November 28: Of Deceptive Conflation

Daniel 5:1-31

2 Peter 2:1-22

Psalm 119:113-128

Proverbs 28:19-20

In your humble writer's opinion, one of the greatest deceptions being perpetrated today is the one of "conflation", which the Cambridge Dictionary defines as "the actor or process of combining two or more separate things into one whole, especially pieces of text or ideas".  This is where a person insists that a sinner and a sin be conflated, and says that if a Christian does not accept the sin, neither do they love the sinner.  And typically follows it up with an accusation of hatefulness and dishonesty - "I thought you said you were a Christian?  If you were, how could you hate a person?"

What's tragic is that many well intentioned people fall for this.  They don't want to be hateful; they don't even want to be in a position where they might be accused of hatefulness.  So they capitulate.  They choose to condone the sin.  Peter explains how their situation is made much worse.  If, by their good intentions, they had begun to escape "the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning."  I struggled with this until I realized it meant that, the sinner believing he was now living righteously, he no longer had reason to change.  

It's worse for the deceivers.  Peter doesn't mince words, comparing them with angels sent to hell and put "in chains of darkness to be held for judgment".  He makes clear what he thinks is in store for such people, comparing them to the "ancient world when He brought flood on its ungodly people" and "the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah [which He] made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly."

How then do we avoid both temptations - to be deceiver, and to be deceived?  Today's psalm gives us good guidance.  

1. First, we cleave to God's Word.  "I hate double-minded people, but I love Your law.  You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in Your word."  
2. Then, having clung ferociously to His word, we come against the deceivers, the deception, and the temptation to deceive. "Away from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commands of my God."
3. And when our strength flags, as it inevitably will, we cry out to Him: "Sustain me, my God, according to Your promise, and I will live…uphold me, and I will be delivered."

Father, Satan is working overtime, and to us his packaging can look really enticing.  Please protect us, and open our hearts, minds and eyes to the deception of conflation, and remind us that to love someone is to want for them not necessarily what THEY want for themselves, but what YOU want for them.