NO ONE SHOULD DECEIVE YOU

"Jesus began to say to them, “See to it that no one deceives you" (Mark 13:5). 

Every believer is personally responsible before God for his spiritual development and health. Truly, God has given us pastors and other ministers as gifts to tutor us, doctor us, encourage us and guide us for a successful spiritual journey. But the greater truth is that each man is ultimately in charge of his own spiritual life and what he allows is what will obtain. Jesus said you have to "see to it" that you are not misled. In other words, you must not allow anyone to deceive you. You have a duty to yourself to see to it that you are spiritually healthy and properly fortified. The clear message of God to you at this hour is to take responsibility for your spiritual wellbeing. 

The Berean Christians took responsibility for their spiritual health. The Bible says that after every church service, Bible study or fellowship meeting, they would go home to privately study the Scriptures to be sure that the preacher had not fed them with mere fables. Not that they didn't trust Paul or any of their spiritual leaders, it was just that they wanted to be sure that they were not misled and that they were being properly grounded in the word of God. I have always wondered who taught the Bereans to check out their spiritual leaders under the searchlight of the Scriptures. But what is clear is that these were a group of people who were fully persuaded of the need for the Christian to take responsibility for his spiritual wellbeing. 

In the Old Testament, we have the example of David, among many other saints who took responsibility for their spiritual wellbeing. Have you ever wondered who taught David all that he knew about God? Yes, he once acknowledged that he had teachers, and it will be okay to assume that these were his tutors in both secular and spiritual matters. But the sparse reference to David's teachers meant that a lot of what he achieved spiritually were gained through his own personal efforts and dedication. He told us of how he delighted in the Scriptures and how he would spend whole nights pondering on the word of God. In any case, David told us that his personal study and meditation in the word of God made him to have more understanding than his teachers (Psalms 119:99). The simple point being driven at is that David took responsibility for his spiritual health. 

These biblical examples should greatly challenge us today, to the end that each of us should endeavour to seek God for himself. You need to know that at the end of the day, the walk with God is an individual adventure. Of course, it will always be to your advantage that you should take instructions and directions from your spiritual leaders, and that you should draw inspiration and motivation from other compatriots on the heavenly path. But the ultimate responsibility for your spiritual health and the character of your spiritual environment rest squarely on your laps. If you shirk that responsibility, you may have to pay for your negligence for ever and ever. But if you will discipline yourself to be alive to your spiritual responsibility over your own life, you will also live to reap the benefits for ever and ever.