While staring at a 10-inch long black, red and yellow ringed snake, I was trying to remember that little poem. “Black on yellow, silly fellow? Yellow on black, take a step back? Yellow on red, you’re dead?” I knew there was some little rhyme, but I could not confidently remember in which order to put the colors or what rhyming-combinations went together. So, with implement in hand, I made up my own poem, “Looks like a snake, moves like a snake, it’s a snake.”
You know, God gave us a test to administer when we’re not sure of something we’re being taught. He gave it in the Old Testament (Deut. 18:18-20) and in the New Testament (Gal. 1:8-9). It is not a hard test to remember or administer. It does not require remembering a rhyme or any cute sayings. In His command to “test all things” that we are taught (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 John 4:1), God’s simple reasoning is this: “If it matches what I’ve said, then listen. If it doesn’t match what I’ve said, then reject it” (cf. Acts 17:11). When you hear some message that looks right or sounds right, there is only one way to make sure it’s right—put it to God’s test!