One of the Two Primary Distortions of the Gospel in the New Testament, and The Most Prominent Today

Gospel means "good news," good news that we can be saved, that God wants to save us.  We need to be saved, but we also can be saved.  We don't deserve it, but God in His nature saves, wants to save us, and we can be saved.  Nothing is more important to anything and everything in life than being saved, which includes relationship with God and relationship with man.

Ephesians deals with relationship.  I've started to include that in my series on relationship and will continue through Ephesians and other relationship books and passages for exposition.  I established in that series (all links to every part are HERE), and showed how that wrong relationship (in part thirteen) with God is the paradigm or template for a wrong relationship with men.  The impediments to relationship with men do proceed from the barrier in relationship with God.  They do proceed.  This is axiomatic; it is a rule.

A fundamental way that Paul shows in Ephesians that someone can know and understand the relationship with God is by means of the relationship with men, and this relates to one of the two primary ways the gospel is distorted.  Nothing is worse than the gospel being distorted.  It means people go to Hell.  When someone does it, he is causing more damage than any singular activity on earth.  He should be rebuked in the strongest possible terms.

One distortion of the gospel is represented in many places in the New Testament, but in the epistle to the Galatians in a classic way.  Paul rebukes Peter to his face for a corruption of the gospel that today someone might think is meaningless.  Peter chooses not to eat meat with Gentile Christians in Antioch because of the pressure of Jews from Jerusalem.  Paul withstands Peter to his face for doing that, because of what it would do to the gospel.  This is the "adding works to grace" kind of corruption, or what has been termed, legalism.

Today, professing evangelicals have assigned legalism to all sorts of activity that resemble nothing like what Paul confronts with Peter and so they conveniently distort the problem of actual legalism, real legalism, which is a problem still, but not to the extent of a worse one presently, the second of the two primary distortions of the gospel in the New Testament.  This one is also all over the New Testament, but I want to focus on what one should see in Ephesians about this.  It could be a corollary to my relationship series.  I am motivated right now by a specific example, and I'll get to that.  Someone I know well is corrupting and confusing the gospel.  It's too big of a problem not to expose.

Ephesians 5:1-13 and the Other Distortion of the Gospel, the Main One Today

I could cover more or less than the first 13 verses of Ephesians 5, but that's what will expose the point.  I'm going to bold certain portions to show you that this relationship material does apply to the gospel.  Read these verses (all of them)!

1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. 3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; 4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. 7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them. 8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. 13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

If you are a "dear child" (v. 1), you are saved (John 1:12), and children will follow their Father, literally "imitate."  The supreme example of this is Christ, as seen in His obedience to the Father, offering himself as a sacrifice to God.  Yes, He gave Himself for us, but He was also pleasing the Father, described as being a sweetsmelling savour to the Father.  Contrasted with this ("But") is something different, which isn't being a child of God, which is later "a child of light," rather than a "child of disobedience."  Paul uses this same phrase in Ephesians 2:3 in that gospel passage of Ephesians 2:1-10, that also is formulated for relationship, starting in Ephesians 2:11.

Paul is dealing with a distortion of the gospel, and he commands in in Ephesians 5:6, "Let no man deceive you."  It's obvious that there were false teachers that were deceiving in this way, giving people the impression that someone might be a dear child or child of the light, who is participating in these types of activities.  Today this is mainly called "antinomianism."  In the New Testament, especially exposed in 2 Peter and Jude, it is turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.  In Galatians, it is using grace as an occasion of the flesh.  This is not the grace of God.  It is an impostor, counterfeit grace, but it is popular in evangelicalism today, often called free grace and now I've read, "scandalous grace" (read this and this).  It is not the gospel.  It is a placebo that gives people a horrific false sense of security.  That is the scandal of it.  Paul says, don't be deceived by that false gospel -- the person who is deceived will not inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Right now, I have good reason to believe that someone who I love dearly, almost as much as anyone, is being deceived by this kind of deception.  I have no good reason to think he isn't.  He is promoting exactly what the Apostle Paul says not to do here, and then Paul also characterizes it as a non-Christian.

Let's go back to Ephesians 5.  Paul contrasts Christ's obedience, which is His love, with that which might include the acts of fornication, uncleanness, or covetousness (5:3).  Paul doesn't stop there, he also brings it to the equivalent in speech:  filthiness, foolish talking, and jesting (5:4).

The actions are bad, but Paul doesn't stop there.  He includes the people, who talk about these things.  "Filthiness" is obscenity, someone who uses the foul language or suggestive language in line with fornication.  "Foolish talking" is the kind of talk of a fool, and a fool is an unbeliever, but it is characterized by temporal and of this world and lust again (see eph 2:1-3, please read).  "Jesting" is coarse, double entendre and innuendo.  It's not funny but it is made light of, even though Paul says it shouldn't even be "named among you."  Christians won't use this language and of course would never direct to or support someone else who uses it, like an entertainer, comedian, or "musician."  Popular music is full of, primarily constituted by, filthiness, foolish talking, and jesting.

Paul is clear.  People who act this way and talk this way are not followers of God, not His dear children, not loving, not a sweet smelling savor to God, not a child of light and not acceptable to the Lord, but instead a child of disobedience, darkness, and those not inheriting the kingdom of God but instead recipients of God's wrath.  They are not saved.  Are you listening?  Are you being deceived?  Stop being deceived.  This view of grace is false.  You will right now walk away from this view of grace, because it is false, whoever is telling you it, even if it is an uncle, an aunt, a cousin, a proclaiming preacher, an author, or a professing friend.  He isn't your friend.  He is a deceiver.  If you are saved, you'll be able to walk away from it.

What Paul Says to Do About It

Paul first commands not to be deceived.  He doesn't stop there.  He makes some commands to the church that are typically not done and church members don't look fondly on them.  Let me remind you of what they are.

Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
Walk as children of light.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
Rather reprove them (make manifest them).
Don't speak of them even in secret (let alone in public).

It doesn't say, like, be silent, get along, tolerate, and be polite with.  Separation must occur.  No approval can be shown.  It must be rebuked.  That is real speech.

Here's the thing.  Today in this postmodern world, almost everyone, especially millennials, think that love is tolerating this behavior.  "Scandalous grace" tolerates it.  Jesus doesn't.  God doesn't.  These people will not be in His kingdom, but be under His wrath.  If you rebuke it, you are doing the right thing.  If you don't, you are not doing the right thing.  You are allowing it to be done, unlike a child of light.  You are not loving this person. You are jumping in with this person.  Do not do this!

The one I love is promoting new "country artists," and he says every week he'll do some of it more.  I looked into the lyrics of the first three.  I'm not even talking about the sensual, lustful music, which is bad enough, but the lyrics are filthy, foolish, and jesting.  Almost everything they write has this in it.  He calls them "authentic" and "honest" and "know how to deliver a hook," which are nonsense as a means of evaluation.  Everywhere one can adjudicate biblical teaching, they violate God.  They represent darkness, disobedience, and all things that should not even be named, let alone promoted.  This first one he pushes everyone to hear (what Christian would do this?) has these lyrics:

Whoever wrote the rules of breaking up never kissed your lips
Touched your skin, held the world at their fingertips
Didn't have a clue what heaven was
No they didn't have to lose that kind of love
And if they ever saw that smile, ever felt your fire
They might know what I'm going through
Whoever wrote the rules of breaking up
Ever been broke up? Broke up

There is more and there is worse.  The next one he endorses, sing their song, Underage, which says these:

Young,
All we ever think about is fun
All we ever wanna be is 21
Hey, doesn't everyone wanna sit on top of the world?
Revolves around athletic boys and girls
Dressed up in their older sister's clothes, R. Kelly on the radio
Screaming out, "This'll never get old" 

Racing cars and breaking hearts
First taste of love and twist-off wine
Kissing strangers, daring danger
Burning bridges, crossing lines
You don't think to take it slow
And you don't know what you don't know
The nights are young and our IDs are fake
Underage
Underage 

Time,
Feels like it's always on our side
So we fill it up with midnight drives and lies
To your mama when she asks you where you've been
And you hide your smile and say anywhere but with him
'Cause you know when she was seventeen
She was doing the same **** thing

I'm going to stop there, but it doesn't get better.  It's worse.  The language is worse and the themes are worse.  The above is tame and being used just for the blog post.  These not only shouldn't be promoted and pushed.  The world doesn't need it.  Satan will get the word out.  Christians should be talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, which I just don't see.  This is just the opposite.  Take into consideration everything Paul says in Ephesians 5 with these examples as a consideration.

If someone is to the point where he says he's a Christian, who loves Jesus, and yet he is promoting and adulating the above types of groups and lyrics, then he is being deceived like Paul talks about.  I think we should assume, that since Paul writes this to a church, that the church could be deceived and that a Christian could be deceived.  If a Christian is deceived, when he is being taught or warned, he will also listen (cf. James 1:18-27), and repent of this type of behavior.  I look forward to that from anyone who is an actual believer and in this present condition.