False Teachers

I have been thinking about False Teachers a lot lately. I should, being that we are in a Discernment Class at my church. So this is slightly inspired by that class, though I am looking stuff up myself. 
Firstly, as my teacher at church defined, what IS discernment? It is not a warm, fuzzy feeling. This feels right, so it must be. Discernment is, according to Google, the ability to judge well, as in "an astonishing lack of discernment". 
But wait, we aren't supposed to judge! says the reader. Society tells us not to, some churches tell us not to. Judgement is a synonym for discernment, Google says, with it's meaning to come to a considered conclusion or sensible conclusion. 

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit^[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood 1 John 4

Firstly, those we listen to and read from must agree that Christ has come in the flesh from God. That they will admit that Christ was fully God and fully Man, that He was who He said He was. This must be quite evident---many will say that Christ was just a "man", or that God was only with Him until He went to the cross. God came as a Man, died as a Man and rose as a Man while still being God. Only God could be pure enough to be the sacrifice to take away an entire human race's sins. Only God in that form, born of a virgin and thus not carrying the sin-curse of Adam could do this thing.

14How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,^c so that we may serve the living God! Hebrews 9

The next thing to consider when listening or reading what people say about God is does it line up with God's Word? Can it be referenced in two or more places? This requires one to believe that every scripture in the cannonized Bible to be God breathed. 
As a side note, many other books are argued about as to whether they should be in the Bible. These books, though written at the same era as other books of Scripture were never considered by the teachers of the time to be Scripture. They are useful as history books, but they are not considered to be part of the Word. This, according to the teacher at my class and her studies, was concluded in finality at the Counsil of Hippo in 300 AD, when heresy was becoming prevalent. 

10As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. Acts 17

What others teach and say must be checked by the Word. Does it line up? Are the verses used properly in context? It is a favorite ruse to pull a verse out of context, or purposefully add verses to one's teaching as evidence, but never actually read them or turn to them. We do not always check every verse out in a book or sermon, and sometimes we might be pulled into bad teaching because the author/speaker mentions Jesus. If that is our standard, then any heavy metal band, rock band or random swearing person must be a good, solid teacher of the Word. 

Lastly, do we see in them signs of Christ-like behavior? Much like looking for a Deacon See passages here, one must look for signals of a Spirit-filled life. What might that look like? The fruits of the Spirit, one who lives a Christ-like life. One who stands out in the walk of faith. Is this person, a friend, pastor, teacher, growing in faith or stagnating? Is what they say accurate to the Word, and if not are they willing to listen openly and receive gentle correction to Biblical error? 

Use these tools to check the teachers in your life. As with a previous post, not everyone who says "Lord" actually believes.