Creeps

 

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. – Jude 3-4

 

As Jude starts his letter, he mentions the threat that false teachers pose to the church. In the earliest days, these false teachers had already begun to sneak in to try and destroy God’s work.

 

John says that they have ‘crept in unawares’ so I like the term ‘creeps’ to describe them.

 

False teachers rarely attack the church in a full-frontal assault. They come in like real believers and making friends. They get involved and get active and earn the trust of the people. Only when they have made their way in do they try to begin leading people astray with half truths and near truths.  They try to divide the church and turn people away from the truth.

 

We must be always on guard, always aware, and always vigilant against these false teachers who are out to destroy God’s work.

 

Don’t let the creeps in