Jesus had previously warned of blind guides. There was the risk of teachers who were not capable or qualified to teach the way that led to life, but who nonetheless taught it with full confidence and assurance. There were people who spoke who spoke in ignorance, those who spoke convenient fictions, and those who lied maliciously. Many of these spoke so persuasively as to seem prophetic. But how to sort out the false prophets from those who spoke the word of God accurately?
A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
The way they could be known was by watching for the results they produced. It wouldn't be enough to assess their own curriculum vitae however. Many would be skilled enough in dissembling and deception to conceal the sickness within that causing them to rot away. Better, if possible, to see how their teaching affected their disciples. Did it make them more committed to loving God and neighbor? Or did it serve to provide them with convenient excuses to pursue their own base desires and self-interest? Since one wouldn't have direct access into the minds and hearts of others they would need to infer much from how they spoke, since "from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks". But all of this would still be liable to both misunderstanding and deception. The real final analysis was how the teachings of another affected oneself. Did they empower him to increasingly bear good fruit? Or did they seem to be the initial stages of an inner sickness sapping his spiritual life? The important idea was to not take the promises of a teacher at face value, or on the basis of his persuasiveness or his rhetorical skill, but to be on the watch for the results, and to make sure those results were aligned with one's own higher priorities.
I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,
listens to my words, and acts on them.
That one is like a man building a house,
who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;
when the flood came, the river burst against that house
but could not shake it because it had been well built.
How do we explain the fact that there are so many disciples of the one who is the teacher par excellence, and who nevertheless bear bad fruit? After all, if we judged Jesus exclusives on the merits of his modern disciples we would at best have an assessment that was mixed. But the disciples of Jesus are never in the wrong for their adherence to the teachings of Jesus. They are, however, often at fault for failing to live up to them. Even their failures are evidence for the veracity of teachings they should have taken more seriously.
We ourselves can avoid the risk of false teachers and self-deception by rooting ourselves in Jesus, and building our lives upon him as upon a rock foundation. It is not enough to hear. We connect ourselves to him only to the degree that we build our lives on him.
Even if we have succumbed to deception and false promises, or even if we ourselves have taught inaccurately or falsely, it is not too late to begin building upon Jesus as our one foundation. After all, Paul was persuaded of things that were antithetical to the Gospel. But this did not stand in the way of him receiving mercy. In fact, it only served to make him among the greatest examples of the greatness of God's love.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Of these I am the foremost.
But for that reason I was mercifully treated,
so that in me, as the foremost,
Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example
for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.
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