Wrong Turn

Have you ever been driving your car on a trip, following your GPS along the way, when halfway there, you suddenly realize that you’re headed toward the wrong destination? You don’t know how it happened. But you just spent half the travel time going in the wrong direction. Now the road back to the right path and direction will take even longer. Many times, that can be the story of our faith journey. We start out on the right road. We think we’re following the right directions, but something happened that derailed us from our intended path. Within the modern world, there are many things out there that can distract us from the true nature of the gospel. There are things, other gospels out there that will pull us away from truth. And the reality is, they seem real. They seem true. They look and sound like the gospel, just enhanced.

We aren’t the first people to deal with this issue though. Throughout Scripture, we see evidence of teachers coming after the apostles to teach a different gospel than the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter even sends out a warning to the churches he was overseeing saying:

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen (2 Peter 3:15-18 NIV).

Peter warns the church to be on its guard against false teachings. To watch out for the things of the world that try to change or enhance the gospel to fit the social and political messages of the day. That warning holds true today as well. What are the things that are distracting us from the gospel? What are the things we are following today that are sending us in the wrong direction? Jesus said Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14 NIV).
The hard truth we have to face is that there is only one way to salvation. It’s through the person of Jesus Christ. He is the narrow gate that we must travel through. Set your GPS to Him. Stay on the path. He will lead the way.