The First False Teaching about Jesus

John 1:14

The Word became lesh and dwelt among us.

John 1:14

God became a man in Christ Jesus. The body of Jesus was like ours. He grew in strength—from a baby, to a child, to a man—and He knew what it was like to be hungry, thirsty, and weary.

The first heresy, the first false teaching that the early church had to contend with, was not the denial that Jesus was God, but the denial that He was man. In that culture, people got to thinking, How could God, who is pure spirit, possibly get mixed up with something as base as the human body? There was a nervousness about the Son of God taking on human fesh, but that is precisely what the Bible teaches. That’s why you find in 2 John 7: “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the fesh.”

If the Bible said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word remained spirit,” we would have to limit God’s interest in our lives to the things of the spirit like prayer, meditation, and Bible study. It would mean that God was concerned with your heart but not with your home, with your spirit but not with your schedule, with your character but not with your activity.

But the Bible doesn’t say, “the Word remained spirit,” it says, “the Word became fesh”! God entered the world of noisy kids and pushy parents, the world of overcrowded schedules and unscrupulous traders, the world of relentless pressures and unending demands. When Jesus went to the cross, He died, not only to save your soul, but also to redeem your life—every part of it!

What are some areas of your life that you wonder if God is interested in? Why?

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Colin Smith

Trustee / Founder and Teaching Pastor

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near – So Far. Colin is the Founder and Teaching Pastor for Open the Bible. Follow him on X formerly Twitter.

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