“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!"
I've seen this principle enacted in real life. On one of our trips to Africa, we arrived shortly after a big name evangelist from the U.S. had been there. Reportedly, he stayed in a five-star hotel, demanded a chauffeured Mercedes limousine to get around and was paid $50,000 for a two night stadium event. I have no idea whether or not anyone found a real relationship with Jesus through that event, but I know for sure the impact he had on local pastors. Many began to dress like him, adopt his preaching style and mannerism, and preach a lot on tithing and prosperity. They all want to be rich like the American -and many became spiritually abusive in the process, attempting to build their own kingdoms instead of God's Kingdom.
But this warning is not just for manipulative prosperity preachers; this is a serious warning for any preacher or teacher who loses sight of the greatest commandment that Jesus gave us just a few verses earlier: Love the Lord you God with all of your heart, soul and mind -and love your neighbor as yourself.
When we teach people to follow theology (of any stripe or color) instead of teaching them to love Father, we have missed the mark completely and are leading people astray. Theology is simply man's attempt to explain the things of God. Theology has a place in helping us understand God and things of God, but theology is not God. We must not get too attached to theology at the expense of actually learning to love God and others.
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