judging false teachers

¹⁷But I beg you, brothers, to take note of those who cause dissensions and offenses contrary to the doctrine that you have learned, and to turn away from them. ¹⁸For ones such as these do not serve Christ our Lord, but their inner selves, and, through pleasing words and skillful speaking, they seduce the hearts of the innocent.

¹⁵Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

¹Most beloved, do not be willing to believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are of God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

¹⁰If anyone comes to you, and does not bring this doctrine, do not be willing to receive him into the house, and do not speak a greeting to him. ¹¹For whoever speaks a greeting to him, is speaking with his evil works.

²⁴Do not judge according to appearances, but instead judge a just judgment.”

⁸See to it that no one deceives you through philosophy and empty falsehoods, as found in the traditions of men, in accord with the influences of the world, and not in accord with Christ.

³For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but instead, according to their own desires, they will gather to themselves teachers, with itching ears, ⁴and certainly, they will turn their hearing away from the truth, and they will be turned toward fables.

⁷For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has arrived in the flesh. Such a one as this is a deceiver and an antichrist.

¹“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. ²For with whatever judgment you judge, so shall you be judged; and with whatever measure you measure out, so shall it be measured back to you. ³And how can you see the splinter in your brother’s eye, and not see the board in your own eye? ⁴Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter from your eye,’ while, behold, a board is in your own eye? ⁵Hypocrite, first remove the board from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

¹⁶You shall know them by their fruits. Can grapes be gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?

¹¹And so, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead, refute them.

¹But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be among you lying teachers, who will introduce divisions of perdition, and they will deny him who bought them, the Lord, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ²And many persons will follow their indulgences; through such persons, the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³And in avarice, they will negotiate about you with false words. Their judgment, in the near future, is not delayed, and their perdition does not sleep. ⁴For God did not spare those Angels who sinned, but instead delivered them, as if dragged down by infernal ropes, into the torments of the underworld, to be reserved unto judgment. ⁵And he did not spare the original world, but he preserved the eighth one, Noah, the herald of justice, bringing the flood upon the world of the impious. ⁶And he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, condemning them to be overthrown, setting them as an example to anyone who might act impiously.