Title: Don't Deceive Yourself February 20
“Let no one deceive himself; if any of you thinks that he is wise in the world, let him be a fool, and then he may become a wise man. For the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise are vain. Therefore, let no one boast in men, for all things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death, present or future, all are yours, and you are the Christ. is of God, and Christ is of God.”
Who is the smartest person? who is good at studying? People with high IQ? someone with skills? no. A person who is not deceived. Every day our society is filled with deceiving others. It seems that deceivers are studying how to fool others day and night. There are people who deceive others to steal their wallets, and there are people who deceive other people's property by transferring the registration to them and taking them.
Being deceived by others is a problem, but deceiving yourself is a bigger problem. Those who deceive themselves feel increasingly paralyzed of their conscience. So, at first, your heart is pounding, but later you become paralyzed by yourself.
So, who is the self-deceiver talking about? Let's think about what the Bible says.
1. People who deceive themselves are those who think they are wise.
"Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this world, let him be a fool, and then he may become wise" (verse 18). There are many people around us who live by deceiving themselves.
Those who consider themselves wise think that rather than living faithfully, they are ahead of others by living wisely. You are deceiving yourself about it. In the short term, these people seem to be living wisely.
They get promoted quickly, and they seem to make money faster than others. If you look at people who are savvy in our society, people who know how to bend properly at work, and who move quickly to catch the eyes of their bosses, it seems that such people are really ahead. However, a person who lives like this is a person who deceives himself.
There is a saying.
"Wealth taken by unrighteousness is like snowflakes sprinkled on boiling water/ A paddy field obtained unexpectedly is like sand pushed by the current/ If you adopt a cunning way of living/ It is like a floating cloud that rises in the morning/ A flower that sets in the evening There is a saying, "It's like." This means that the end of a life that has been living dishonestly and tricking oneself will all end like this.
There are not many people who think that I am wise and live like that.
Because life is never a short course. And we need to know that there is a Judge who watches over our entire lives. Pride arises when you think you are wise.
That pride is self-deception.
According to God's Word, the truly wise are those who trust in the Lord. "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all circumstances give your credit to him, and he will direct your ways. Do not be wise in yourselves. Fear the LORD and turn away from evil" (Proverbs 3: 5) said.
The word here is called Trust in the LORD in the English Bible.
What does that mean? It means trust and trust. It means to believe in God and trust in Him. This means don't trust yourself. In this way, those who deceive themselves are those who trust and live in themselves.
Everyone! How much can you trust me? How much confidence did the country come to exist What do you believe in me? my health? my wealth? my knowledge? My friend? There is nothing to believe in me. A person's heart is different in the morning and different in the evening. Therefore, the human heart is called tide (朝夕) and byun (變).
People's minds are incredible. In an old article, it was said that white wine is Hongin-myeon, and gold is Black Sasim. (白酒紅人面,黃金黑士心). In other words, white wine makes a person's face red, and gold makes a scholar's heart black.
In other words, a person's mind can change. Everyone! How firmly do you make your resolutions at the beginning of the year? This year, there will be people who said they would stop smoking, stop drinking, and stop gambling again in vain. It means that I am the one who cannot control even a single bad habit. That's why the Proverbs says, "He who believes in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be saved" (Proverbs 28:26).
was called a fool. What does it mean to act wisely? They are beings who do not believe in themselves, but trust God and depend on him to live.
2. Those who deceive themselves are those who think they are innocent.
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). When we face our reality, all of us are innocent people. Also, the sense of guilt is diminished. Some things do not admit sin as a sin. There are many people who think of themselves as innocent in the practice of sin, saying, 'Everyone lives that way...'. This is the case when you deceive yourself. Sin (罪) is a sin, big or small. There is no such thing as a clean person who considers himself innocent. Because a person dressed in black is more likely to be unaware of filth compared to a person dressed in white. But after washing, the phlegm is worse.
If we look at our reality these days, sin is so prevalent that no one can blame anyone in the practice of sin. Dishonest practices in the political and economic circles are taking their toll. And at the same time, they are unable to repent.
I remember the saying that a foreigner must first understand and learn what has become a practice in Korean society before doing business in Korea. What was the so-called Iran of Korean society that the foreigner spoke of? Black means back deal.
It's called Rebate. It is questionable how honest business can be done where that is practiced.
Our society is so structured that it is running as if it were normal. If you get out of it, it's a society that has become abnormal. Such values have been established that only those who are adept in such areas can prosper, succeed in business, and become successful. So, if you're good at that, it's easy to naturally think of yourself as wise. He did it himself, he started the business because he was smart, and he made money because he was superior to others.
Those who live like this are themselves. But the Bible is a person who humbles himself and confesses his shortcomings and leans on God! Such a person is said to be a wise person. It is said that God opposes the proud and lifts up the humble. ① Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride is the beginning of destruction, and a haughty heart before a fall” ② Proverbs 16:5 “The LORD hates all who are proud in spirit; ③ Proverbs 21:4 says, "The high-minded, the proud heart, and the prosperity of the wicked are all sin."
3. He who deceives himself is the one who hears and does not act.
“Be ye doers of the Way, and not hearers, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). There are many people who claim to be saved through faith, but their beliefs and actions do not match. Faith must be connected with action.
How can we tell if a person is a believer or not? It can be distinguished as an action that appears. Therefore, it is said that those who hear the word and do not act are deceived themselves. To such people, the Lord said, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 12:48-50). If you only listen to the sermon and don't do it, you become self-deceivers.
What do you see as the overall problem facing our society today? It's a confusion of values. The moral value standard of the social public interest has disappeared. The world has come to place material values above spiritual values, if only. School education and young people's values, both material prosperity and accumulation are becoming the purpose of life. I study to get a good job and make money, so I only teach scoring at school, and it shows that money is the best value in all areas of life.
Aren't all of these days, venture companies, securities investment, and all value standards related to money? Even if you make money at once, you only look at how you made hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in a year. Investing is good luck, and looking forward to only high returns at once, pulling out the neck and looking into it. Is that all? Teenagers also appear on the TV screen and shake, and once they appear like that, they become a star, and I expect it to happen, and I only pay attention to the clothes they wear, their hair style, the shoes they wear, and so on. I think the values of today's Christian believers are also riding on this.
They become self-deceivers just by listening. The work of faith will only happen when we hear and act. ① The miracle of five fish, ② The sight of the sea and the wind becoming calm, ③ The resurrection of the dead, ④ The amazing experience of turning water into wine, all of these things happened after hearing about it.
Why do we only listen to the Word? Why can't it lead to actions? It's because they think they are wise. This is because they still think their thoughts are more practical and practical than living according to the teachings of
Faith is not believing 'as you wish'. Faith is living while looking forward to the fulfillment of 'God's will'. Living in the hope that one's thoughts will come true is called belief. Belief is a person who lives by relying on himself, not a person of faith. Faith is the act of giving up on one's own thoughts and following them. That was the life of Abraham. Abraham became the father of our faith.