Ephesians 4:14

Maturity protects believers from being deceived and unsettled by false teaching. Spiritual childhood leaves people vulnerable to error.

Cross-references · 40

• Heb 13:9Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them.
• Rom 16:17–18Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Turn away from them.
• 1 Cor 14:20Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
• 1 Jn 4:1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
• Jas 1:6But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
• Heb 5:12–14Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!
• 2 Cor 2:17For we are not like so many others, who peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as men sent from God.
• Eph 6:11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.
• Col 2:4–8I say this so that no one will deceive you by smooth rhetoric.
• 2 Pet 2:1–3Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
• Matt 24:24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible.
• 2 Tim 4:3For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.
• 1 Tim 4:6–7By pointing out these things to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of faith and sound instruction that you have followed.
• Gal 3:1O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
• 2 Tim 3:13while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
• Matt 24:11and many false prophets will arise and mislead many.
• Acts 20:30–31Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them.
• Jude 1:12These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
• 2 Tim 3:6–9They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions,
• 2 Cor 11:13–15For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
• Isa 28:9Whom is He trying to teach? To whom is He explaining His message? To infants just weaned from milk? To babies removed from the breast?
• 1 Jn 2:26I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
• Rev 19:20But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
• Gal 1:6–7I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
• 2 Tim 2:17–18and the talk of such men will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,
• 2 Cor 11:3–4I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.
• 2 Cor 4:2Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
• Matt 11:7As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?
• Acts 23:21Do not let them persuade you, because more than forty men are waiting to ambush him. They have bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him; they are ready now, awaiting your consent.”
• Matt 18:3–4“Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
• Ps 59:3See how they lie in wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no transgression or sin of my own, O LORD.
• 1 Cor 12:2You know that when you were pagans, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.
• Mic 7:2The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
• Ps 10:9He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net.
• 1 Cor 3:1–2Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.
• 2 Th 2:2–5not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has already come.
• 2 Pet 2:18With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.
• 1 Jn 2:19They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.
• 2 Th 2:9–10The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder,
• Rev 13:11–14Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon.

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