Not all that glitters is gold.

Churches, free churches, sects, groupings – who knows what is helpful? Not all that glitters is gold. Some people take the precaution of throwing everything unknown into the big pot of “sects”. That would be an avoidance strategy. Others accept uncritically what is said or written. This, too, is an avoidance strategy, namely the avoidance of a differentiated debate in which ideas are weighed up and tested for value.

Between superficial and “totally wacky” there is still a lot to explore. Even though I myself don’t think very much of “religious,” of this woolly term that neither clarifies nor defines, there is much that moves me as a human being. Everyday challenges urge alignment, rectification, liberation, redemption, and meaning. Not all that glitters is gold in everyday life.

Spirituality

Spirituality here is a collective term for a search for solutions, for understanding, a search to give a reliable framework to the challenges in life. A superficial spirituality can be marketed well. But what if the needs go deeper? What if a personal need is formulated with concrete questions, and a mere spirituality is recognized as insufficient because it lacks a personal encounter with a living God? Piety can be useful for many things – sometimes it cannot answer questions of life. Then it needs a real confrontation, with oneself, perhaps also with religion, with one’s origins and previous thought. Those who have reached this point can come to understand what the Gospel of God’s grace does, why it is indeed a liberating and setting free message.

Pseudo solutions

Sometimes, however, the vacuum created is the perfect breeding ground for pseudo-solutions. Sects and sectarian attitudes lead here to the sidelines. But how do I recognize them? I ask myself the question also as a Christian, I want to deal with my thoughts and also with thoughts of others.

Pseudo-solutions are nothing new. Jesus already warned against pseudo-solutions:

“Then if anyone shall say to you: Behold, here is the Christ (Messiah), or there, believe it not! For false Christs and false prophets shall appear, and shall shew great signs and wonders, to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
Mt 24:23-24 (Schlachter 2000, cf. Mk 13:21-22)

The language of the New Testament is about pseudo-Christuses and pseudo-prophets. These are not the right ones, these are the wrong ones. As Jesus speaks about it, even the elect can be led astray (according to biblical language). Scripture warns:

  1. False Christs (gr. pseudochristos). Mt 24:23-24, Mk 13:21-22
  2. False prophets (gr. pseudoprophetes). Mt 7:15 Mt 24:11Apg 13:62Pet 2:1, et al.
  3. False apostles (gr. pseudoapostolos). 2Co 11:13 (cf. Rev 2:2 )
  4. False teachers (gr. pseudodidaskalos). 2Pet 2,1
  5. False brothers (gr. pseudoadelphos). 2Co 11:26, Ga 2:4

Here is the warning: we must beware of people who hold up a pretense. They can be recognized by the fact that they do not lead to Christ, but only to themselves. They only lead to their own events, to a teaching “only for initiates”, to a guru or miracle healer, to a super-blessed teacher or mega-evangelist, or even to a false Christ. That’s where the focus is wrong; that’s where ideologies arise and flourish.

A healthy alignment

Let us now return to the letter to the Ephesians. There it is described in other words. Paul desires there that we no longer be “tossed to and fro and driven about [werden] by every wind of doctrine, by the deceitful play of men, by the craftiness with which they deceive to error” (Eph. 4:14). We should not be tossed back and forth. On the contrary! The next verse shows the way out of all these errors:

“[wenn wir] but are true, we should make all things grow in love, into Him who is the head, Christ”.
(Eph 4:15, KNT),

or in other translation:

” … but, truly in love, grow up in all things unto him who is the head, the Christ.”
(Eph. 4:15, Schlachter 2000).

From this phrase we see how Paul recognizes a healthy focus. True teaching leads to Christ, to the cross and resurrection, and nowhere else (cf. 1 Cor. 2:1-2). If we want to be true, we lovingly contribute to this growth. If it leads elsewhere or is not loving, it is not from the right source.

Recognizing faulty solutions is often the first step out into a new freedom. There is no bondage to worthless things, but a new beginning through the releasing grace of God in Christ Jesus.

Deepening and conversation

  • Read and discuss 1 Corinthians 1:10-17. What is Paul talking about?
  • Read and discuss 1 Cor. 2:1-5. What is Paul talking about?
  • Read and discuss Colossians 2:6-10. What is Paul talking about?
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