Common Pitfalls
Tips for Walking with Christ for a New Believer
Unfortunately, there are a lot of pitfalls that can trip up a new believer. Finding a good church that’s faithfully teaching the Word of God correctly can be difficult. This is especially true for a new believer. There are plenty of churches out there that preach appealing, but godless, philosophies disguised as Christianity. Unbelieving friends, family or co-workers may use false teachings to slander Christianity in general and you in particular. I’m going to give some tips and scriptural truths to about these and other common pitfalls in the hope that you might avoid such teachings and find a good church that correctly handles and teaches Scripture. I also discuss other false teachings and common pitfalls in the Q&A section.
Challenged by Unbelievers
The first hurdle a new believer often faces is mockery from unbelieving friends and/or family. This was certainly the case for me. I walked away from the New Age group entirely, but I had other friends and family who weren’t into any occultic activity. I tried to stay on good terms with them, in the hope of being a witness to them. Most of my friends and family thought I was going through a phase. Some threw derogatory terms such as “Jesus freak” at me. Several friends stopped speaking to me entirely. Only a few accepted this change in my life. The goal of mockery like this this is to get a new believer to walk away from the faith, to get them to go back to the old, sinful life they lived before accepting Christ. Jesus said that this would happen (John 15:18-20) and Peter discusses that further in 1 Peter 4:1-4, saying that unbelievers are surprised that you no longer follow their sinful ways. Christian fellowship is the best way to fight this. Make new friends with believers who will encourage your walk with Christ rather than mock it.
As the days since my conversion turned into months and years, and it was obvious that I wouldn’t be going back to my old ways, I faced another type of attack (especially when I’d discuss my faith with others online) – false teachings. A common one is that God is vengeful and can’t wait to send us all to Hell. That’s a commonly held belief that’s frequently used to slander those who follow Christ. The reality is that God doesn’t want anyone to go to Hell. He gave us the freedom to choose between light and darkness and we’ve all chosen darkness. Although many people claim to be “basically good,” that’s nothing more than self-deception (1 John 1:8.) It may be hard to admit, but the reality is that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23.) No one is “basically good.” We’ve all earned our one-way ticket to Hell (Romans 6:23.) I’ve earned it many, many times over and so has everyone else. This is why we can’t earn our way into Heaven by doing good deeds. Even if someone were to work tirelessly to do good works and even if they gave all of their possessions to the poor, they’re still a sinner. Good deeds alone, no matter how many there are, can’t make up for the sins in a person’s life (1 Corinthians 13:3, Ephesians 2:8-9.)
So, if God doesn’t want any of us to go to Hell, why doesn’t He just let everyone into Heaven? That question is the root of another false teaching: that God will ultimately save everyone, even those who never seek Him. However, the Bible is very clear on this topic: God is Holy (1 Samuel 2:2) and He has no darkness in Him at all. Sinners can’t enter Heaven because a holy God cannot have fellowship with darkness (1 John 1:5-6.) As for the lie that there are multiple paths to Heaven, Jesus said: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14) Later in His ministry, Jesus revealed “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6)
It’s an unfortunate fact that many people will simply never accept the Gospel. However, we have no way of knowing who will eventually accept Christ and who won’t, so we should be sharing the Gospel to everyone. It’s been my experience that the people who seem to be in the deepest darkness are often those who end up seeking the light and accepting Christ. Those who seemed to have it all together and who I thought they’d have no problem following Christ ended up being those who resist the Gospel the most. Everyone is different, and only God knows our hearts (Luke 16:15.)
Another common teaching is that all religions are basically the same and that they all lead people to God. This belief was a central pillar of the New Age movement but even some churches that call themselves Christian teach this as well! It’s a theological concept called universalism and it’s yet another false worldly belief, and it’s not hard to see why it’s so appealing. However, Christianity isn’t compatible with any other religion because only Christ lived a sinless life and therefore only He could pay the price for our sins with His precious blood (1 Corinthians 15:3.) Only Christ rose from the dead again and is now sitting at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:32-33.) No other religious leader, past or present, and no god or prophet from any other religion can make that claim. Therefore, all other religions are idolatry, which the Bible says is the same thing as demon worship (1 Corinthians 10:20.)
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
Ensnared by Wealth
Sadly, some of the most destructive false teachings comes not from unbelievers but from pastors of worldly churches. They teach worldly philosophies as if they were from God. One of the most destructive, and yet popular, false teachings is the belief that God promises worldly health, wealth and happiness – if you believe and if your faith is strong enough. They quote passages like Deuteronomy 28:12, Matthew 21:21-22, Mark 11:23-24 and John 10:10 to try to give this worldly teaching the appearance of legitimacy. So, is that a correct interpretation of these verses? No! Although Liar (the demon I used to be possessed by) never said I should teach that in particular, it sounds a lot like the type of things Liar would have had me teach, complete with Bible verses taken of context to back it up. If you read the rest of Scripture, it’s pretty clear that this is a false teaching. Ironically, you often don’t have to look far from those verses to see that! If you read the rest of Deuteronomy 28, for instance, it’s clear that these worldly blessings God promised were for the Israelites as they entered the promised land, and they were conditional on their obedience to the Law. If the Israelites didn’t obey the Law, God also promised some pretty nasty curses in that same chapter. I don’t recall hearing that in any of these types of sermons! If you read the rest of the Old Testament (especially the book of Judges), you can see the promises of both blessings and curses from Deuteronomy were fulfilled time and time again. The fact that the passages that refute these types of teachings are right next to the verses ripped out of context used to justify these teachings leaves no doubt that those who teach these things know what they’re teaching is wrong. They don’t care. They’d rather have the respect, adoration and (often most importantly) the wealth that spreading these false teachings brings than a right relationship with God.
If you read the rest of the Gospels you can see that Jesus considered worldly wealth to be nearly worthless. Jesus describes this wonderfully in Matthew 6:19-34. He says we can’t serve both God and money (verse 24.) Yes, He knows we have material needs (v. 32), and the Bible says that God will meet them (v. 30 and 33) but we need to seek God’s kingdom first. It doesn’t say that God will meet our needs whenever and however we want. As for wealth, the treasure Jesus says we should strive for is in Heaven, which no one can steal away (v. 19-21.)
The blessings God gives freely are spiritual in nature. Salvation worth far more than all the treasure in the world (Matthew 16:26.) If our eternal state is secure, then there’s no need to chase after the wealth of this world. We can trust God to provide us what we really need, we we shouldn’t be anxious about our financial situation, no matter what’s in our bank account (Matthew 6:34.) In another passage (Mark 10:17-25), Jesus tells a rich man to sell all he has and give it to the poor so he will have treasure in Heaven, and then for that man to fallow Him. The man went away sad, doing neither of these things. It was then that Jesus proclaimed that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
The eternal state of a believer is secure (Romans 8:38-39.) Knowing this, you can see this world the way God does. It’s temporary and corrupted by sin. In time, it’ll be replaced by a world that’s eternal and without corruption (Romans 8:18-35.) That’s why Jesus said we should be storing up treasure in Heaven, because that treasure will never fade. It will never be stolen. It’ll never spoil. It’ll never lose value (Matthew 6:20 and 1 Peter 1:4.) So how do you get treasure in Heaven? By serving God (Colossians 3:23) and by serving others (Matthew 10:42.) And that’s not to forget the biggest treasure of them all: having a relationship with Christ Himself (1 Peter 1:18-19.)
If your hope is only in the treasure of this world, then you’re only looking at this world in a very selfish and flesh-centered way. That’s a dangerous trap to fall into! Romans 8:6-8 says: “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Unfortunately, when someone thinks that God has promised them worldly wealth and happiness, but the problems common to everyday life continue, in time they often stop believing in God entirely. I was never a member of one of these churches, but I can still relate to this. I thought of God as a Cosmic Santa Claus when I was a child. When God didn’t meet my expectations, I stopped believing in him too. Making that mistake is what led me down the path of extreme darkness that you likely just read. I’ve met countless people who fell away from the faith because of this type of thinking. That’s why I’m pointing it out here. Many of them ended up hating God with every fiber of their being, like I used to. I hope those who have fallen away because they believed God is a cosmic Santa Claus will eventually see this false teaching for the lie that it is. I pray those who do also come to know the real Christ who loves them and offers spiritual treasures that make any worldly treasure seem like dust in comparison!
So, how do you avoid this type of teaching? It helps to have a better perspective on worldly wealth. Money may seem important (especially when you don’t have much of it), but it’s not. No matter if we’re rich or poor, it’s our daily challenges that God uses to mold us into the type of people He wants us to be (Romans 5: 3-5.) In the years since I’ve accepted Christ, I’ve had times of plenty and times of want. Yeah, it’s stressful and frustrating to see past due bills piling up when your bank account is already overdrawn, and you don’t know where your next meal will come from. Conversely, it’s nice to be able to pull out your bank card to pay for something expensive and to know there’s plenty of money in your account to pay for it. However, poverty doesn’t mean God isn’t meeting your needs and wealth isn’t the blessing most people think it is. I now thank God for the times when I was poor, because they taught me hard lessons that helped shape the man I am today. Likewise, I also thank God for the times when I had wealth, even the time when it vanished in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Watching wealth turn into crushing debt almost overnight was a shocking and humbling experience! One market crash led to the collapse of other markets and ultimately the loss of my job. In just a few months, my savings were all gone and I lost my house as well. Before I knew it, all I had left was bills I couldn’t pay. As Proverbs 23:5 says: “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” Despite all that, I still think God for that painful experience. Those times have thankfully passed, but I haven’t forgotten the lessons I learned because of them.
This world is in a fallen state, and God knows this. Jesus said that we’d have trouble in this world, but we can take comfort knowing that Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33) and that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28.) That doesn’t mean God is promising material wealth or worldly happiness. It means God is working in our lives, no matter what our life circumstances are at the moment. His plan starts with our salvation, but it doesn’t end there! As we endure the trials of this world, God is working to transform us by the renewing of our minds, so that we may know God’s will (Romans 12:2.) Knowing God’s will, we can put aside our old self with our old, sinful ways and become more like Christ (Ephesians 4:20-24.) In doing so, we take the attitude of a servant of God who endures all the challenges of this world, like Christ did: seeing the treasures this world as worthless and looking forward instead to the eternal treasures of the world to come (Philippians 3:8.) That’s when there is no hardship we cannot joyfully endure (2 Corinthians 6:1-10, Galatians 5:22-23.) That’s real power. That’s real blessing. I’ll happily take that over all the wealth in this world.
Paralyzed by Complacency
That leads me to what I think is the greatest pitfall of them all: complacency. This isn’t a false teaching from unbelievers, false prophets, demons or worldly pastors. It’s a lie that we often tell ourselves: I got this. We often seek God when we’re in trouble: when we’re struggling with financial issues, when we’re looking for a job, when our relationships are failing, when we’ve hit rock bottom. There’s nothing wrong with that. God wants us to be seeking Him in such times, but we need to seek the Lord when times are good, too! All too often, we don’t. We think we know what’s going on. We think we’re in control. It’s all good. I got this.
So, we go our way. We do what we think is right, rather than seeking God. We lean on our resources, rather than God. That’s when we don’t seek His Word. That’s when we forget to pray. That’s when it’s temping to seek fellowship with the world rather than fellowship with believers. There’s nothing wrong with having a bit of fun late Saturday night, we tell ourselves, knowing that it’ll be hard to wake up in time for church the next morning if we do. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a bit of edgy entertainment from time to time, right?
To be clear, I’m not advocating for a monastic lifestyle. I enjoy secular entertainment and music, but there needs to be limits. We need to keep a watchful eye on ourselves, what we allow to influence us and especially our behavior. This is especially true when times are good and when we think our walk with Christ is going well! Christians who’ve backslid or who shipwrecked their faith entirely didn’t start that journey by doing something obviously sinful like getting drunk every night or sleeping with the neighbor’s wife or embezzling company funds. No, they started down that path by doing something that seems innocent: hanging out with co-workers at a bar after work on a Friday night or having an innocent conversation in public with a good looking woman or telling themselves that the boss won’t mind if they used the petty cash fund to take a potential client to their favorite restaurant. That too easily turns into having few beers with co-workers or having a not-so-innocent conversation in private with a married woman or using the petty cash fund to enjoy something that has nothing to do with securing a potential client. It doesn’t take a genius to see where things go from there!
In Matthew 13:1-23, Jesus tells one of his better known parables: the Parable of the Sower. In it, He describes the sower who sows the seed in the field. To paraphrase for the sake of brevity (although I’d recommend you read it yourself), the some of the seed fell on hard soil. Some fell on rocky ground. Some fell among the weeds. Some fell on good soil. In verses 18-23, Jesus explains this parable: the seed is the Word of God. Most times I’ve heard this parable taught in sermons or in online videos, the focus is on the seed that fell on hard soil (the hardened, unbelieving heart) or the seed that fell on rocky soil (the feckless believer, who believes at first but quickly falls away) and they’re compared to the seed that fell on good soil (the faithful believer who produces a crop that’s 100, 60 or 30 times what’s sown.) The seed that fell among the thorns is usually glossed over. That’s unfortunate, because that’s the person who hears the Word and who believes, but the worries of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. I believe that describes the complacent believer, and it’s not something that should be glossed over! It describes most Christians today, especially in the relatively wealthy industrialized world.
So, how can we escape the thorns and avoid being a complacent believer? First, we need to remember that God is the Lord of our lives and act like it (Luke 6:46.) Confessing that Jesus is Lord isn’t just something we did when we prayed to receive Christ. It’s a choice we need to make every day of our lives. If we don’t, then we’re making ourselves the lord of our lives. That’s how sin creeps into our lives. That’s how we stop serving God and start serving ourselves. We can’t earn our way into Heaven by doing good works (Ephesians 2:9), but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t serve God! We should serve God because we love Him (1 John 5:2-4,) and God has plenty of work prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:10.) We shouldn’t allow ourselves to become complacent in our Christian lives. When serving God is only something you do when you have time to, you’ll end up never serving God. There’s always something to occupy your time that has nothing to do with serving God. That’s especially true in today’s age of endless distractions which are available anytime, anywhere and on demand 24/7!
Sanctified in Christ
Thankfully, God hasn’t left us to struggle with this on our own. Jesus said that God prunes the branches that bears fruit so that it’ll be even more fruitful (John 15:2.) What does this mean? It’s the process of sanctification, and that’s a lifelong journey. God may accept us as we are, but that doesn’t mean that He wants us to remain as we are. We are called to become more like Christ in our thoughts and actions (Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 4:20-24.)
Sanctification may be a a lifelong process but it’s a process we need to engage in every day. It begins by changing our daily habits. Rather than following the world’s practices of fulling our time with entertainment and self-indulgence, we should be doing what the Apostles did in the days following Jesus’ return to Heaven and after they were filled with the Holy Spirit:
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
All of these things are active in nature. You can’t devote yourself to the apostles’ teaching unless you take those teachings seriously and put them in practice in your life. You can’t just sit in the corner of a room of believers and call that fellowship. You can’t just watch a of video of someone taking communion and say you’ve taken communion (unless you’re lying!) You can’t pray by just listening to a prayer without so much as saying “amen” yourself.
Make it a habit to read the Bible. Make it a habit to pray. Make it a habit to attend church and not just once a week but attend fellowship opportunities outside of Sunday worship too! Befriend believers and spend time with them. “Breaking bread” refers to communion, yes, but it also refers to the practice of sharing meals with other believers and discussing spiritual things together. All of these things are linked together. You can’t really practice one of them without practicing all of them.
Another great passage about the process of sanctification is 2 Peter 1:5-11:
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they do not make you useless nor unproductive in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the one who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choice of you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
2 Peter 1:5-11 (emphasis mine)
These are qualities that we should be embracing and always striving to improve upon. By making it a habit to follow God’s will and making sanctification a daily priority, you will avoid the pitfalls that ensnare so many Christians today. Then you’ll be a useful servant of God to share the Gospel with others, to advance His kingdom on this Earth and to be properly prepared yourself for the day that Jesus returns to take us all home.
I hope this has been a blessing. If it has, please share it with others, especially new believers or those who may be struggling in their walk with the Lord.
May God bless you mightily!