When the writer of Hebrews penned the words, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), he was referring to the unchanging nature of the Lord. He was also writing a warning. The warning was mentioned in the next verse, “So do not be attracted to strange new ideas” (vs. 9). The context of these verses is about Jesus and His unchanging nature across time, extending into our present moment in history.

The Church is being filled with strange new ideas about the Lord that can diminish the Lord’s unchanging nature, causing someone to think their decision to follow Jesus looks and sounds like one more item on a shopping list and not give it the urgency it requires.

All of Scripture builds toward the full expression of the unique Lordship of Jesus as the only way to God. Jesus Himself said, “No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). These “strange new ideas” will reduce the significance of the Lord’s invitation to salvation and allow someone or something else to replace Him.

Some teachers fill pulpits and airways using polished language and advanced degrees to soften the Hebrews’ warning about the never-changing nature of the Lord, convincing naïve believers to accept a false redemption substitute, rejecting the One who is the way, the truth, and life.

In his letter to the Ephesian Church, Paul addressed the kind of maturity that will come to the Church when the five-fold ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers have matured our faith to a place of maturity. The ministry of these equipping gifts did not stop at some point in the past. “This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Our unity is about Jesus, not the substitutes we have been offered to replace Him.

Paul also wrote about an immature faith – a faith that can appear to be following Jesus but lacks the distinctives that define Him.

Once Christ has been rightly defined for us, Paul wrote, “Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the Church. Ephesians 4:14-15). The word “Instead” takes courage to speak when we are assaulted by those who think differently.

Winds of deception are blowing through the Church. All the deception is aimed at the deity and the distinctive nature of Jesus. Filling the gap of that deception has allowed a spirit of universalism and all its variations to enter some parts of the Church. It also lacks the mention of the hellish consequences of disbelief that will take place when we follow a false Christ.

This deception occurs because fellow believers are afraid to say to an unredeemed person that they will die in their sins and be judged in eternity if they have not come to God through Christ alone. This is not harsh-sounding. It’s an expression of God’s love, who wants none to perish.

It takes courage and the risk to our current relationships to speak the truth in love, even as the surrounding culture, and even some in the Church, tell us not to speak of the distinctive nature of Jesus because it might be offensive. That fear of expressing the truth is the result of spiritual immaturity. It is failing to speak the truth, in love, when a person’s eternal destiny is in the balance.

“Jesus said to the people who believed in him, ‘You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free'” (John 8:31-32).