Don’t Always Believe What You Hear

“Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our

vines have tender grapes.”                Song of Solomon 2:15

            Sunday morning a young man, Trenton Roberts, a missionary to Tibet, spoke at our church.  He had an excellent message about the ‘call of God’ in your life.  He also shared about Christians having their own language; he called it ‘Christianese’.  He said that we speak little things that aren’t even in the Bible and gave some examples.  I thought of one; “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”.  Bet you’ve heard that one.  Guess what – it is not in the Bible.  “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” is another one.  How about this one?  “If God closes one door he’ll open another”.  After many years of hearing these things, we believe them to be the Word of God.

            I began thinking about this today and about new people who come into the church and are not believers.  They want to hear words of hope and encouragement for their lives, but they hear, “God is speaking to your heart”; “the Holy Ghost is all over you” and it scares them.  Just because you understand the meaning of these things doesn’t mean that they do.

            You may think, “It’s alright; they’ll understand later on.”  That may be – if they ever come back!  What they need is not teachers or evangelists spouting all these great clichés which sometimes are great exaggerations and aren’t necessarily even the truth.  Fortunately our pastor often takes time to explain the move of the Spirit or what it means when someone talks in ‘tongues’.  I applaud him for that.

            The Apostle Paul said “I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able for you are still carnal”.   Corinthians 3:2-3   What that means is these people were still functioning in spiritual immaturity.  You see Paul understood the wisdom of teaching unbelievers the simple ‘TRUTH’.  Those of us who are more mature Christians will know when the time is right to feed them the ‘meat of the Word’.  This means they will be ready to get into the deeper things of God.  God will give revelation to those who are ready to receive it.

            Now, as for mature believers, “Don’t always believe what you hear”.  Even preachers, teachers and evangelists can get carried away and say things that are not Biblically correct. I love the scripture of this teaching, “Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.”    People have different opinions of this scripture and will explain that ‘the little foxes’ are sins that creep into our lives.  I also have a thought on these ‘foxes’ and to me they mean faulty teachings or words that give us a wrong idea of what it really means. In other words, ‘spoil the vines’ that are already growing so they can produce; produce more Christians.  Then it goes on to say, “our vines have tender grapes”.  As Christians we have some fruit growing, but not yet mature and wrong teachings can damage the growth we already have.

            I believe I John 4:1 explains it far better than I ever could, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”  If you question anything at all that someone teaches or preaches, get out the Word of God and pray about it and study it to see if it’s truth.  Don’t be gullible just because someone says it.  Find out for yourself. 

            Years ago I thought I was a pretty mature believer and would go to all the meetings I could where I might hear something new. [Today, I believe what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes. I:9, “there is nothing new under the sun”!].  I was at a meeting and the teachers told the audience to take out their wallets and empty them into the offering baskets.  They used the scripture of Jesus and the rich, young ruler as an example.  So we did it.  God is faithful and got us home without running out of gas, but I learned to take the time to hear from God.  Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything he had and follow Jesus.  Is that what we should do?  If we all sold everything we have and waited for God to send us somewhere, would we have churches to go to; pastors to teach us; houses to live in; could we all provide for our families?  

            In some cases God may tell us to do that, but it’s not meant for every person.  My interpretation of that scripture is that Jesus must be Lord of our life.  We must put him first above our jobs, making money, having fun and , ‘yes’, even above our ministries.  There is nothing wrong with having a home, a job, drawing a paycheck, having a ministry, or even having fun.  Just make the Lord first in your life.

            You’ve been on the milk long enough; its time to begin eating the meat [digesting the Word].  Don’t let little foxes come in and spoil your vines.  Seek God’s guidance in your life; you don’t really need someone else to tell you what God wants you to do, or be.  You are a mature Christian – you will see the great plans God has for you.