How Easy It Is to Be Deceived!

 In 1 Corinthians 10:12, the Apostle Paul warned, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” In other words, stay alert. Don’t get complacent. Don’t think you’ve already got it made.

Proverbs 16:18 tells us, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” The moment we get complacent, the moment we think we've got it made, we've already stumbled. We’ve already let the sin of pride, like an open sore, ooze into our lives.

In essence, we’ve deceived ourselves. We’ve forgotten Paul’s warning, “Let no man deceive himself” (1 Cor. 3:18).

Satan doesn’t even have to deceive us; we can do it to ourselves! How easy it is, then, for us to be deceived if we can do it to our own selves. No wonder the Bible warns us so often about being deceived.

As Jer. 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”

But it gets worse! Not only can we deceive ourselves, but deep down inside us, we often want to be deceived.

“How can this happen?”, one might ask. “How could anyone want to be deceived?”

Here’s the answer: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (Jam. 1:14-15).

It goes back to the deceitfulness and wickedness of our hearts, of our carnal human nature. As once said in a comic strip, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”

Satan was able to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden because, deep down in her heart, she wanted to be deceived. She wanted to believe Satan’s lie. She wanted the forbidden fruit, and so she justified it in her own mind. As we read, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate” (Gen. 3:6).

There are numerous other examples in Scripture. Even King David, a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) and who had God’s Holy Spirit (Psa. 51:11), deceived himself into committing adultery and murder. Why? Because he saw the beautiful Bathsheba bathing and he desired her, even though she was another man’s wife. He not only committed adultery with her, he tried to cover it up by murdering her husband and then marrying her (2 Sam. 11). And yet he deceived himself so thoroughly, he so thoroughly justified his sins in his own mind, that he didn’t fully realize the wickedness he’d done until about nine months later when Nathan the prophet rebuked him (2 Sam. 12:1-15).

Though this may seem incomprehensible, let not one of us think ourselves better than David! We all have the same carnal human nature, brethren. Let those of us who think we stand take heed lest we fall. We may not have the same opportunities David had, we may not all even have the same weaknesses he had, but we can deceive ourselves just as thoroughly in other areas.

Like Eve and David, if we want to do something, we can find ways to justify it in our own minds. If we want to believe something, if we want to believe the lie, we can find ways to justify it. That’s what it means to want to be deceived!

There may be many reasons we want to believe something and deceive ourselves. Our parents believe it, our friends believe it, our church teaches it, our wife or husband believes it — those are powerful influences! On the other hand, we might want to believe something that appeals to our pride — the pride of having secret knowledge, of knowing something others don’t.

How many times have we given in to peer pressure? How many times have we reasoned, “All these other church folks are doing it, so it must be okay”? 

Do we have pet theories or pet doctrines? Sacred cows? Do we ignore or try to explain away Scriptures that contradict these pet doctrines? Is there anything we believe, not because God’s Word truly says it, but because we wanted to believe it and looked for Scriptural justification? These are questions we all have to ask ourselves.

Do we refuse to study some topic any further because we’re afraid of what we might find?

Do we tell ourselves we can sin “just this once” and repent later?

Do we try to convince ourselves that something we know is wrong isn’t really that big a deal?

How many of us have dated or married unbelievers? As Kyle Bacher has demonstrated several times, God's Word unequivocally condemns this. Yet many of us who have done so have justified it in our own minds. Why? Because we wanted to do it, and we didn’t want to feel guilty for doing it. Therefore we wanted to be deceived!

What about the people who talk as if whatever they want is God's will? They want to date someone? It's God's will. They want a certain job? It's God's will. They want a certain house? It's God's will. They want to live in a certain area? It's God's will. It's truly remarkable how "God's will" always lines up with whatever they want! Almost magical, even. And yet it's nothing more than self-deception.

This doesn’t mean that our desires are always wrong. We simply need to be aware of them and how they can influence our decisions. We must take extra caution to ensure that what we believe and do is according to God’s Word and not just our own desires. And remember, we must not simply decide what we want to do and then look for Scriptural justification!

All these self-deceptions are forms of idolatry. They involve putting our own desires above God’s Word, His way, and His will, even if we don’t realize that’s what we’re doing.

When Satan spots a weakness, when he sees that deep down we want to be deceived, he pounces! Just as he did with Eve. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).

How, then, do we avoid being deceived? If we can deceive ourselves, what hope is there?

It starts with our heart. 

We must love God more than all else. We must desire His will more than our own. We must desire His truth more than justifying our own beliefs. We must be willing to give up everything for Him if necessary, even parents, spouses, children, friends, siblings, property, and our own lives (Luke 14:26).

Once we fully submit ourselves to God and give ourselves over to Him, He can work His perfect will in us. He can give us more and He can make us into more than we ever dreamed. No matter what we’ve done, no matter what trials we have to go through, once we repent and fully submit ourselves to God, “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Nothing can thwart God’s purpose in us — except we ourselves. “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).

Do we truly want to know God's will and His truth at any cost? Even if it costs us our job? Friendships? Are we willing to give up all and follow Christ? Do we tremble at God's Word, as admonished in Isa. 66:2, or do we ignore it when we want to? Is there something we put before God, some area in which we want to be deceived? Do we sacrifice what we want most, to be part of God’s family, for what we want right now?

If we truly desire to follow God with all our hearts, if we seek His will no matter what it might be, He can deliver us from temptation and deception. If we truly want God’s will, He will guide us. If we've strayed, as we all do, “for there is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46), He will bring us back onto the path.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Mat. 7:7).

If Eve didn't want to be deceived, if she wanted with all her heart and every part of her being to obey and please God, Satan's charms would've likely had no effect. So it is with us.

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (Jam. 4:7-8).

Every day — every second, even — we’re in a war for our lives! Not just a war against Satan, but most of all a war against our own carnal human nature. We need God’s help to survive, and with His help, we will! “Blessed be the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle” (Psa. 144:1).

Stay vigilant, brethren!