Hebrews 13:9 “Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.”
Our human minds are naturally inquisitive and attracted to intrigue and to carnal excitement. If we are not careful, our inquisitive nature and attraction to carnal things can be an open door for “false Christs, and false prophets”; for, they gleefully “shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24). There are also, “false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ” (II Corinthians 11:13) and there are “false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies” (II Peter 2:1) and there are “Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among” the people (III John 9). To be “carried about” is to be swayed away from the true Word of God. It is false teachers that seek to carry us “about”, and “about” is always away from the true Word of God. Our defense is to “be established with grace”; that is, to prayerfully learn and have a good understanding of the Biblical Doctrine of Grace and the application of it in our lives. To become “established with grace”, we read our Bible and study it by comparing one passage with another to further our understanding, we listen carefully to God-called Preachers who preach and teach the Word of God and then we study the passages that they use in their sermons. We should follow the example of the Brethren in Berea who “received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). We are plainly charged to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18) for a defense against false teachings, for our greater joy and peace in this present life, and for worshiping our Lord “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).