‘Bring you into bondage’ – so they did. The teaching of the Judaisers brought people in the Old Testament bondage of the ceremonial law, from which Christ came to set us free. It was one thing to be born in that era and to live by the ceremonial law; it was another thing to go back to it after Christ had come and fulfilled it. Some today are so upset because they struggle to speak in tongues. They feel outsiders and there is great pressure put on them. That is why so many to speak in tongues. This is a form of bondage which God never intended for his children.
‘If a man devour you’. Don’t we see evangelical teachers who were just money grabbers? Those who are not rich are stripped of the little they have in order to line the pockets of rapacious pastors.
‘If a man take’ – take you in, take you for a ride, take you away from rational thought. Those rash false teachers were doing so. Year on year, Satan tries to bring new outrages on the Christian church. Each year sees something even more preposterous that the year before. Before they were converted, they would have seen through these things, but now they are taken in.
‘If a man exalt himself’ – even if he lords it over you, you still accept it. Any ministry we accept must not bring us to this point; we must only accept ministry that does not exploit the people of God. Certainly, a true church has great stewardship and gives much to the Lord’s cause, but it should be apparent that the leaders are not living off God’s people.
True teachers require you to be critics of their teaching, in the sense that you compare their teaching with Scripture. They don’t exalt themselves; they don’t insult you and push you around. They respect you as a child of God.