Truth vs. a lie

Food for Life
Romans 16
"I urge you, {sisters and} brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving the Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. That grace of our Lord Jesus be with you" (16:17-21)

This is the last chapter in the book of Romans. Paul summarizes his teachings, admonitions, warnings, instruction, and encouragement in this Scripture by reminding the believers to be responsible and accountable for themselves in knowing the Truth of Scripture. The way for them, and us, to do this is to be reading, meditating, studying, and practicing Scripture ourselves. So, when we hear, read, or in other ways are presented with teaching that is contrary to Scripture, we will be able to detect this ourselves - we will not be deceived by flattery, charisma, persuasion, or debate; which then leads to division and obstacles among us.

The ending of Paul's letter to the Romans records his admonition to be "wise in what is good, and innocent about what is evil." Wow, I love this. We are exhorted/called to be wise in all things good, and to veer so far away from evil, that we are just innocent, un-knowledgeable or even naive about the details of evil...Let it be Lord.

You may have heard that in order for money handlers to be able to distinguish real money from counterfeit, they are expert in real money. So, when they see counterfeit, they know it is counterfeit b/c it veers from the real...not b/c they know all the details of counterfeit. As you may imagine, there are so many ways to make money counterfeit that it really would be impossible to know them all and identify them. BUT real money is real money. As it is with God's way...God's Truth...if we know the Truth then we will easily detect when something is amiss...even if we can't describe all the ways something is amiss, or even if we can't actually 'put our finger on it', we just know that it isn't the Truth.

"Lord, I pray You would move in each one of our hearts and minds in such a way that we would increasingly thirst and hunger after You; in reading and meditating on Your Word and seeking the Holy Spirit to reveal all Truth to us. Thank You that You are able. Thank You that in You, Satan is and will be crushed under our feet, and that even now, we can receive Your Grace Lord Jesus. Thank You Lord."