“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Ephesians 4:14

Who doesn’t love the beach, especially on a nice hot day? Like me, many of you probably enjoy playing in the waves, sometimes timing a jump to let the oncoming wave roll beneath you; sometimes diving straight into a breaking wave and coming up on the other side; and, sometimes seeing how far you can body surf back towards shore.

But if you’ve ever played in the waves, you know that if you’re not paying close attention you can easily get caught off guard and get tossed around like a rag doll by a wave you didn’t see coming. That’s when you feel the real power of the surf as it knocks you down and you struggle to recover. There’s no question that getting tossed around by the waves can be dangerous, which is probably why the Apostle Paul uses the waves as a metaphor to guard against false teaching.

If you’re not grounded, self-serving and misguided teachers can easily lead you astray. How do you avoid getting tossed around doctrinally? Start by being a student of the Word of God, regularly reading and studying the Bible. And sit under good teachers, which God has provided. That’s Paul’s advice in the verses just before the verse at the top of this devotion: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13)

May God protect you from getting tossed around spiritually by false teaching as you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.