The Big Bad Wolf

At the age of seventeen I learned a hard lesson about being deceived.  I was trying hard to help a friend who claimed to be “homeless”, giving him rides everywhere, loaning him money with the promise of being paid back, practically giving him the shirt off my back.  The more I gave, the more the friend took advantage. My boss at the youth camp where we both were working sat down and explained to me the nature and effect of a con man.  He was gentle, yet persuasive, and he helped me get out of the great deception.  But it hurt to let go of the friend, even though his deceptiveness became obvious.  Then later it became embarrassing and almost shameful to admit to how duped I had been.

No one likes coming to the conclusion that they have been misguided, lead astray, hoodwinked.  But look at it this way, if you do figure it out, you can be thankful.  At least you discovered that you were deceived.  Far too many people who are deceived never even know it. (After all, that is the nature of deception.) They live their life with misguided truths as their foundation. Jesus warned of this in a little story, “Don’t build your house on the sandy land.  When the winds blow and the floods rise the house will topple.”  In another story, an old, old fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood got eaten up by the big bad wolf.  But how was the little girl to know, he looked like grandmother.

Irenaeus wrote this about deception: “Error, indeed is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced more true than truth itself.”

Theology is susceptible to deception.  The great deceiver, Satan, is elated when he can slip his lies into the very foundational beliefs of the church. A colleague once gave me some good advice.  He said, “know what you believe, but hold it lightly.”  That advice has served me well. Loyalties can be beguilingly deceptive, too.  We cannot serve two masters.  But so often we get seduced into loving idols and false gods -- prosperity, comfort, convenience. And all the while we are deceived into thinking we are sold out for God.  Or that the false god is more precious than the God who loves us so dearly. Life goals and life philosophies are often misguided, too.  “Get ahead at all costs.”  “God helps those who help themselves.”  “I’ve worked hard, I deserve to reward myself.”  “I’ve got to make a name for myself.” “Retire early and spend the inheritance.”   

I heard a story recently of a woman who had been raped as a teenager.  She had been taught that God is good, and he will never let harm come to those who honor him.  (Interestingly, she was also taught that if attacked she should quote scripture and pray out loud.  The perpetrator only laughed at her when she did this.)  As she shared her story midst a flood of tears, her greatest sorrow was over the years and years that she had wasted being bitter at God for failing her.  Not until she was helped to let go of her misguided and horrible theology was she able to embrace God’s incredible love and healing.  Only then could she process the healing work of forgiveness.

“Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves... Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?  Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers.”  (Matthew 7:15-23)