For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
After his departure destructive false teachers would break in among the believers and harm them without mercy like wolves attacking sheep. It was spoken as parting warning to the elders of the Ephesian church, recalling faithful labor in teaching, warning with tears, and declaring all the counsel of God. The danger is both from cruel enemies invading from outside and from divisive men rising from among the believers themselves to draw disciples away after themselves. For this reason those made overseers must take heed to themselves and to all the flock to feed the church, strengthen the weak, shield the sheep from devouring wolves, and discern danger early to warn before harm is done. The gifts of the Spirit were placed in the church to guard against these very evils and would be needed even more after the apostles left than while they were present, especially in watching over new and little companies lest they be left scattered, unfed and devoured.
Farewell Setting and Meaning
The farewell containing this warning was spoken at Miletus to the elders of the Ephesian church, given by the Holy Spirit through Paul as parting words that looked back on his faithful labor among them and forward to danger to come after his departure. It recalled his earnest work of teaching the Scriptures while laboring at his trade, and charged the overseers to watch in view of what would follow his leaving.
Behind the warning stood three years of warning everyone night and day with tears, serving with humility, teaching publicly and from house to house repentance toward God and faith toward Christ, and declaring all the counsel of God. He coveted no one's wealth or clothing, and with his own hands at tentmaking supplied his own needs and the needs of his companions, showing he was not ashamed or afraid of manual work and did not treat it as lowering to ministry.
In its plain sense the verse means that after Paul's departing, destructive false teachers would enter among the believers and harm them without mercy, like wolves attacking a flock. The warning belongs to his charge to church overseers to watch over themselves and the flock and to teach all of God's counsel, holding teachers responsible for God's flock to care for it faithfully and accountable for how they treat those entrusted to them. It stands in connection with the presentation of law and gospel and the need for a Redeemer.
Wolves Without and Within
The warning looks forward to after the departure, when cruel enemies from outside would invade the congregation and harm believers without mercy. These grievous wolves are persecutors and false leaders who prey on the members like wolves attacking a flock. They are the same violent spirit Paul had faced in the Sanhedrin, men who threatened to destroy those who differed from them and who endangered the scattered churches while he was imprisoned and unable to care for them.
Alongside that invasion from outside, divisive men would arise from among the believers themselves, speaking perverse and distorted things to draw disciples away after themselves. The danger is therefore twofold, both from without and from within, requiring vigilant protection of the church's teaching and members. The overseers appointed to feed the blood-purchased flock must watch and remember the three years of night-and-day tearful warning behind the charge.
The invasion comes when shepherds sleep and neglect their duty to guard their sacred trust. Ministers must therefore keep vigilant watchfulness, following the example of labor that warned everyone night and day with tears for three years.
Fulfillment Through Church History
The danger came soon, within a few brief years after the departure, when cruel destroyers would come into the church and harm believers without mercy. Many teachers and leaders laid down their lives for the gospel in a time of peculiar trial and terrible persecution. False doctrines were already creeping in to corrupt the faith, endangering the churches. Believers needed to be strengthened so they could remain steadfast against them. This coming danger was not to discourage those whose hopes were centered in Christ but to turn their minds to an incorruptible inheritance and eternal glory.
The verse was fulfilled in the church of Ephesus when she left her first love for Jesus and for one another. She did not heed solemn warnings, did not know the time of her visitation, and did not maintain vital connection with Christ. Then grievous wolves entered in and spared not the flock. Her candle that once burned brightly amid the moral darkness of error went out and was quenched in darkness, and though once beloved of God and able to enlighten many souls she became fruitless, weak and inefficient. This warns churches claiming to believe the truth for the last days not to keep powerful truth in the outer court unsanctifying the soul.
The same wolf-like enmity later hunted those claiming freedom of religious faith and threatened the lives of the Waldenses and their fellow believers. Their enemies pursued them for their faith like wolves attacking a flock, so that even careless words could endanger many believers. The image also applies to a pastor who, instead of acting as a shepherd, behaves like a wolf toward the sheep, harming the church he should serve.
Trials and disappointments and apostasy of this kind are to be expected as a disagreeable experience gone over again and again. It is a great trial that increases burdens and hurts the soul, yet requires standing firm after having done all. Such apostasy will be met again and again, bringing trial and increased burden, and must be expected as part of experience. From among believers themselves men would also arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them, making it a charge to overseers to take heed to themselves and to feed the flock purchased with His own blood.
Need for Spiritual Gifts
After the apostles the church did not move straight into the unity and perfection described in Ephesians 4, but entered apostasy with factions and divisions as destructive false teachers came in from without and distorters of truth arose from within to draw disciples away. Its condition grew worse rather than becoming perfect, so the deaths of the apostles did not bring the passing of partial, childish, darkened knowledge into perfection nor the ending of the gifts of the Spirit. The warned-of apostasy explains why the promised unity remained still future and why the gifts had not yet completed their purpose.
The gifts of the Spirit were placed in the church to guard against these very evils of wolves, apostasy and division, and they could not pass away just when that time of danger came. Their presence and help would be needed even more after the apostles left the stage of action than while the apostles themselves were present, for the following age was not an age of perfect light and knowledge but an age of greater danger requiring greater help. The apostolic age was not inferior in spiritual elevation to any succeeding age, so if the gifts were needed then they are certainly needed now.
They cease only when a perfect state is reached, and their cessation belongs to Christ's return and the eternal state. They therefore still have a future role in restoring unity after the apostasy and in gathering God's remnant in the last days beyond it.
Duty of Faithful Shepherds
Paul's warning that after his departing grievous wolves would enter in among the believers, not sparing the flock, is the reason overseers made by the Holy Ghost must take heed to themselves and to all the flock to feed the church of God purchased with His own blood, with constant watching. They must declare all the counsel of God and keep back nothing profitable, teaching publicly and from house to house repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, guarding against both invading false teachers from outside and men arising from among themselves speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Faithful under-shepherds must share the Chief Shepherd's interest and sacred responsibility, strengthening the weak, reviving the fainting, and shielding the sheep from devouring wolves. Each sheep cost infinite sacrifice and is of priceless worth, so they are to labor unweariedly and self-denyingly for their welfare and not by constraint, not for filthy lucre or self-profit, unlike the hireling who has no real interest in the flock and flees in peril.
A shepherd is a watchman on the walls of Zion whose work is to watch for evil and give warning lest the sheep be harmed and destroyed by wolves. He must discern danger early and see haste in the matter, warning the flock against fanaticism before it develops with terrible results, and standing out of the way so faithful warning can reach the distracted flock. If he is willful, suspicious, offended at decided handling, and waits to see how evil develops, the sheep will stray from the true pasture and be torn and scattered and devoured. The blood and sin of that result rests heavily on the unfaithful shepherd, though he may deeply regret it, and he cannot excuse himself by blaming the weak erring sheep for leading him out of the way, for that plea proves him unable to watch over sheep and bring them back as they stray, and no more confidence can be placed in him as a faithful shepherd.
Ministers of the gospel as guardians of the flock are bound to be most faithful in the discharge of duty and are accountable for how they treat those entrusted to them. They must be wide-awake to perceive evil, to reason from cause to effect, and to prevent the sure result of any unfaithfulness on their part. While not afraid of men, they are to beware of them, guarding the church against entering into business transactions that would possibly place it in the power of men. Those in responsibility are accountable for what shepherd they set over sheep and lambs, to keep mischief from every sheep and lamb and to provide soul-healing care that hunts up the diseased.
Those who would spoil the flock of God must not be given influence or opportunity to do so. An unconverted worker who has not repented will spoil the flock if allowed influence, so influence must be withheld until he repents and keeps repentant every day, and when true repentance takes place the Lord will make it known. An erratic, unrepentant teacher who destroys the confidence of brethren and goes from place to place with falsehoods and misrepresentations that must be followed up and refuted is to be let alone until he humbles himself before God and does a thorough work of repentance, for by such work Satan seeks to deceive, if possible, the very elect. A man unchanged in coarseness, lacking refinement and self-discipline and unconverted in manners, acting in independence with rough manners, dishonors God and will spoil God's flock and cause those connected with him to suffer, and therefore must not be entrusted with a leading position to guide others. Unfaithful shepherds placed over sheep and lambs poison the spiritually diseased to death with evil surmisings, criticism and faultfinding, feed the sheep poison rather than healthful food, create dissension and strife, bring evil traits into church character, destroy the peace and hope of prosperity of any church, and make the work much harder for those who come after them. Since corrupt religious deceivers who profess purity, holiness and truth while mingling error with truth multiply as the end draws near, safety is only in being rooted in all Bible truth, having a living connection with God, and in constant watchfulness and prayer.
Care for New Believers
After a minister departs, grievous wolves enter in and tear the flock to pieces without sparing it, so a minister must go into new places and remain there until a company is raised up rather than leaving that company exposed. He must not leave them but visit them often and look after them as a shepherd looks after his flock. This applies especially to little companies raised up in new and dark and distant places, who need frequent care, rather than going round among large well-established churches, for to neglect and leave these little companies is to leave them to perish. New believers brought out into unpopular truth and then left alone will have wolves come in among them and devour them without mercy.
Raising up small companies in distant places without thorough effort to care for them exposes them to destruction, so wisdom is needed in choosing fields where an established church can watch over them. Plans must be made before a field is entered for who will minister to those who accept the truth, encourage them and lead them along until they become established, rooted and grounded in present truth. They must be educated beyond their ABCs, given spiritual mold to their experience, and confirmed and established in the faith like well-drilled soldiers able to meet the enemy's attacks. To spend means to bring souls out and then leave them to fashion experience from false ideas already woven into their religion leaves the work worse than if truth had never been brought to them, and to leave the work incomplete to ravel out is worse than waiting until care is provided.
Striking in prematurely without counting the cost and stopping after one course of lectures to rush to a new field leaves the work half done and spoils promising fields. Souls with only a slight knowledge of the truth are then left scattered, unfed and uncared for to be devoured by wolves and to become targets for the enemy to open fire upon. They must instead be confirmed and established in the faith and educated like well-drilled soldiers how to meet the enemy's attacks and vanquish him.
The image of wolves applies to Satan's agents, who seek to reclaim people who have come to the truth, and new believers left without care are especially vulnerable to being devoured. Newly converted people need watchful attention, help, encouragement, instruction, prayer, and continued care so they are not discouraged or drawn away by those agents. The church is responsible for nurturing those who are young in faith and experience, and preaching alone cannot do this work. When faithful labor is withdrawn the flock becomes poor scattered sheep left to be torn by wolves and to starve without food, yet those souls still cling to the truth while starving, and they gather from all directions when the word of God is brought to them to take hold upon their hearts. When encouragement is withheld, disappointed people are left like sheep without a shepherd and exposed to being devoured by wolves, as when Elder Morse did nothing to encourage them, leaving them vulnerable to ridicule and spiritual harm.
Marks of the Wolves
Some of the grievous wolves are corrupt religious deceivers who profess purity, holiness and truth, even presenting the Sabbath, while practicing adultery and licentiousness. They mingle error with truth, misinterpret Scripture to excuse sin and make void God's law, and gain sympathy and confidence as holy men and special messengers in order to draw away disciples, bewitch minds and lead souls to ruin. Such men were met by Paul in his own day, the church has been cursed with them in all ages, and cases of this kind multiply as the end draws near.
Others are men who think they have a work to do for the Lord, yet show no respect for those the Lord is using. They wrest Scripture to sustain their own ideas, draw away from the body to proclaim theories of their own invention, and thus serve Satan to divert souls from present truth, such as by proclaiming that the commandment-keeping church is Babylon. Others are professed Christians not satisfied to dwell upon the lessons given by Jesus Christ but always seeking something strange and odd to present as new light which other men have overlooked, and through them the church is brought into difficulty.
Others harm through deceiving others, opposing the work indirectly, and injuring God's servants by false witness and attacks damaging their reputations, as seen in the history of the third angel's message. God will judge them, and their own testimony will ultimately expose them. Others have the spirit of the dragon and of Satan, watching every word and move, suspecting, conjecturing and supposing, misinterpreting words, misstating and twisting them with wicked construction into false charges against messengers of truth. They love fault-finding food like scavengers and vultures, looking not for good done but for evil they can find and mischief they can work. Their work is tearing and devouring by unsettling the faith of brethren and sending them adrift, and they draw others by name and influence into that baleful work.
Others deceive themselves and those connected with them until deception becomes second nature, saying anything the enemy puts into their minds. They spoil the flock with deceptive conclusions and suppositions, a course of falsehood and scientific sophistries that many receive as truth. Such a man is not safe to follow in every respect, and if allowed to follow his own plans he spoils the flock, whereas when yielding to God's authority he pursues a very different course, and the Lord bears only for a time with his effort to spoil.
Many wolves are those who should be shepherds of the flock but are wolves in sheep's clothing destroying the sheep of the Lord's pasture, which is a terrible thing. They are ministers pretending to feed the flock while tearing it to pieces, whose miserable influence brings deep mental trial and heavy added burden. As unfaithful shepherds they do not spare the flock but wound the poor sheep and leave them bleeding, so that intense labor is required to save the wounded and honest from being deceived. They poison the spiritually diseased to death with evil surmisings, criticism and faultfinding, feed poison rather than healthful food, create dissension and strife, and bring evil traits into church character. They destroy the peace and hope of prosperity of any church and make the work much harder for those who come after them.
After his departure destructive false teachers would break in among the believers and harm them without mercy like wolves attacking sheep. It was spoken as parting warning to the elders of the Ephesian church, recalling faithful labor in teaching, warning with tears, and declaring all the counsel of God. The danger is both from cruel enemies invading from outside and from divisive men rising from among the believers themselves to draw disciples away after themselves. For this reason those made overseers must take heed to themselves and to all the flock to feed the church, strengthen the weak, shield the sheep from devouring wolves, and discern danger early to warn before harm is done. The gifts of the Spirit were placed in the church to guard against these very evils and would be needed even more after the apostles left than while they were present, especially in watching over new and little companies lest they be left scattered, unfed and devoured.
Farewell Setting and Meaning
The farewell containing this warning was spoken at Miletus to the elders of the Ephesian church, given by the Holy Spirit through Paul as parting words that looked back on his faithful labor among them and forward to danger to come after his departure. It recalled his earnest work of teaching the Scriptures while laboring at his trade, and charged the overseers to watch in view of what would follow his leaving.
Behind the warning stood three years of warning everyone night and day with tears, serving with humility, teaching publicly and from house to house repentance toward God and faith toward Christ, and declaring all the counsel of God. He coveted no one's wealth or clothing, and with his own hands at tentmaking supplied his own needs and the needs of his companions, showing he was not ashamed or afraid of manual work and did not treat it as lowering to ministry.
In its plain sense the verse means that after Paul's departing, destructive false teachers would enter among the believers and harm them without mercy, like wolves attacking a flock. The warning belongs to his charge to church overseers to watch over themselves and the flock and to teach all of God's counsel, holding teachers responsible for God's flock to care for it faithfully and accountable for how they treat those entrusted to them. It stands in connection with the presentation of law and gospel and the need for a Redeemer.
Wolves Without and Within
The warning looks forward to after the departure, when cruel enemies from outside would invade the congregation and harm believers without mercy. These grievous wolves are persecutors and false leaders who prey on the members like wolves attacking a flock. They are the same violent spirit Paul had faced in the Sanhedrin, men who threatened to destroy those who differed from them and who endangered the scattered churches while he was imprisoned and unable to care for them.
Alongside that invasion from outside, divisive men would arise from among the believers themselves, speaking perverse and distorted things to draw disciples away after themselves. The danger is therefore twofold, both from without and from within, requiring vigilant protection of the church's teaching and members. The overseers appointed to feed the blood-purchased flock must watch and remember the three years of night-and-day tearful warning behind the charge.
The invasion comes when shepherds sleep and neglect their duty to guard their sacred trust. Ministers must therefore keep vigilant watchfulness, following the example of labor that warned everyone night and day with tears for three years.
Fulfillment Through Church History
The danger came soon, within a few brief years after the departure, when cruel destroyers would come into the church and harm believers without mercy. Many teachers and leaders laid down their lives for the gospel in a time of peculiar trial and terrible persecution. False doctrines were already creeping in to corrupt the faith, endangering the churches. Believers needed to be strengthened so they could remain steadfast against them. This coming danger was not to discourage those whose hopes were centered in Christ but to turn their minds to an incorruptible inheritance and eternal glory.
The verse was fulfilled in the church of Ephesus when she left her first love for Jesus and for one another. She did not heed solemn warnings, did not know the time of her visitation, and did not maintain vital connection with Christ. Then grievous wolves entered in and spared not the flock. Her candle that once burned brightly amid the moral darkness of error went out and was quenched in darkness, and though once beloved of God and able to enlighten many souls she became fruitless, weak and inefficient. This warns churches claiming to believe the truth for the last days not to keep powerful truth in the outer court unsanctifying the soul.
The same wolf-like enmity later hunted those claiming freedom of religious faith and threatened the lives of the Waldenses and their fellow believers. Their enemies pursued them for their faith like wolves attacking a flock, so that even careless words could endanger many believers. The image also applies to a pastor who, instead of acting as a shepherd, behaves like a wolf toward the sheep, harming the church he should serve.
Trials and disappointments and apostasy of this kind are to be expected as a disagreeable experience gone over again and again. It is a great trial that increases burdens and hurts the soul, yet requires standing firm after having done all. Such apostasy will be met again and again, bringing trial and increased burden, and must be expected as part of experience. From among believers themselves men would also arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them, making it a charge to overseers to take heed to themselves and to feed the flock purchased with His own blood.
Need for Spiritual Gifts
After the apostles the church did not move straight into the unity and perfection described in Ephesians 4, but entered apostasy with factions and divisions as destructive false teachers came in from without and distorters of truth arose from within to draw disciples away. Its condition grew worse rather than becoming perfect, so the deaths of the apostles did not bring the passing of partial, childish, darkened knowledge into perfection nor the ending of the gifts of the Spirit. The warned-of apostasy explains why the promised unity remained still future and why the gifts had not yet completed their purpose.
The gifts of the Spirit were placed in the church to guard against these very evils of wolves, apostasy and division, and they could not pass away just when that time of danger came. Their presence and help would be needed even more after the apostles left the stage of action than while the apostles themselves were present, for the following age was not an age of perfect light and knowledge but an age of greater danger requiring greater help. The apostolic age was not inferior in spiritual elevation to any succeeding age, so if the gifts were needed then they are certainly needed now.
They cease only when a perfect state is reached, and their cessation belongs to Christ's return and the eternal state. They therefore still have a future role in restoring unity after the apostasy and in gathering God's remnant in the last days beyond it.
Duty of Faithful Shepherds
Paul's warning that after his departing grievous wolves would enter in among the believers, not sparing the flock, is the reason overseers made by the Holy Ghost must take heed to themselves and to all the flock to feed the church of God purchased with His own blood, with constant watching. They must declare all the counsel of God and keep back nothing profitable, teaching publicly and from house to house repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, guarding against both invading false teachers from outside and men arising from among themselves speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Faithful under-shepherds must share the Chief Shepherd's interest and sacred responsibility, strengthening the weak, reviving the fainting, and shielding the sheep from devouring wolves. Each sheep cost infinite sacrifice and is of priceless worth, so they are to labor unweariedly and self-denyingly for their welfare and not by constraint, not for filthy lucre or self-profit, unlike the hireling who has no real interest in the flock and flees in peril.
A shepherd is a watchman on the walls of Zion whose work is to watch for evil and give warning lest the sheep be harmed and destroyed by wolves. He must discern danger early and see haste in the matter, warning the flock against fanaticism before it develops with terrible results, and standing out of the way so faithful warning can reach the distracted flock. If he is willful, suspicious, offended at decided handling, and waits to see how evil develops, the sheep will stray from the true pasture and be torn and scattered and devoured. The blood and sin of that result rests heavily on the unfaithful shepherd, though he may deeply regret it, and he cannot excuse himself by blaming the weak erring sheep for leading him out of the way, for that plea proves him unable to watch over sheep and bring them back as they stray, and no more confidence can be placed in him as a faithful shepherd.
Ministers of the gospel as guardians of the flock are bound to be most faithful in the discharge of duty and are accountable for how they treat those entrusted to them. They must be wide-awake to perceive evil, to reason from cause to effect, and to prevent the sure result of any unfaithfulness on their part. While not afraid of men, they are to beware of them, guarding the church against entering into business transactions that would possibly place it in the power of men. Those in responsibility are accountable for what shepherd they set over sheep and lambs, to keep mischief from every sheep and lamb and to provide soul-healing care that hunts up the diseased.
Those who would spoil the flock of God must not be given influence or opportunity to do so. An unconverted worker who has not repented will spoil the flock if allowed influence, so influence must be withheld until he repents and keeps repentant every day, and when true repentance takes place the Lord will make it known. An erratic, unrepentant teacher who destroys the confidence of brethren and goes from place to place with falsehoods and misrepresentations that must be followed up and refuted is to be let alone until he humbles himself before God and does a thorough work of repentance, for by such work Satan seeks to deceive, if possible, the very elect. A man unchanged in coarseness, lacking refinement and self-discipline and unconverted in manners, acting in independence with rough manners, dishonors God and will spoil God's flock and cause those connected with him to suffer, and therefore must not be entrusted with a leading position to guide others. Unfaithful shepherds placed over sheep and lambs poison the spiritually diseased to death with evil surmisings, criticism and faultfinding, feed the sheep poison rather than healthful food, create dissension and strife, bring evil traits into church character, destroy the peace and hope of prosperity of any church, and make the work much harder for those who come after them. Since corrupt religious deceivers who profess purity, holiness and truth while mingling error with truth multiply as the end draws near, safety is only in being rooted in all Bible truth, having a living connection with God, and in constant watchfulness and prayer.
Care for New Believers
After a minister departs, grievous wolves enter in and tear the flock to pieces without sparing it, so a minister must go into new places and remain there until a company is raised up rather than leaving that company exposed. He must not leave them but visit them often and look after them as a shepherd looks after his flock. This applies especially to little companies raised up in new and dark and distant places, who need frequent care, rather than going round among large well-established churches, for to neglect and leave these little companies is to leave them to perish. New believers brought out into unpopular truth and then left alone will have wolves come in among them and devour them without mercy.
Raising up small companies in distant places without thorough effort to care for them exposes them to destruction, so wisdom is needed in choosing fields where an established church can watch over them. Plans must be made before a field is entered for who will minister to those who accept the truth, encourage them and lead them along until they become established, rooted and grounded in present truth. They must be educated beyond their ABCs, given spiritual mold to their experience, and confirmed and established in the faith like well-drilled soldiers able to meet the enemy's attacks. To spend means to bring souls out and then leave them to fashion experience from false ideas already woven into their religion leaves the work worse than if truth had never been brought to them, and to leave the work incomplete to ravel out is worse than waiting until care is provided.
Striking in prematurely without counting the cost and stopping after one course of lectures to rush to a new field leaves the work half done and spoils promising fields. Souls with only a slight knowledge of the truth are then left scattered, unfed and uncared for to be devoured by wolves and to become targets for the enemy to open fire upon. They must instead be confirmed and established in the faith and educated like well-drilled soldiers how to meet the enemy's attacks and vanquish him.
The image of wolves applies to Satan's agents, who seek to reclaim people who have come to the truth, and new believers left without care are especially vulnerable to being devoured. Newly converted people need watchful attention, help, encouragement, instruction, prayer, and continued care so they are not discouraged or drawn away by those agents. The church is responsible for nurturing those who are young in faith and experience, and preaching alone cannot do this work. When faithful labor is withdrawn the flock becomes poor scattered sheep left to be torn by wolves and to starve without food, yet those souls still cling to the truth while starving, and they gather from all directions when the word of God is brought to them to take hold upon their hearts. When encouragement is withheld, disappointed people are left like sheep without a shepherd and exposed to being devoured by wolves, as when Elder Morse did nothing to encourage them, leaving them vulnerable to ridicule and spiritual harm.
Marks of the Wolves
Some of the grievous wolves are corrupt religious deceivers who profess purity, holiness and truth, even presenting the Sabbath, while practicing adultery and licentiousness. They mingle error with truth, misinterpret Scripture to excuse sin and make void God's law, and gain sympathy and confidence as holy men and special messengers in order to draw away disciples, bewitch minds and lead souls to ruin. Such men were met by Paul in his own day, the church has been cursed with them in all ages, and cases of this kind multiply as the end draws near.
Others are men who think they have a work to do for the Lord, yet show no respect for those the Lord is using. They wrest Scripture to sustain their own ideas, draw away from the body to proclaim theories of their own invention, and thus serve Satan to divert souls from present truth, such as by proclaiming that the commandment-keeping church is Babylon. Others are professed Christians not satisfied to dwell upon the lessons given by Jesus Christ but always seeking something strange and odd to present as new light which other men have overlooked, and through them the church is brought into difficulty.
Others harm through deceiving others, opposing the work indirectly, and injuring God's servants by false witness and attacks damaging their reputations, as seen in the history of the third angel's message. God will judge them, and their own testimony will ultimately expose them. Others have the spirit of the dragon and of Satan, watching every word and move, suspecting, conjecturing and supposing, misinterpreting words, misstating and twisting them with wicked construction into false charges against messengers of truth. They love fault-finding food like scavengers and vultures, looking not for good done but for evil they can find and mischief they can work. Their work is tearing and devouring by unsettling the faith of brethren and sending them adrift, and they draw others by name and influence into that baleful work.
Others deceive themselves and those connected with them until deception becomes second nature, saying anything the enemy puts into their minds. They spoil the flock with deceptive conclusions and suppositions, a course of falsehood and scientific sophistries that many receive as truth. Such a man is not safe to follow in every respect, and if allowed to follow his own plans he spoils the flock, whereas when yielding to God's authority he pursues a very different course, and the Lord bears only for a time with his effort to spoil.
Many wolves are those who should be shepherds of the flock but are wolves in sheep's clothing destroying the sheep of the Lord's pasture, which is a terrible thing. They are ministers pretending to feed the flock while tearing it to pieces, whose miserable influence brings deep mental trial and heavy added burden. As unfaithful shepherds they do not spare the flock but wound the poor sheep and leave them bleeding, so that intense labor is required to save the wounded and honest from being deceived. They poison the spiritually diseased to death with evil surmisings, criticism and faultfinding, feed poison rather than healthful food, create dissension and strife, and bring evil traits into church character. They destroy the peace and hope of prosperity of any church and make the work much harder for those who come after them.