23:13,14
We now get some concrete examples of this godlessness. In Samaria (the northern kingdom of Israel) they prophesied by Baal. This was not just wrong, it led the people astray. In Jerusalem the prophets committed adultery and lived a lie. So we have both “theological” error, if you like, and immoral behaviour. They strengthened the hands of evildoers. This happens in various ways in the church. There are times and places when people commit financial crimes of various sorts, and the church has colluded with this. In the Catholic church in recent years there have been terrible crimes and cover-ups with regard to child abuse. However, these sort of things are not limited to the Catholic church. Then there are many churches that encourage sexually immoral behaviour. These things are an appalling offence to God. The church should be encouraging sinners to repentance, not to continue in their sin!
23:15
False teaching and false prophecy is not just a matter of giving an alternative point of view, it is a matter of feeding poison to people. The false prophets had given bitter food and poisoned water to the people, so God would make them eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. The fruit of their work had been for ungodliness to spread throughout the land.
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