Mother’s Day and time with family sent my memories racing for context this past weekend as I counted my blessings and thanked God for his soft hand of CONTENTMENT. That led me to celebrate how he helped me tame my lust for success, money, and possessions early in my faith walk and time as a corporate CEO. Back then I was DECEIVED by the evil one who used delusion, one of his favorite tricks, to make me think wealth paved the road to happiness.
I’m glad God took me on that journey because it served up a timely and important reminder that deceivers rarely present their false doctrine as false doctrine. In most cases they clothe it in facsimile costumes of the truth. Today those costumes are manufactured on the internet.
This is nothing new. It was the case in Colossae when the Apostle Paul was concerned about the community’s ability to reject man’s deception and discern God’s truth.
“I tell you, then, do not let anyone deceive you with false arguments, no matter how good they seem to be.” Colossians 2:4
He was not saying they had already been deceived–the Colossian church clearly manifested Christian love–but he had identified the danger and wanted to warn them before they were duped.
This false theology—a clear and present danger to all believers–infects our heart with misdirection like cancer ravages the body. It is much more than confusion. It is DISHONESTY.
The challenges Paul had in mind are not complex arguments. They are deceptive arguments that seem believable on the bright and shiny surface that hides a disguised and false underbelly.
Falling for this kind of deception opens us up to the silky and seductive serenades spinning out of the world’s darkness.
The antidote to dispel false teaching is embracing the truth that all spiritual wisdom is found in Christ. Human arguments may appear wise, but they are foolish in comparison to God’s wisdom.
Human knowledge often sets itself against God. True wisdom comes from God and his Word, not human trickery. That’s why I ask God to keep me from falling for the world’s deception that seeks to open my life up to a darkness factory that never closes.
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Can you sense any deception brewing in your tent today?
“I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.” Colossians 2:4
