Lent day SIX - Deception

 
You know, deception is an incredibly simple thing. I think everyone is good at a different type of deception. Some people are excellent bluffers. Some people can act indifferent when they are really on edge. Me? I'm really good a spinning a tall tale and having some poor chump believe me. In short, I'm an excellent liar. 

Of course, this is nothing to be proud of, because lying is sort of TWO of seven abominable things:

There are six things which the Lord hates,
Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,

A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,

A false witness who utters lies,
And one who spreads strife among brothers.

- Proverbs 6:16-19

I used to lie quite a bit when I was a child. I once blamed someone for a childhood crime I committed. And I lied so well, that they believed they did it! I kid you not. During my childhood people were punished on my false testimony (both siblings and classmates). What's insane is that I shouldn't have even been considered credible. I was a terror. But when people hear the right words, strung together in the right way...I don't know what happens. They're simply...deceived. 

Proverbs 6 is not my verse for today, it's just that this verse came to mind when I thought about deception. Today's verse in the 40 Days of Growth reading plan was Ephesians 5:6-20. I'm focused on the first few verses: 

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says,

“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:6-14

This could easily turn into a blog on "cheap grace." But I think we all know that there is no such thing. Christ died for sin. So grace didn't come cheaply. We KNOW that. So why does Paul have to tell people to take sin in their lives seriously? Someone told them that living impure, immoral and selfish lives was A-OK. And Paul had to speak out against that. Why?

My Main Takeaways 

1. "Let" no one deceive you..." means we allow ourselves to be deceived. Why? Because we already had knowledge to the contrary. In the above, Paul says don't let anyone deceive you by saying it's okay to live an immoral/impure/selfish/hateful life because those things caused God's wrath in the past (e.g. the Flood), and is the object of future wrath (e.g. Christ's 2nd Coming). Peter had the same idea in his letter (see 2 Peter 2:1-5). So...how do we get this "God is not cool with sin, but God is cool with my sin" modus operandi?


2. "You were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord" further proves that you gave in to deception because you have a comparative frame of reference. You know what it is to be ignorant and unknowing. But you have been enlightened. Act enlightened and further seek enlightenment by "trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord."
   
3. "Do not participate in 'unfruitful' deeds'..." Unfruitful activities are those that do not produce good or helpful results; it's a completely unproductive activity. Why would someone live a life comprised wholly of unfruitful deeds? Because someone told you it was fruitful! And, here's the clincher, you believed them. 

I speak from experience. Close your eyes and imagine the PERFECT life. Go. 

....

perfect life

What did you mind automatically go to? The beach? Are you dancing in the club surrounded by hotties with a drink in your hand? Are you swimming in a claw-foot tub of money?  Are you jumping from an airplane? My imagination of my life, what it should be, what I want to be, how I achieve those things are the stuff of fantasies. And it's not all that godly.* Fantasies/dreams are usually what happens when my eyes are...closed. 

Awake, sleeper! 

Open your eyes, arise from...where? The dead. The deception is that dead things are alive. And that dead things make you alive. That darkness is light. That's sleepy talk. And sleepy talk is always flat-out ridiculous. You've already been made alive in Christ. 

...so...get up.