“Should Christians judge the teachings of their leaders?”……As Christians, we are commanded against following teachers blindly, What does Scripture say?…1 Thessalonians 5:21…"but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good".…The apostle Peter warns usthat there will be false teachers in our day just as there were false teachers in his day:…2 Peter 2:1-3…But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.

Paul calls the false teachers "savage wolves". Paul warned them continually, pleading with them night and day to be on their guard against such deceivers.

Acts 20:29-31…I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you-my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you.…They will mercilessly attempt to destroy the faith of the sheep and draw them away from the Shepherd.

… Among their false teachings is a denial of the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross to take away sin, which is a common theme among cultists today. Another characteristic of false teachers is the greed which motivates them in everything they do.

From these passages, we see clearly that we are to distinguish between true and false teachers. How then are we to do that? …First, as Paul instructs the Ephesians elders, we are to "no longer be infants", …Ephesians 4:14…Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.… Rather, we are to "become mature" through "the knowledge of the Son of God"…Ephesians 4:13…This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.……The knowledge of Christ can only be obtained through the Word of God, and it is by that Word that we distinguish between the true and the false. …Jesus offers some critical advice in discerning who is a false prophet:…Matthew 7:15-20…"Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions., Plainly stated:…Is the teacher's life marked by a progressive conformity to the likeness of Christ? Is the teacher bearing the fruits of the Spirit? …Just as only good trees produce good fruit, so do only true teachers of Christ display the fruit of the Spirit…Galatians 5:22-26…But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,├ö├ç┬¬ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.…Whereas false prophets and teachers display the acts of their sinful natures Galatians 5:19-21…By these fruits, we recognize true and false teachers.… When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.…Secondly, does the teaching that is being presented conform to the message as proclaimed by the early church and the Apostles? As Paul writes to the church in Galatia:

Galatians 1:6-10…I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. Let God's curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant.…Galatians 5:7-18…You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn't God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you. Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised-as some say I do-why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves. For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: "Love your neighbour as yourself." But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.

Living by the Spirit's Power

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

The apostle John tells us in his first epistlehow we are to discern which spirits are from God.…John 4:1-6 …Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet[a] acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.… But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world's viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.…It is of utmost importance that Christians are well-grounded in the Scriptures so that they are able to discern which teachers speak from God and which are false in their proclamation. Only then can we reject what is false and "hold on to the good"

1 Thessalonians 5:21…"but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good".…