Do Not Follow “False Teachers”

3, 4. (a) How are false teachers like dried-up wells? (b) From where do false teachers often come, and what do they want?

³ Picture yourself on a journey in an arid land. You spot a well in the distance and head for it, hoping to get some water to quench your thirst. Upon arriving, however, you see that the well is dry. How disappointed you are! False teachers are like dried-up wells. Anyone coming to them for waters of truth will be bitterly disappointed. Jehovah through the apostles Paul and Peter warns us about false teachers. (Read Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Peter 2:1-3.) Who are such teachers? The inspired words of these two apostles help us to identify where false teachers come from and how they operate.

⁴ To elders of the Ephesus congregation, Paul said: “From among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things.” Addressing fellow Christians, Peter wrote: “There will also be false teachers among you.” So from where do false teachers come? They may arise from within the congregation. Such ones are apostates.a

 5. What methods do false teachers use?

⁵ How do false teachers operate? Their methods reveal a cunning spirit. Apostates “quietly bring in” corruptive ideas. Like smugglers, they operate in a clandestine manner, subtly introducing apostate views.