Deception.

Have you ever been deceived by someone? Have you ever felt the pain of realizing you were deceived? As many times as I have been deceived by people in the past I can’t imagine the kind of pain Adam and Eve endured when they realized they had been deceived by the Serpent. The Bible talks about the Serpent being “more crafty than any other wild beast the LORD God had made.” He knew exactly what he was doing when he talked with Eve. He knew exactly how to craft it so she would eat the forbidden fruit.

Eve gave in to her physical desires without much thought (it seems) to the consequences. She doesn’t even seem to talk things over with Adam at all. As much as I want that first sin to have been a struggle, it seems that Eve gave everything up so easily. She disagreed with the Serpent once, but only about something God had said and even in her argument she misremembered God’s words. Of course, I’m not one to judge – too often I give in to my sinful desires without a fight as well.So how can we guard against this? We know that Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. We know this. We know that he wants to keep us as far away from a close relationship with the Lord as possible. In the New Testament we are implored to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. John talks about this in 1 John 4:1-3a – “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

                
Regardless of who I personally believe are false prophets in this world, it is important for every believer to always be on guard and be mindful of what they are told and taught from different people who proclaim to be Christ-followers. It is far too easy to be deceived and start believing a certain theology because it’s what we are told instead of actually processing through it and deciding whether it is truth or not.

                

In our postmodern age, American Christianity is incredibly lazy. We take our beliefs from so many different avenues – news sites, music, movies, television shows, televangelists, Facebook, and even Twitter. It is of utmost importance that this kind of behavior stops. 1 Peter 3:15 says clearly, “…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” We must be able to give a reason for the beliefs that we hold to. It is not acceptable to blindly believe what we were taught when we were young, what we are told by the media or even by those around us – we must be able to think critically about what we are taught and decide if it is truth or not.

Deception begins with the failure to think critically about all the information that we receive on a daily basis. Read Scripture, talk with those you trust and know to be wise and true Christ-followers, and decide for yourself what you believe instead of following someone’s beliefs just because it “sounds good” or “makes sense.” Why do you believe what you do? Why does what that person says make sense? Why do you follow this person’s teachings? Why are they teaching what they do? These are all incredibly important questions to ask so we are not sucked in to false doctrine and false belief systems. Christianity’s main tenant is that Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins on the cross and was raised again on the third day – without His sacrifice we have no hope of salvation. However, Christianity is also about so much more than that. We cannot just be satisfied with that – we must strive for knowledge and truth so we can grow into a deeper relationship with Christ and love Him more. I could not even attempt to love Christ more if I didn’t care whether what I believe about Him was true or not. So then, let us strive for knowledge and truth so we may have a more intimate relationship with our Savior and so we may have the ability to grow more in His likeness every day.