Christian, if you can once and for all break your engagement to the flesh and become a free man in Christ, truth will be your steadfast friend.
Study God’s Word faithfully as well. Satan has a habit of stopping the ears from hearing sound doctrine before he opens them to listen to corrupt. He will, as often as he can, pull a saint away from God’s Word and talk him into rejecting some point of truth. But he who rejects the truth of one doctrine, loses the blessing of them all. Paul predicted how this would happen: “They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Do not pretend you want to be led into truth if you will not bother to study the whole word of God. You are no different from a child who says he wants to learn, yet plays the truant. Such a child must be disciplines. Because your heavenly Father loves you, He will bring you back to the Word with shame and sorrow, rather than leave you trapped in Satan’s lies.
As you study and grow, be wary of new doctrine. Do not hastily accept everything you hear, even from the pulpit. Now I admit that to reject a doctrine simply because we have never heard it before is foolish. But we have every right to wait and inquire before embracing it. When you hear a new notion about the truth, go to God in prayer and seek His counsel. Search the Scriptures. Discuss it with your pastor and with other Christians whose wisdom and maturity you trust.
The truth will stand up under scrutiny. It is a fruit that never bruises or spoils from handling. But error, like fish, begins to stink after a few days. Therefore, let new ideas sit before you make a meal of them. You do not want to poison your soul with rotting mackerel when you could be feasting on manna from heaven!
From William Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armour.
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