Preachers often warn against “false teachers,” but are they really that bad? Well, yes. Under the Law of Moses, false teaching was considered so heinous that it could incur the death penalty. Deuteronomy 13:8 says that when anyone tried to entice Israel to go after other gods, “you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.”
Even under the New Testament, that’s good advice. When someone persists in teaching false doctrine, we should not give in to their falsehood, listen to their false advice, or try to hide their false teachings from others. Falsehood is too dangerous. False teachers should be corrected and rebuked, but if they persist in teaching false doctrine, then as Paul says, “reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition.”[1] False doctrine can destroy souls, and we cannot yield to it, listen to it, or conceal it.
[1] Titus 3:10