Building on the Foundation

  Both Old and New Testaments warn us again and again about false teachers and false doctrines. As we’ve observed before, it is so easy to be deceived if we don’t continually stand guard against it. In one of these many warnings, the apostle Paul wrote, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). What is this simplicity Paul spoke of? “Simplicity” is Strong’s # G572, haplotēs . Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines it as, “singleness, simplicity, sincerity, mental honesty; the virtue of one who is free from pretence and dissimulation; openness of heart manifesting itself by benefactions, liberality.” Elsewhere in the New Testament, this word is translated as “liberality” (generosity) or “sincerity.” For example, “he who gives, with liberality [ haplotēs ]” (Rom. 12:8). The Septuagint employs this same Greek word to describe integrity, innocence, or uprightness (2 Sam. 15:11...