True and False Religion and Teaching!

Matt. 7:15-20

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but who within are rapacious wolves. You will recognize them from their fruits. Surely men do not gather grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles? So every good tree produces fine fruit; but every rotten tree produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce fine fruit. Every tree which does not produce fine fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will recognize them from their fruits.

Food for thought!

In today's gospel, Jesus is reminding us of false teachers and teaching. Teaching is false if it produces a religion which consists solely or mainly in the observance of externals. That is what was wrong with  the people of Jesus' time called Scribes and Pharisees. To these people religion consisted in the observance of laws, rules and regulations. If a man went through the correct procedures of religions,  then he was a good man.

It is easy to confuse religion with religious practices. It is possible, and indeed not uncommon, to teach others that religion consists in going to Church, observing the Lord's Day, fulfilling one's financial obligations to the Church, reading one's Bible. A man might do all these things and be far off from being a Christian, for Christianity is an attitude of the heart to God and to neighbour.

Teaching is false if it produces a religion which consists in prohibitions. Any religion which is based on a series of "thou shalt not's" is a false religion. A teacher who teaches things like, "thou shalt never go to the cinema, or dance or use make-up or read a novel or enter a theatre," is teaching a false religion. The real test of any teaching is: Does it strengthen you to bear the burdens of life, and to walk and work with Jesus? If not, that is a false teaching.

If becoming a Christian simply meant abstaining from doing things, then Christianity would be a much easier religion than it is. But the whole essence of Christianity is that it does not consist in not doing things; it consists in doing things. It is not enough to avoid evil; it necessary to do good to others. 

Teaching is false if it divorces religion and life. Any teaching which removes the Christian from the life and activity of life on the Main Street is false. That is the mistake we commonly make. Jesus said, and he prayed for his disciples, "I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one" (Jn.17:15).

No man can be a good soldier by running away from the battle, and the Christian is the soldier of Christ. How shall the leaven ever work if the leaven refuses to be inserted into the mass? What is witness worth unless it is witness to those who do not believe? The Christian is not a spectator from the balcony; he is involved in the warfare of life.

Teaching is false if it produces a religion which is arrogant and separatist. Any teaching which encourages anyone to withdraw into a narrow sect, and to regard the rest of the world as sinners, is false teaching. The function of religion is not to erect middle walls of partition but to tear them down. It is the dream of Jesus Christ that there shall be one flock and one shepherd (Jn.10:16). Exclusiveness is not a religious quality; it is an irreligious quality. Religion is meant to bring us closer together, not to drive us apart. Religion is meant to gather us into one family, not to split us up into hostile groups. The teaching which declares that any Church or any sect has a monopoly of the grace of God is false teaching, for Christ is not the Christ who divides, he is the Christ who unites.