us license to sin — but be people who endure sound teaching with sober minds and love in our hearts.