What this word “deceit” describes is the action or practice of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth. There are a lot of other words that cover the action of deceit such as: duplicity, double-dealing, fraud, trickery, hoodwinking, underhandedness, deviousness, sham, etcetera. Why talk about this at all, truly, this has not taken place in the early church, or in the modern church, of throughout the history of the established church. Well, my reason to write about deceit is because this has been going on since Jesus’s ministry, and has continued to this very day.
During Jesus’s time on earth he had to contend with the religious leaders who constantly attempted to arrest Him, call Him craze, or charge Him with blaspheme. These religious leaders misrepresented God’s word by coming up with their set of laws and doctrines. In effect, they moved away from the instruction Moses handed down to them from God and over rid those laws. Then the apostles were also constantly charged with numerous complaints about their teaching. Of course, what we have today shows the Paul was probably misquoted, impersonated, and attacked of the others. Of course, none of this is new, it is all historically documented in the His letters and other sources that was passed down orally by the people he preached to. There are many sections of Paul’s letters that reveal the deceit he had to contend with and I would suggest reading his letters to see what this deceit was that impacted his ministry.
For example: In 2 Thessalonians 2:2—Pauls seems unaware of the source of this rumor. The verse is vague as to what the rumor was but it had to do something with the coming of our Lord and our being gathered to him. Paul states the they were not to become alarmed or shaken for this teaching that was allegedly from him. Then in 1 Corinthians 4:18—Paul is rather upset with certain people who have become rather arrogant, proud and puffed up because of their association with specific teachers causing dissension. This of course stems from the very first chapter of where there are those who are following different teachers mostly because of teaching style. Even though this seems innocent enough, quarrels developed around believers causing divisions that in some ways seems deceitful since it was distracting from the original message delivered by Paul and Timothy.
In 2 Peter 2—we learn of false teachers spreading destructive heresies and even denying Christ. They distorted what the apostles taught about Jesus. This of course is nothing but deceitfulness and destructive.
Then in 2 Timothy 3—Pauls warns Timothy about corrosive behavior of false teachers telling Timothy to be watchful of those show a form of godliness outwardly and are only religious and through deceit not actually living according to God’s standards. They are promoting foolish controversies and ascetic practices that deny the very power of godliness for a true transformation.
This is only a few example of the deceit that Paul and others had to combat, and this same deceit is on the increase as we near the end times prior to the return of Jesus.
Today, we have so many people preaching about Jesus while adding to the words of the scriptures to convince people that their understanding surpasses everyone else, and that your financial support is needed to spread their gospel. Some even go as far to assume they are the spokesmen form the Lord today claiming that they have received words directly from the throne room of God to begin preparing for the return of Jesus, they cite numerous scripture to prove their point of view but when you dig deeper into their teachings they actually distort what the scriptures actually has to say about Jesus’s return. We live in very interesting times, and very dangerous times. My heartfelt concern for everyone who follows Jesus is be prepared at all times because we do not know the day or hour of His return. We do know that His return will be in the blink of the eye, as the lightening flashes from east to west. No matter the day, month, year, season, be prepared to go home to be with the Lord of glory.
Isaiah 53:9 speaking of the Lord: “He was assigned a grave with the disked, and with the rich in His death, through he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.”
The LORD make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
Michael.
Views: 17