Secondly, the word translated here as “spreading” is the Greek term that can also mean pasture. It is used only one other time in the New Testament when Jesus spoke of himself as being the door of the sheep. Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9 NASB). Jesus spoke this in contrast to the False Teachers who came before him, saying, “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them” (John 10:8 NASB). False teaching does not inflict a wound that kills all at once. Instead, it slowly eats away at us as we continue to graze and pasture on its words. Paul’s words regarding false teachers ought to cause us to ask ourselves, “what are we feeding upon?” Are we grazing and pasturing on the word of God, or are we like those whom Paul speaks of who “will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4NASB). What we choose to fill our lives with matters. If we choose to continually feed ourselves on the word of God, then we will continue to grow in our walk with God. However, if we turn away to false teachers, those teaching a Gospel other than that taught by Jesus and his apostles, then the very word we feed on will consume us little by little until we are completely consumed by death. The choice is ours! Choose wisely!
David Robison