You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
14 That[hina] we henceforth be[o] no more[meketi] children,[nepios] tossed to and fro,[kludonizomai] and[kai] carried about
with[periphero] every[pas] wind[anemos] of doctrine,[didaskalia] by[en] the sleight[kubeia] of men,[anthropos] and
cunning craftiness[en],[panourgia] whereby[pros] they lie in
wait[methodeia] to deceive;[plane] KJV-Interlinear
14 As a
result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and
carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness
in deceitful scheming; NASB
The purpose of the ministry in dealing with the communication or instruction or teaching of the Word of God, is to educate people in the many truths of life. And one of those truths is that the world will go to great lengths to fool, to make ambiguous, to simulate truth and so forth so as to confuse and mislead.
Children here is a term that represents the uninitiated, the impressionable, those easily led astray with false teachings. Children has nothing to do with ones physical age, but with ones understanding in knowledge.
Sleight of hand, is a reference to teachings that appeal to the emotions, teachings that are made to appear as though they also came from Christ, but do not, teachings that promote one thought but lead to another agenda, bait and switch, teachings that are deceitful.
Cunning craftiness, are teachings or opinions that employ methods that might seem harmless, but also come with ulterior motives.
Without the clear instruction of doctrine, people are unable to understand the truths of life. Truths that include the hazards that come from the world.
Without doctrine, no one is able to see through the fog of life, no one. You cannot ascertain truth, or clarity of thought, or orientation to anything unless you have some solid standard to measure against. Doctrine is that standard.
Without a standard, an unmovable standard, then everything becomes relative, and whatever is popular becomes the norm. Once it was popular to burn heretics, or witches. Some cultures easily find bias against others.
Look around the community or the world, and you will find group after group that has set up standards by which they live. And while some or all may seem innocent, sooner or later these compromised and simple standards always lead eventually to more horrible standards and atrocities. But then folks will always deny that their standards could never lead in that direction. And so goes the deception, even self-deceptions of the world.
The naïve will never see it. Only the educated, and more specifically the spiritually educated, have the inner resources to discern between that which is truth, and that which is false. Therefore, God has set up a mechanism for the teaching and the learning of Bible doctrine that is designed not only to help you grow up to spiritual maturity, but along the way, to help you discern between that which is right and that which is wrong and to even avoid the evils of the world where possible.
