The danger of false teachers

The Bible says false teachers underestimate God and the seriousness of spiritual things (2 Pet. 2:12). False teachers often proclaim a message of grace but they often pervert God's grace (Gal. 1:6-7) and have persuasive speech (2 Pet. 2:18a). They often profess liberty (2 Pet. 2:19a), but they are bondservants of corruption. In fact, many false teachers are guilty of greed (2 Pet. 2:3). False teachers will destroy individual Christians as well as congregations (1 Tim. 6:4b) so they cannot be tolerated (1 Jn. 4:1). False teachers may try to appear as righteous people (Mt. 7:15-16) and may lead many astray (Mt. 24:11), sometimes through false promises (2 Pet. 2:17), but God says we must not have fellowship with them and their doctrines (2 Jn. 9-11).