Danger of deceit

Danger of deceit

Jesus said to them： "Watch out that no one deceives you. (13:5)

Now Jesus’ long discourse begins from verse 5 to 37. It begins with the word of watching out people’s deceit. This warning of Jesus implies that many people will deceive you and many will be deceived in the end.

Why are people easily deceived? Are they too naive? Yes. Perhaps they are. However, it should not be the satisfactory answer. Think of the reason why Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent? The first answer could be that their mind was shaky enough to be deceived. They had already had the knowledge of the fruit of knowing good and evil that God prohibited them to eat. Otherwise, they would not have been tempted by the serpent. Outwardly our concern does not reveal the whole things. Once we are deceived then our inner reality turns out.

The reason of frequent cases of deceit related to the end is not much different from that of the above case. Our consciousness and unconsciousness have already declined to the biased eschatology. This is the reason why men have become so vulnerable to deceit. It means people understand the end not as the new heaven and the new earth that God will create but they rather take it as a mere opportunity for pursuing religious desire. It is to be captured by religious selfishness. People often expect that they will be specially treated when the end comes. They are waiting for the end to join 144,000 in Revelation 7:4 says. Those who are inclined to such thing have higher risk of being deceived.

We the descendant of Adam and Eve are highly vulnerable to deceit. We can confirm this fact from the clear evidence of human history and our past life. Two things may be required. Passively we have to learn the right teachings and positively we have to pray that we may not be deceived. Watch out that no one deceives us.