“And Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. Now the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, ‘Put on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.’ So one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were. Then they served it to the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, ‘Man of God, there is death in the pot!’ And they could not eat it. So he said, ‘Then bring some flour.’ And he put it into the pot, and said, ‘Serve it to the people, that they may eat.’ And there was nothing harmful in the pot” (2 Kings 4:38-41).
That stew, made up of other good elements, had something harmful in it, something death-producing – a lap full of wild gourds, and it was described as “death in the pot.” Fortunately it was recognized, and Elisha miraculously cleansed the pot of stew.
False doctrine is that way – it is like death in the pot. We would be hard-pressed to find a religious system in the world that is composed of only error from start to finish. To the contrary, what you will find is error mixed in with some truth, and that error is death in the pot.
Consider what was happening in the first century. “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7). Some Judaizing teachers had added circumcision as a requirement for salvation. Among all the truth that they may have still taught, this addition was death in the pot. Is it really that bad? Let the Scriptures answer: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth…?” (Galatians 3:1) “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4). It is no wonder that when Paul and Barnabas came to Jerusalem to address the matter, Paul says “we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you” (Galatians 2:5). The death needed to be taken out of the pot so that the truth might reign in their lives.
In the “pot” of teachings taught by religious denominations, one will find elements of truth. Some hold a doctrine of baptism but their “baptism” is performed by sprinkling in defiance of the mode described in the Bible – immersion. Others hold a doctrine of baptism as immersion but not for the remission of sins. Both of those doctrines are lies, and while they may exist among a multitude of truths being taught by the same people, there is death in the pot.
Consider too the pot of teachings and practices in the religious world regarding worship. Many have added the mechanical instrument to singing in worship. Being outside the doctrine of Christ, worship with those instruments is death in the pot, for it is written, “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9).
When men add to, take away from, or substitute for what God has decreed in the gospel, there is “death in the pot.” While death in a pot of stew will bring physical death, modification to the gospel of Christ is a “death in the pot” that will bring a much more serious consequence – spiritual death, separation from God. Let us be sure to abide in the doctrine of Christ and keep death out of the pot.
-Larry Jones