It is easy for some of us to become attracted and distracted by so called church teaching from various other sources. We sometimes lose focus on what is true, genuine church teaching, because the teaching we read or hear from such other sources appears to come from some so-called authoritative figure, or the teaching itself seems appealing to us, or such teaching seems to satisfiy our interpretation of what being church and being a follower of Christ means. But how do we know for certain whether such teaching is genuine or bona fide?
One way of ensuring that such church teaching is genuine is to read or hear such teaching from certified or official sources, and such teaching should jive or flow from the apostles, as St. Paul reminds us in today's reading: "Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you – believing anything else will not lead to anything." As we can read, St. Paul is telling us that he is the genuine authoritative figure, instead of listening to so called other authoritative figures who may only lead us astray.
So what does this mean to us? It means that we must be prudent and discern what we read or hear, and scrutinise the source of such teaching. This is to ensure that we do not lose our way in our faith, and we should also guide others so that they too will not lose their way. May we make every effort to ensure we read and hear only true and genuine teaching, and share such genuine teaching to all.
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