Stand Firm: Standing Firm In Your Faith Against Deceptionনমুনা

Day 4: The Disguise of The Deceivers

We live in a generation where deception is not only spewed from the world, but we also see it lurking in our churches. We’ve watched sound doctrine be tossed out and passivity laced with progressive ideologies and pop-culture Christianity entering in. This poses a question to the heart of many believers, “What do those leading by deception look like and whom do they seek to deceive?”

2 Peter 2 gives us a clear, concise look at the attributes of those who lead by deception. We see the deceivers:

• “Bring destructive heresies and blaspheme truth.”
• “Exploit with greed and false words.”
• “Indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones..”
• “Are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.”
• “Have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed.”
• “For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.”
• “Promise freedom to those who listen but they themselves are slaves to corruption.”
• “Know the right way, yet they choose to forsake it for wrongdoing.”

We see here that God’s Word is very clear on what these leaders look like. This is alarming and eye-opening. Sadly, in our generation, there are many who fit the requirements of this list. This means many in our world are being led astray by deceptive teachers. I believe the reason many have wound up under these leaders is because people don’t know the Word of God for themselves. They seek out leaders who stir up their feelings and give them an experience, while unbeknownst to them, they are sacrificing being led in God's everlasting truth.

This leads us to look at the second part of the question believers ask, “Who do deceptive teachers seek to deceive?” 2 Peter 2:14 tells us these leaders “Seek to captivate those with unsteady souls.” I have a perfect example of this to share with you. This summer I was sent a sermon by a culturally popular pastor. I already felt the raising of a red flag when I saw his name, as I’ve heard his heretical teaching before. I also have to point out that the woman who sent me the sermon was in a deep place of hurting. That is the key part of this story; her aching heart was seeking for words to meet her in pain.

A few minutes into this sermon, I had chills down my neck. He took the Sermon on The Mount and made it fit a worldly narrative. He dismissed and diminished the purpose of Jesus’s message and elevated what he knew would emotionally stir up those listening. This is exactly what his words did to the heart of the woman who sent this sermon to me. His forsaking of God's Word stirred up the emotions of her unsteady soul, which ended up leading her to fall for his falsehood.

Dangerous, right? Here was a woman seeking to be led in truth that ended up led astray by someone profiting off of her feelings. This shows us that if one doesn’t know what God’s Word says, they will never know if someone is forsaking truth. This is why you and I must be pursuing God’s Word and know it for ourselves. Because when deceivers are seeking yet another one to devour, a soul tethered to the Lord and standing firm in truth will not be easily led astray.

Scripture Reading

 2 Peter 2:1-22 esv

1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. 17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Prayer Prompt

Lord, thank you for the promise of protection as I walk through this world tethered to you and your Word. Guide my steps as I seek to obey you. Awaken my soul to the places I’ve fallen asleep, and stir up in me the awareness of those in disguise to deceive. Thank you for the gift of your Word and your constant desire to draw me close to you. In Jesus’s name, amen.