Friday | 19 June 2026
Paul’s interactions with the Jews in Corinth demonstrate that a righteous person turns from their righteousness to iniquity by rejecting the word of present truth. In so doing, they stumble at Christ and fail to be built on Him. The apostle Peter explained that this is the implication of disobedience to the proceeding word, writing, ‘They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed’. 1Pe 2:8.
Inasmuch as a watchman, or messenger, has a responsibility to proclaim the word of present truth to the righteous and to the wicked, and to warn them of God’s judgement upon their disobedience, they must not engage with, nor answer, those who seek their counsel while coming with an idol in their heart. A person, and in particular a presbyter, approaches Christ’s messengers in the presbytery and the church ‘with an idol in their heart’ when they seek affirmation or validation for their initiatives that deviate from the expression and implications of the word of present truth. They do this in order to maintain their religious or ministry projections.
The Lord warned Ezekiel of this alternative to fellowship in Spirit and truth when some of the elders of Israel came to him and sat before him. The Lord said to Ezekiel, ‘Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?’ Eze 14:3. Warning Ezekiel of the implications of answering these inquiries, the Lord said, ‘And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the LORD have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired.’ Eze 14:9‑10. Paul escaped this condemnation.
Further Study:
1 Corinthians 10
References:
1Pe 2:8
And ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence’. They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
Eze 14:3
Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:9-10
And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the LORD have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired.