²⁹”I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”

In the previous verse, Paul stressed that the Ephesian elders needed to be on guard. His warning carried the sense of being ongoing—they should continually stand guard. Why? The apostle speaks prophetically, yes, but he probably knows from experience, and from the lay of the land in Ephesus, of the dangers that were ready to spring upon them.

Paul would cut no quarter for anyone who would influence the believers in Ephesus away from the truth he had taught them. He had seen the Galatian believers drawn away with a different gospel, so he wrote:

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Gal. 1:8–9)

So Paul warns the Ephesian elders in no uncertain language. He calls the false teachers “savage wolves.” Calling them dogs would have been an insult, but this ratchets up his contempt for them. No matter how they look or act, no matter how eloquent and persuasive their speech, their goal is to destroy the work of the gospel, dragging believers back into the legalism of Judaism. This was a lifelong conflict from which the apostle never shrank back. He was willing to die for the gospel, and he even pronounced pre-judgement on himself if he should ever change even one iota of the gospel message.

He continues with the warning that some false teachers could also arise from among the elders themselves. Some think he was referring to those in the congregation in general and not necessarily the elders. However, Paul does warn the elders to guard themselves, so he anticipates the very real possibility of apostasy among some of the elders themselves.

Notice, Paul does not say these things could possibly happen, but that they will happen. False teaching has always been at the doorstep of the church, as any survey of church history will attest. Division over doctrine has been endemic to Christianity, whether the great east-west divide in the Middle Ages, or the reformation conflicts of the 1500s, or the denominational splits of more recent centuries. Even today, social media is awash with armchair theologians fighting over doctrines of various sorts. We must be ever vigilant to hold fast to the biblical doctrine of the gospel, which the apostle preached faithfully.

Lord, thank You for all who do not shrink back from the original, true gospel.