It caught my attention that Paul’s chief concern for the Ephesian church was that they didn’t get caught in false teaching. He asked them to be on alert watching for people with deviant doctrines. That’s an important New Testament responsibility for leaders. But where do you draw the line? What’s the difference between keeping an eye out for false teaching and being a dictator that only allows one interpretation of the Word? I think it centers around the nature of the Gospel. We need to be vigilant in watching and putting a stop to any distortion of the Gospel (that the only means of salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus). We’re going to disagree doctrinally from time to time, even within (or particularly within) our own denominations). But the Gospel must hold us together.
