Wolves revile those who challenge them. They use pious words to cloak their malice and then blame their agitation on their victims. When called to account, false teachers may leave the scene of their crimes fully convinced of their own faithfulness and the justness of their cause. But a wolf’s true nature is revealed in the carnage he leaves behind, in the tears and scars of the sheep upon whom he’s preyed.

The Bible commands Christians, “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account” (Heb. 13:17, NIV). But God’s Word also tells of times when we shouldn’t trust and submit to leaders. What are the circumstances when honoring God means disobeying, fleeing, or even calling out those who minister in his name?
Paul warned the Ephesians elders of wolves who would come and not spare God’s flock (Acts 20:29). The apostle borrows the image of the wolf directly from Jesus (John 10:12; Matt. 7:15). As patterns of abuse come to light in the church, we urgently need this biblical warning that shows us the difference between a godly shepherd and one who preys upon the sheep.
False teaching—preaching “a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6–7)—is a primary way a wolf reveals his true nature, but what are some other ways to tell a true shepherd from a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
Anatomy of a Wolf
Identifying wolves is difficult because the marks of a dangerous soul seldom manifest in physical appearance. Even more, false teachers are people made in God’s image. A wolf shows his humanity in his seemingly healthy relationships. His personal charisma and the genuine good his ministry accomplishes can further hide his true nature from others, and even from the wolf himself.
But the Bible teaches us that a wolf’s ignorance of his own identity does not excuse his behavior. False prophets may come in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15), but there are clear signs that reveal wolves for who they really are.
1. Wolves emphasize gifting over character.
When the biblical authors write about the qualifications for church leadership, they emphasize moral graces over ministerial gifts. The apostles repeatedly insist that elders be “above reproach.” They pit the self-control, gentleness, and humility that should characterize true pastoral ministry against the harshness, disrespect of civil authorities, and abuse of church authority that characterizes wolves (Titus 1; 1 Tim. 3; 2 Pet. 2). 
At the final judgment, there will be some who stubbornly insist upon the sincerity of their Christian life but whom Christ will declare that he never knew (Matt. 7:21–23). As proof of their faith, these false teachers will appeal to the mighty works they’ve done in the Lord’s name, including prophecy and even exorcisms!
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If Jesus came to his people while we were his enemies, we have little grounds to argue that we can’t be around God’s people because they have hurt us. They hurt Jesus far more and yet he came to be with his people, they dealt with him more severely and yet he served them and loved them to the end. 

One of the emphases of Christmas is the reminder that Jesus coming into the world meant that God had come to dwell with man. Isaiah 7:14 , predicting the birth of Jesus, says “the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.” Matthew, quoting this verse and not wanting us to be without understanding, adds “which is translated ‘God is with us.’” John, in the opening of his gospel, tells us “The Word [Jesus Christ] became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Matthew’s emphasis in his gospel is often on the fulfilment of scripture. Writing to a predominantly Jewish audience, he wants us to see that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and, in doing so, points to the scriptures that predicted his coming and shows how Jesus fulfils them. John also wants us to see that Jesus is the Messiah, but is particularly concerned with the deity of Christ (cf. John 20:31 ). He, therefore, has a particular focus on how Jesus is God incarnate. But both Matthew and John point to the fact that Jesus coming means God is truly with us both in fulfilment of scripture and pointing to Jesus’ divinity. Reading these passages again at Christmas time, we are reminded that God came to earth, in the person of Jesus Christ, to fix the broken relationship between God and man and address the chasm between us caused by our sin.
My purpose here isn’t to dwell on that amazing fact. Rather, I wanted to think about one consequence of this. Namely, if Jesus came to be with God’s people, we can hardly refuse to be with God’s people ourselves.
One of the good things that Western Christianity has emphasised is the need for personal conversion. Rather than simply assuming because of our family, culture or country that we are Christian by default, the Western church has been very clear that unless a man is born again he will not inherit the kingdom of God. Scripture, and happily the church in West, has (at least in recent centuries) been very clear on this. Personal conversion matters.
That clear-sightedness concerning personal conversion has largely come from our cultural individualism. We are (happily) primed to see the need for personal conversion because our culture is tuned towards individualism. Whatever the faults of our individualistic Western culture may be, it has at least made it helpfully quite obvious to us that God saves individuals. Particular Redemption means that Jesus died for specific people, knows who are his and therefore the elect will come to faith and conversion is evidently personal.
One of the less happy by-products of our cultural individualism is that, whilst we do tend to see the necessity for personal conversion, we then struggle to see the necessity of corporate Christianity. All things of the Christian life are tailored around me, my desires, my needs and whatever I think serves my walk with Jesus. Church becomes less about communal worship and the service of others and more about me and my personal relationship with God.
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Indwelling sin is compared to a person, a living person, called “the old man,” with his faculties and properties, his wisdom, craft, subtlety, strength; this, says the apostle, must be killed, put to death, mortified—that is, have its power, life, vigor, and strength to produce its effects taken away by the Spirit. It is, indeed, meritoriously, and by way of example, utterly mortified and slain by the cross of Christ; and the “old man” is thence said to be “crucified with Christ” (Rom. 6:6).

“If ye by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13)
The Duty: Mortify Your Deeds
The duty itself, “Mortify the deeds of the body,” is next to be remarked upon. Three things are here to be inquired into:
(1) What is meant by the body?(2) What by the deeds of the body?(3) What by mortifying of them?
(1) “The body” in the close of the verse is the same with “the flesh” in the beginning: “If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye,” but if ye “mortifie the deeds of the body”—that is, of the flesh. It is that which the apostle has all along discoursed of under the name of “the flesh,” which is evident from the prosecution1 of the antithesis between the Spirit and the flesh, before and after. “The body,” then, here is taken for that corruption and depravity of our natures whereof the body, in a great part, is the seat and instrument, the very members of the body being made servants unto unrighteousness thereby (Rom. 6:19). It is indwelling sin, the corrupted flesh or lust, that is intended. Many reasons might be given of this metonymical expression2that I shall not now insist on. The “body” here is the same with παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος and σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας, the “old man” and the “body of sin” (Rom. 6:6); or it may synecdochically3 express the whole person considered as corrupted, and the seat of lusts and distempered affections.
(2) The deeds of the body. The word is πράξεις,4 which, indeed, denotes the outward actions chiefly, “the works of the flesh,” as they are called, τὰ ἔργα τῆς σαρκὸς (Gal. 5:19); which are there said to be “manifest” and are enumerated. Now, though the outward deeds are here only expressed, yet the inward and next causes are chiefly intended; the “axe is to be laid to the root of the tree”5—the deeds of the flesh are to be mortified in their causes, from whence they spring. The apostle calls them deeds, as that which every lust tends unto; though they do but conceive and prove abortive, they aim to bring forth a perfect sin.
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