Every Whichway

Storms stir winds. Sometimes they blow this way, and other times that. Winds can break limbs, fell trees, and drop wires. Along lakes and seas winds whip waves to where they wash away whole houses and beaches. Though we cannot see the moving air itself, we can observe its impact as it screams along. Ephesians 4:14 warns Christians to “no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching....”

Sad to say, winds of wild teaching do indeed whistle around out there. The scream in from many directions: prosperity gospel, being slain in the Spirit, sovereignty that eliminates responsibility, KJV only, eschatological speculations, personal power plays.... If careless we can be tossed every whichway by teachers who urge their novel notions. They can make their heresies and hobbyhorses sound so spiritual! Untutored listeners are led to suspect that anyone who objects is either deceived or a deceiver. What shall we do?

4:13 prescribes the antidote to being blown around: unity and maturity. Specifically, we must seek unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. Such oneness and depth develop from heeding the gifted leaders God gives the church. Storms in life and doctrine inevitably arise, winds blow, rains fall; spiritual survival stems from being grounded, seasoned, mature.

Another way to view this truth appears at the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” Two steps: 1) hear Jesus’ words, 2) obey Jesus’ words. We dare neither launch out without having first rightly heard, nor hear but never do. “Hearing” means learning in some detail what he wants; “doing” goes beyond hearing, and even beyond mentally agreeing.

Count on it: storms will arise against us in this life. God’s word understood, believed, and practiced in concert with other believers grants us stability despite their destructive raging.