When I read Scripture, for decades any text that shows the distinction between the true and false shepherd I’ve been marking “FS.” On my Kindle are many hundreds of them. Before I started reading on Kindle, I’d filled the margins of several Bibles with this and similar notations.

When I was ordained, I figured it was my obligation to grow in knowledge of the responsibilities and temptations intrinsic to pastoral ministry; and thus the start of this habit continued now forty-two years.

The other day, I found and marked a new one I’d never noticed before:

As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey, against which a band of shepherds is called out… (Isaiah 31:4)

The duties of shepherds of animals bear directly on the the duties of shepherds of God’s sheep. Here I wrote “FS” in the margin to call attention to my duty to respond to God’s call when the growling lion has taken sheep for its prey and those sheep need to be rescued.

The false shepherd refuses to fight the lion and rescue the sheep from his mouth. He saves himself and the sheep dies. The good shepherd fights the lion, rescuing the sheep from his mouth although he might be maimed or die doing so.

When I started this habit, I used “FS” for false shepherd rather than “GS” for good shepherd. For years, in the back of my head, I wondered why? For a long time, I kept using “FS” simply for the sake of simplicity. Why confuse things by changing it, so the marginal note pointing to characteristics and duties of both false and good shepherds was the abbreviation for false shepherd.

Wouldn’t “GS” have been better? God’s people are not supposed to be motivated by warnings, are they? The Christian life is a life of faith—not fear–right? Doesn’t perfect love cast out all fear?

Is any act of faith legitimate that is motivated by listening carefully to warnings?

Haven’t we been listening to a monotone of “love and gratitude” being the only proper motivations for Christian living? God doesn’t scare the Christian, right? He is the perfectly loving and longsuffering Heavenly Father, isn’t He? And Jesus: at the very bottom at His most genuine Self is gentleness and lowliness. Surely we’ve all learned this by now?

No, but rather such are the doctrines of false shepherds and such false teaching destroys sheep and flocks. This can be said with certainty because I have multiple Bibles filled with “FS” next to this sort of deception issuing from the mouths of the lying prophets of Scripture.

I’ll record only one:

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?”

And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Good reader, I’m sure it’s crystal clear to you why every Bible I’ve marked “FS” in its margins has this notation next to these verses, above. Isn’t every pastor ordained to prophesy in Jesus’ Name? If so, pastors today are ground zero of those Jesus is warning, and His warning here is neither gentle nor lowly.

It is as intense and harsh and authoritative as it can be.

That’s why this wonderful warning has been superglued to my mind and conscience and heart my entire life of ministry. Oh Lord, please do not allow me to preach and practice lawlessness! Please know me. Inside and out. Through and through. Know my going out and my coming in. Know my daydreams and, when I sleep, my nightmares. Know my secret sins and my confessions and repentances.

“I don’t want to get away from You! Help me!!”

When you read the Bible, it’s helpful to write in the margins. But be careful not to note just the positive things; just the promises of good to come.

Be very careful to note that half of Scripture that is the warnings; the threats of bad to come.

If you read the sermons and letters of the prophets and apostles across Scripture, note how consistently their messages from God have both promises and warnings—Divinely balanced. Then think: if this is what was needed by God’s covenant people of the Old and New Testaments, what on earth would lead us to think—let alone for pastors and authors to preach and teach us—that this has changed; that all God’s people need today is reassurances of grace, providence, and coming glory; of the kindness, gentleness, lowliness, longsuffering, mercifulness, and love of the Godhead promised to all those who belong to Him?

Sermons, podcasts, and books quick to speak this way to God’s sheep are evil. They are flattery, and flattery is one of the most notorious marks of false shepherds warned against across Scripture:

There is nothing reliable in what they say. Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue.Hold them guilty, O God; by their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, for they are rebellious against You. (Psalm 5:9-10)

Avoid flattering your own soul by giving more attention to God’s “yes” than His “no;” more attention to His promises than his threats and curses.

Leading those God has placed under your authority, instruction, and protection, be vigilant to serve them God’s “no” and warnings in direct proportion to their presence in His Own words to His Own people recorded in His Own Scripture.

So when you read your Bible, write “W” in the margin next to every promise and warning God gives us from His tender love. The father who doesn’t discipline his children doesn’t love them.

Why “W” for warning rather than “B”for blessing?

It’s helpful in our discipline of ourselves to note particularly the part of God’s revelation that our rich and decadent age is fully convinced does not apply to us.