Who do you allow to speak into your life? What voices do you listen to? Which guides are you following?
In a world full of voices from self-proclaimed experts and leaders, we must be very careful who we are listening to and following. It seems like everyone wants to tell you which path to take, how to do things the right way, or what is best for you… There is no shortage of such voices.
The self-proclaimed (or self-righteous) experts of Jesus’ day were the Pharisees. They loved being the “religious elite” – showing everyone how to follow God’s laws and live the right way. They loved their time-honored traditions. They loved their teachings that had been passed down to them. The problem was… they were WRONG on so many things.
For example, the Pharisees once questioned Jesus about his disciples not following the hand washing tradition of their fathers. Jesus responded by calling them hypocrites because some of their traditions actually broke God’s laws! In his typical manner, Jesus went to the root of the issue, “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person” (Matthew 15:11). When the disciples told Jesus that the Pharisees were upset with His teachings, He brushed it aside, “Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14).
Jesus knew the Pharisees weren’t worth listening to, He knew they weren’t worth following.
This is why we must be very careful about which voices we are listening to and which guides we are following: some just want influence, some just want attention, and some are just lost themselves.
The Bible teaches us to test the spirits to see if they are from God (1 John 4:1). We must test to see if the teaching aligns with Scripture, glorifies God, points us to Christ, etc. We must ask – Is this tradition or Scripture? Is this man’s cleverness or God’s wisdom? Is this smooth-talk or the Word of God? We should test, weigh, and measure everything that would influence us.
Some voices aren’t worth listening to, some guides aren’t worth following
…lest we end up in a pit.
May God richly bless you in His Son,
Dr. Aaron George Glover