The Trouble Starts With Believing A Lie
(And Is Stopped By Believing The Truth)
The old serpent got this whole mess started when he got somebody to believe a lie. That somebody was Eve… way back in the garden of Eden. And still today, it’s believing lies, that keeps all the evil going. Every evil act that a person commits, was first conceived in his heart by believing a lie. Believing a lie opens the door to sin. You name it… pride, selfishness, anger, bitterness, theft, murder, adultery, deceit, and on and on… every kind of sin.
If you never believed a lie, you would never sin. Period.
Eve would never have eaten of the forbidden fruit, if she had not first believed the lie that it was good for food, and would make her wise. She would never even have considered that it could be good or desirable, if she had not first believed the serpent’s lie, “Ye shall not surely die.”
“Ye shall not surely die.” That is Satan’s #1 favorite. It’s the oldest one in the book, and his most effective. He likes to lead with that one, because fear of death or punishment is actually a strong deterrent to sin. Once a person loses his fear of punishment, he is open to considering all kinds of sins. If Satan can’t get that lie to stick, he’s going to have a real tough time getting any others to work.
His follow-up lies are usually a combination of exaggerating the benefits, or downplaying the risk of disobedience to God. Again, if you really believed the truth about the benefits vs. the risk of sin, you would never choose sin. Could anyone really be foolish enough to choose certain eternal torment, for a fleeting moment of pleasure? Or even a hundred years of pleasure? Never!
(Quick little side note here: ‘Pleasure’ is more than gratifying the fleshly lusts, like we would normally think of. It might even be the ‘pleasure’ of getting back at someone who has wronged you. Or the ‘pleasure’ of seeing someone else brought low, and get what they deserve… paying for their sins… especially if they had sinned against YOU. If you take any pleasure in that, you are believing a lie.)
Back to that #1 lie. Here are a few extensions of it:
Ye shall not surely die, because…
… no one is perfect anyway, so God will understand.
… God is love, so He would never send anyone to hell.
… your good deeds outweigh the bad, so you’ll be fine.
… this is a victimless sin. You’re not hurting anyone else, so it’s OK.
… God’s grace covers you, so you’re already forgiven, no matter what.
… God is granting you a special exemption to the rules.
There’s really no end to the variations Satan uses.
Now, not all sins are equal, and not all lies are equal. John 19:11 speaks of a ‘greater sin’, referring to Judas. People tend to rate the seriousness of sins based on the extent of the resulting pain or damage, or the innocence of the victims. They would say that swindling hundreds of trusting elderly people out of their life savings is worse than cheating a big bank out of a much lesser amount. Or that the genocidal killing of millions is worse than a single murder.
In God’s eyes, the scale of sin has more to do with knowledge. Luke 12:45-48 talks about those who shall be beaten with many stripes, or few stripes, based on their knowledge of their lord’s will… and says, “unto whom much is given, of him shall be much required.”
So also, in God’s eyes, the seriousness of believing a lie, depends a lot on the level of truth given to that person, to be able to counter the lie. If you consider Adam & Eve, or Moses, or Judas… the greater level of their knowledge and revelation of God elevated the consequences of believing and acting on a lie.
In another sense, when we understand that the opening for every sin is believing a lie, it should help keep us from bitter, judgmental feelings toward anyone whose sins may seem especially disgraceful, or may have hurt us personally, because you see that their fault is not that much different than your own… believing a lie.
No one is going to kill, or steal, or cheat, or commit adultery, or preach false doctrine, or even lift themselves up in pride, unless they first believe a lie. One may believe a lie, that they don’t need to listen to a parent, or a teacher, or an elder; or don’t need to submit to one in authority. Another may believe the lie that they themselves are truly worthy of the adoration, and allegiance, and unquestioning obedience, of thousands or millions of followers. Whether you believe you are above one other person, or above all the other 7 billion people on earth… they are both basically the same lie, different only in scale.
To me, that’s humbling. When I look at my own past, and my own errors and sins… it wasn’t that I was determined to do what I knew was wrong… I was just doing what I believed to be right or OK, or at least excusable, at that moment. Unfortunately, there were many times when it was wrong, because I was believing a lie. That leaves me with a realization that the essential difference between my past failures, and the failures of others, is that we may have been believing different lies. That’s hardly any grounds to condemn another.
When I look at myself, right now, I still have no right to boast, or feel self-righteous. Jesus said that if we can believe, all things are possible to us. (See Mark 9:23) He said in Matthew 21:21-22, that if we have faith, and doubt not, we could command a mountain to be cast into the sea, and it would happen. “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”
All doubts and all fears come from believing a lie. If we truly believed ‘nothing but the truth’… of God’s love, and the work of the cross, and the power of the name of Jesus Christ… there would be ZERO doubt, or fear, or sickness, or ANY of the works of the enemy in our lives. So until these scriptures are totally fulfilled in my life, I NEED more TRUTH to destroy the lies! And I NEED GOD to reveal that truth, as only HE can!
How about we just immerse ourselves in the Word of God… the TRUTH! And how about we just don’t listen to the devil… not for a second! He is the father of lies, and there is no truth in him. (See John 8:44) Whenever he comes around, it is to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10)
But God promises, “If ye continue in My word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free!” TOTALLY. FREE!!!
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