December 4: Of Deceptive Conflation Part 2

Daniel 11:36-12:13

1 John 4:1-21

Psalm 123:1-4

Proverbs 29:2-4

On Sunday we wrote about deceptive conflation: the process by which one is able to justify accepting the sin by conflating it with the sinner.  Rejecting the sin is then the same as rejecting the sinner, and since we are called to love everyone, we are told we must accept their sin as well.  The thinking is particularly insidious, because it preys on a good person's good intentions, and twists them ever so subtly towards evil.

It's something we really have to guard against - constantly, and against the various ways the evil one might use it to turn us away from God.  Today's NT reading reminds us of this - "because many false prophets have gone out into the world".  And it gives us further guidance on how to respond. Two thoughts:

1. Those good intentions?  First, we can to test them.  What thoughts, what actions do these good intentions prod us towards?  Do those thoughts and actions first and foremost acknowledge "that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh" and "is from God"?  A footnote: to do this, of course, we must first know Jesus ourselves…

2. Second, we can measure our thoughts and actions using love as the yardstick and scale.  "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God."  Do they allow us to act towards our brother and sister with love, and in love?  Or are they acts of, say, anger or vengeance or malice?  Or worse, are the seemingly acts of love, but in reality merely ways for us to get what we want out of them?  A second footnote: sometimes honesty to ourselves is the most difficult form of honesty there is…

This isn't easy.  Per the first point, an acknowledgement that Jesus "is from God" pretty much means nothing comes before Him - no desire, no good intention, nothing.  And per the second point, to live according to point #1, we have to be able to be brutally honest with ourselves.  

If you're anything like me, then you also struggle to live a life that acknowledges Jesus in everything you do, and above everything else in your life.   And you struggle to be honest with yourself, and act on that honesty.  

Father, the world is trying to deceive us.  Help us not to be willing accomplices to our own deception.  Teach us to test everything against your sovereignty over us, and to always act in love for all around us.