Romans 16:17-18 says, "Now I beg you, brothers, keep a watchful eye on those who make divisions and causes of falling contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and turn away from them. For such men do not serve as slaves our Lord Christ, but their own appetites; and by smooth and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple." Do not consider that all Christians are sheep; some are wolves. These verses tell us that we need to keep a watchful eye on those who make divisions and causes of falling. By smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the simple. Can you believe that these are real Christians? Surely, they must be the tares. They are false, and they deceive others for the sake of their own belly. They do not serve the Lord; they serve their own belly. Their god is their belly.
Let us also read 2 Corinthians 11:13-15: "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." These verses indicate that there are some false apostles. Surely they are tares, and they are ministers of the enemy, Satan. Some ministers today are not ministers of God, but ministers of the enemy. The word "transforming" in verse 13 actually should read "fashioning." They fashion themselves into the apostles of Christ. It is not a real transformation, but an outward fashioning.
The last part of 2 Corinthians 11:26 says, "in perils among false brethren." This verse shows that false brethren became a peril to the Apostle Paul, and he suffered because of them. Truly, if we have false brethren in the church, they will really be a kind of suffering and a real peril to us.
Galatians 2:4-5 also develops this matter of the tares: "And it was because of the false brothers, brought in secretly, who stole in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into slavery; to whom we yielded in subjection not even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might remain with you." The false brethren stole in secretly like a snake in order to damage and poison.
Paul mentions the same kind of thing in Philippians: "Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision" (3:2). Who are the dogs mentioned here? They are false preachers. In the name of Christ they preached something concerning the circumcision. This means they were dogs, false Christians. Philippians 3:18-19 goes on to say: "For many walk, of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things." These also are false ones. They are enemies of the cross of Christ, and their god is their belly. All these kinds of people are tares.