When the Apostle Paul addressed the elders of Ephesus he warned them of dangers that would beset the saints after his departure. Grievous wolves would enter in among them, "not sparing the flock." The history of the church has abundantly confirmed the solemn words of the Apostle, for wicked men, marked by evil doctrines and evil practices, have made merchandise of the saints, working havoc among them, and dishonouring the Name of the Lord before the world. The writings of the Apostle John are a special safeguard against the evil teachings of these wicked men.
A more subtle danger for the saints, against which the Apostle Paul warned was, "Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them" (Acts 20:30). These would not "enter in" like the grievous wolves; they were already within the bosom of the church. The wolf scatters; these men would seek to gather, but not around Christ: they wanted to gather followers around themselves, and in doing so would draw them away from simple allegiance to Christ.
The motive of these men is plainly exposed; they had themselves before them, not Christ; and in order to magnify themselves before men were prepared to draw away Christ's disciples to make them their disciples. How different from John Baptist who pointed his disciples to Christ, so that they became His disciples. The heart of John was filled with Christ when he said, "Behold the Lamb of God"; and his testimony to Jesus sent two of his disciples after Jesus to follow Him.
In order to achieve their end, these selfish men would speak perverse things, teachings that turned away from the truth of God. They would be men of influence in the church, men with some ability to teach, and who would use their influence and teaching to make themselves leaders of parties marked by teachings and practices different from those given in the Scriptures for the church of God.
They would not deny directly the truths of Scripture, but would pervert them by giving to them their own meaning, a meaning different from that in which the saints had been instructed by the apostles, and those who had followed in the steps of the apostles. This would cast their followers upon themselves, who would look to their leaders for teaching rather than to the word of God.
Such teachers sometimes present themselves as having special divine authority to teach, so that their ministry is authoritative in the eyes of their followers; the deluded disciples not understanding that the only authoritative ministry for the church is that given in the Scriptures, by divine inspiration, through the Holy Spirit.
A teacher who comes from God will always direct his hearers to Christ, and cast them upon God's unerring word as the sure resting place for the soul. When the truth is spoken, like the Bereans, true believers will receive it "with all readiness of mind," but they too will search the Scriptures for confirmation of what they have heard (Acts 17:11). The faithful teacher will always desire those who hear him to test what he has said by the authoritative words of Holy Scripture; for he will seek to convey only the thoughts of God.
Hymenaeus and Philetus did not convey God's thoughts when they said the resurrection had taken place already (2 Tim. 2:18). They did not deny the truth of resurrection, but they perverted it in giving their own thoughts about it instead of speaking what God had said. Those who rested on the words of these teachers instead of on the word of God went astray, for their faith was overthrown. Instead of being occupied with Christ in heaven, and looking for Him to take them to heaven, they had got their thoughts and hopes centred on the earth, and had lost the truth of the heavenly calling.
Down the centuries many have spoken perverse things to secure a place for themselves among men. Sometimes they have stressed one great truth to the denial of another as when Christ's Sonship in Manhood has been used to deny His Sonship before time. Although the Son, in praying to His Father, said, "Father … Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24): some have had the temerity to say that the Father did not love the Son before the foundation of the world. Is not this a perverse thing?
Scripture exhorts us to pray "in the Holy Ghost," but some, without a vestige of Scriptural support have instructed their followers to pray to the Holy Ghost. Is not this a perverse thing? Many another divine teaching has been set aside by the perverse words of men, as exemplified in the advocacy of the separating of husband from wife and wife from husband, in spite of the solemn commentary of the Lord on Genesis 2:24, "What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder" (Matt. 19:6).
Our divine safeguard from this and from every other form of evil is to be thoroughly acquainted with, and to rest implicitly on, the word of God, and on the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Though valuing every gift the Lord has given for our help, we have not been made dependent upon men for divine teaching, even as it is written, "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him (1 John 2:27).