Secret polluters | By: J.O. Lawal | Date: November 17, 2024 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 13, No. 29

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great joy that I welcome you to another week of the month of November 2024. And I pray that God will rid your life of whatever may be polluting it, so that Satan will not be able to use you to pollute the church of God in any way. Amen.

Among the things that the apostles of old tell us to watch out for in the church in these last days are secret polluters. Who are secret polluters? They are certain people in the church who, like others, claim to belong to Christ but who secretly pollute the people of God in order to render them useless to God and also give Satan room to work in their midst.

Now among the things these people use in secretly polluting the church are heresies and lies. Look at what Peter says about that:

“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them — bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.” (2Peter 2:1-3NIV)

Did you observe that the people Peter is talking about here are leaders in the church? So, when we are talking about secret polluters of the church, we are not excluding church leaders. A church leader can be secretly polluting the people of God through false doctrines, doctrines that promote greed, immorality or rebellion. For instance, a sister once told me of how her pastor told her that part of her spiritual duty was to take care of him sexually. And what did he use to support this nonsense talk? Scriptures!

A preacher can also pollute God’s people through fabricated dreams, visions, prophecies or stories, just to poison their minds against other people, including their family members. There are people today who have turned their back on their husbands, wives, parents or children because certain preachers lied to them. And unless such people are cleansed with the word of God and by the power of the Spirit of God, they may remain polluted and useless to God for the rest of their lives.

Then another thing that secret polluters use in polluting the church is sexual immorality. Jude has this to say about that: “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” (Jude 4NIV) Did you see that? Even though secret polluters claim to be Christians, they are actually nothing but godless people.

Now because people have no fear of God in them, they are always using all kinds of cleverness to seduce God’s people into sexual immorality or the practice of sorcery. And where the leadership of an assembly is not sensitive or is distracted by activities, a lot of lives and homes in that assembly may have been ruined before they know what is happening.

Furthermore, secret polluters often secretly use backbiting to divide God’s people and pollute them. There are churches today that have been struggling for years to come out of spiritual infancy and increase in usefulness in God’s hand and have not been able to do so. Why? Secret polluters will not let them rest. They are always fighting one another and settling disputes among themselves. So, they cannot concentrate on building themselves up with the word of God and growing in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Now the word of God already tells us that there is only one sentence from God for secret polluters. And that is swift destruction. Remember Korah, Dathan, Abiram and On, who wanted to pollute the Israelites through rebellion. They and their families were quickly wiped out. Remember also Ananias and Sapphira, who wanted to pollute the early church through hypocritical giving. They were quickly killed by God. (Cf. Num 16; Acts 5:1-11)

So, don’t be a secret polluter of the church of God. You will not go far at all before you are judged. Also, have nothing to do with anyone that is a secret polluter in the church, in your family, in your neighbourhood or in your workplace. Otherwise, you may end up sharing in their judgment. And may the Spirit of God keep you blameless till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have a splendid week.

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