Distort

We are following Paul’s third missionary journey...currently in the city of Miletus visiting with the leaders from the church in Ephesus one last time. There is a link in the “sites” section of the blog that will allow you to interactively track his journey.


Acts 20
”25 And now I know that none of you to whom I have preached the Kingdom will ever see me again. 26 I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault, 27 for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know. 28 So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock - his church, purchased with his own blood - over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders. 29 I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. 30 Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. 31 Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you - my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you.”


Distort. It is amazing how quickly and cleverly truth can be distorted. You only have to go back to the temptation of Jesus (check out Matthew 4:1-11) to see how clever Satan is at distorting God’s truth. He even had the audacity to use scripture to try and mislead Jesus. This is probably why Jesus called him the “father of lies” (check out John 8:42-47). Interestingly (considering Paul’s warning), Jesus made that statement in the midst of reprimanding a group of church leaders. Later on, we will learn that the Ephesians were ultimately able to hold off these distortions (check out Revelation 2:1-7); but in the process they seemed to have lost sight of love (seriously, check out Revelation 2:1-7). It is extremely important for us to know the story of God so that we can protect ourselves from distortions of the truth; but at the same time we can never lose sight of love. Paul would later write that we need to “speak the truth in love”. Ironically, he included it in his letter to the Ephesians (check out Ephesians 4:15) ... maybe we can do a better job of taking it to heart ... in what we say and what we do.