Let's look back at what John wrote in the third chapter of the book of John, verses 16 and 17:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Plain and simple, God gave us a gift, the precious gift of His Son. All we have to do is believe in Him and we will have eternal life. There is nothing we have to do before we believe. We don't have to get our lives cleaned up. Once we believe in Jesus we are no longer condemned.
Yet, there are those out there that go around saying that they have another gospel, or you have to do this or that to be truly saved. While in high school I had someone try to tell me that because I didn't speak in tongues then I was not truly saved. I was able to point that person to 1 Corinthians 12, to show that not everyone has that gift.
How do we know when someone is adding to the gospel? A good teacher will challenge you to get into the Bible and look up the verses that they are teaching on to see that what they are saying is true. So many times it can sound true but there is just one thing is off. Take the time like the In Acts 17:11, and make sure that what is being taught it true.
Along with those lines we are told to study the Word in 2 Timothy 2:15, I love how the Amplified puts it; “Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.”
Our bearing is to check out what we hear so that we know it is true. Always line up what we hear to what the Bible says.
Click to Tweet: We need to be in our Bibles, digging deep and study it verse by verse to get the whole meaning