Keep a Close Watch – The Fifth Commandment

Keep a Close Watch

The Fifth Commandment

Guard against false teaching.

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’”

Pastors and teachers must exercise a careful watch over their teaching, as well as over the people entrusted to them (1 Tim. 4:16). The people must be warned against false teaching and false teachers; this is part of the duty of a shepherd in defending the flock of God.

It is not enough, in other words, merely to teach the Scriptures faithfully. We always preach and teach into a particular context, and that context must be illuminated by our teaching, so that the people can see where the Lie is encroaching on them, and prepare themselves against it. Like our Lord Jesus, the faithful pastor must be bold to expose false teaching for what it is, and to warn the people of God away from it.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.