What is truth?
John 18:38 records this question that Pilate asked of Jesus. A pertinent question for our times! Knowing truth is going to feel increasingly key. I have had a number of conversations recently as the world, and the church, is shaken and stirred, and things are exposed. (How they are exposed is not my focus just now.) Deception, and the fallout from it, is devastating for those involved. I do not want to minimise the pain of those who have been a victim. I will contemplate in a later blog how we manage our hearts in the aftermath of it. I want to engage with this topic because it throws up questions for us all about how to respond, how to react, how to safeguard and more.
Firstly, let’s look backwards. This ultimately is a strategy of our enemy’s and it is not a new one. Deception as an enemy tactic should not really be a shock as Jesus tells us quite clearly in John 8:44:
… He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
In the garden of Eden, in the story we know so well, deception was a key strategy from the get-go. The snake slithered into the perfect world of Eden, where the relationships between man and God, and between man and woman, were in complete harmony. Open, vulnerable, honest, nothing hidden. The duplicitous snake sowed his poisonous lies. Deception always undermines relationships because it impacts our ability to trust. How can you trust someone when you don’t know if they are telling the truth or not? Jesus tells us in John 8:32 that
… the truth will set you free.
Free to trust, free to love, free to be real. free to be authentically you. The complete opposite of the father of lies, God is all about truth. Jesus, according to John14:6, IS the Truth. Psalm 51:6 tells us that God delights
… in truth in the inward being …
However, in the garden, undermining a perfect relationship based on vulnerability and openness, Satan inserts doubt into the picture, and the fear that God might not be completely trustworthy. Maybe, just maybe, there is more to be had; maybe he is holding out on them. This is how he operates. Tempting us to believe lies about God, about ourselves, or how things are in the world. Genesis 3:4-6 ESV
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
The snake straight-up lies to us. He also tells half-truths, whatever is necessary to suck us in to his schemes! Eve had not been completely accurate in recounting the instructions. Maybe she was not so sure, but Adam, who it appears was with her, did not correct her either. They both ate, falling for the evil scheme.
Why? Why would they fall for it? Why would they listen to the snake telling them that they could be like God when they are literally made in his image? Why would they jeopardise all they had for the sake of a lie? Honestly, isn’t that the cry of our hearts when we, or anyone else, fall for deception. Why? How could I, or they, be so duped? It seems obvious from the outside looking in, or in hindsight. When you are in it, there is something about the nature of deception that doesn’t seem like we are being deceived. By its very nature, in order for us to be deceived, it has to seem like it’s true somehow. How many of us have fallen for that very same lie, ‘if you just do this, God will love you’ – He already does; ‘if you just do this, you will be more acceptable’ – it is not our actions that made us acceptable, we already are, because of the cross. And on it goes.
In recent months, I have spent time in Matthew 24. I have been considering my responsibility, my response to this issue of deception, in relation to Jesus’ warning in verse 4.
Watch out that no one deceives you.
He was talking to them about life in the end times, in the days where there would be wars, and tribulation, and chaos. The more we look around, the more it feels like Matthew 24 is relevant reading. What is happening is no surprise, but Jesus’ warning arrested me. I wanted to take some time to think about how I respond to that that instruction. Hopefully my explorations will help us all.
I want to clarify, in the light of the exposures, public or not, I believe in the church. I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I believe in the prophetic gift that is our ability to hear the voice of God, for ourselves and for others. Do I think we have always handled things well in our fellowships? No. But, I do not think the appropriate response to the exposures, or to the warnings of this scripture and others, that clearly tell us how things are going to be in the days before Jesus returns, is to descend into fear; to pull in our horns like a scared snail and to disappear into a shell of self-protection, hiding out in a cave somewhere. I understand that sometimes when we have been through hurt and deception in the past, it can make us want to do that. However, I think that Jesus’ purpose in warning us what things will be like, is to prepare us, to equip us, to strengthen us.
So, let’s look at scripture, let’s look at how we get deceived and why, and let’s get equipped to deal with it. The good place to start, I believe, is to acknowledge that no-one is exempt from the possibility of being deceived, (or being deceiving for that matter, and I don’t believe most people set out to deliberately deceive). However, I believe there are things we can do to help reduce the likelihood of it. 1 Corinthians 10:12 warns us:
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
It is important to think of this in terms of our own potential to be deceived, but also those around us. I think that many of us imagine that there are people that seem trustworthy. We have tracked with them a long time, we feel like we know them. But we are all vulnerable, human and fallible. I was reminded of the phrase that is commonly quoted, a biblical thought from Proverbs 16:18 and this gives us a clue about this first step to keep ourselves safe in these days.
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
I am not infallible, and nor is anyone else, even people who have been leaders, written books, have big ministries, whatever we think may qualify them. We need to develop a questioning approach. I think our church culture has encouraged us to be passive, to receive without question and accept what we are told. I don’t know everything, but nor do those who have been given positions of leadership. There is a right honouring of the role they have been given to lead but no-one is responsible for my walk with Jesus other than me. So it is on me to question what I am being given in terms of spiritual food. However, I want to approach this with the right spirit. I am reminded of Paul’s concluding instructions to the Corinthian church in his first letter (16:13-14):
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.
We would do well to remember those words in this season. It seems it is all too easy to be sucked into the online culture of accusation and self-righteousness that is like a baying crowd, joining in with ugly voices of judgment and condemnation that seem to delight in pointing a finger at others. It reminds me of school days where my so-called friends joined in with my bullies, in a bid for self-protection. Maybe if we engage in finger pointing, it impacts our ability to pause and take account with God of our own hearts.
We have just celebrated Easter and I was thinking about the crowd shouting for Jesus to be crucified, when only days earlier they were singing ‘Hosanna’ and welcoming him. Or Peter and his declaration that he was willing to follow Jesus anywhere, only for it to be exposed as flimsy in the light of potential danger. We are all weak. We are all the crowd. We are all Peter. We have all sinned scripture tells us! As Jesus points out in Matthew 26:41
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
None of us can say, ‘I would never…’ That’s like saying that if we had been Adam and Eve back in the garden, we would never have sinned. What arrogance! We are born with a sin nature and, until that is redeemed at the cross, we are at the mercy of our flesh. I don’t know about you but I am pretty sure I have not eradicated every single lie from my mindsets yet. I can still be susceptible to the lies of the enemy who trades on my wrong beliefs. I have not yet attained perfection!
So, as I come to look at this area of deception, I think a really good place to start is to acknowledge our fallibility and to pray, humbling ourselves before the only One who, according to Jude verse 24:
… is able to keep us from stumbling …
… and asking for help. Maybe you would like to pray with me:
Heavenly Father, I acknowledge that the times we live in can seem turbulent. I want to take heed of the warning you gave us, Jesus, to watch out that no-one deceives us but I need your help to do that. I am aware of the weakness of my humanity, of my pride that can lead me to falling. I know that you are the one who can keep me from stumbling. I know Jesus that YOU are the only Way, that YOU are the only Truth, that you have the words of eternal life that lead me into Life. I pray that, as I look into this subject, Holy Spirit, you would lead me into truth, teach me that I might not be deceived. Amen
Humility is a first step. We need his help, and we need each other on this journey! So I look forward to hearing your thoughts too. Next time I’ll be looking at what are some of the things that make us vulnerable to deception.
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