Trick or True

The best way to tell if something is false is simply to know the truth.  Sounds logical I know, however lies contain a certain amount of truth – that’s why it’s easy to be deceived.  And that’s been true from the beginning of time.

Take Eve, she seems to come to mind when we think of the lure of crafty persuasion.  The first time a lie was spoken was from the father of lies. The silver-tongued enemy slithered into her safe Eden spot with some fine-sounding words — told her she could be her own god and do what she wants with no consequences attached.

And she falls . . . right for it.

We’re still listening to the same old line and falling for his best trick – the one that he doesn’t really exist.

Just look inside.  Satan still tries to make evil appear attractive even entertaining, but behind it all is to misrepresent God’s character.  So nothing has changed.

But the world, that’s changed. So what can we do in a changing world that dresses up in tolerance and misrepresents the same holy God of yesterday, today and forever?  We can only discern the counterfeit from the gold by holding it next to the true Word – no matter how many centuries pass.

A lie doesn’t become truth just because everybody believes it. 

We live in an age of twisted grace – a different gospel than what Paul was teaching to unmask his opponent in 2 Corinthians 11:2-4; But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning way, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive another spirit from the one you received, or if you accept another gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.  Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge and in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.

Often we hear deception and naiveté linked to women.  If it were a female trait, we wouldn’t have the story of a gullible Samson who woke up with a haircut.

The Bible is filled with stories of victory and defeat – we’re not alone.   Then and now, as followers of Christ, we need to be alert and study the truth of scripture so that we can know the difference when those desirable and deceptive words lie down alongside of truth.  It avoids trickery.