Pastor's Blog: Seeing Through Our Own Deceptions
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We all are aware of those phishing emails that attempt to deceive us by answering a request that purportedly came from someone we know at some level. But what do you do when such an email comes from you?
I was taken aback earlier in the week when I received an email from “Dr. Doug Dortch,” asking me to help him with an unnamed matter that needed to be handled discreetly. Of course, “Dr. Dortch” was in a meeting, so he wasn’t in a position to take any phone calls, only a reply email.
Like you, I’ve received enough of those bogus emails to distinguish them from real ones. But when I saw one from me to me, I have to admit that it was jarring.
Of course, my first thought was, “What person is foolish enough to think that I wouldn’t recognize the scam? Who emails himself?” And I have to say I felt smug at being so much shrewder than the party responsible for the fake email.
But then I started thinking about all of those times I actually had talked myself into something that wasn’t in my best interest and certainly not in God’s. Suddenly, my shrewdness morphed into a truer estimation of my sinfulness and I realized how checking one’s heart is a never-ending exercise and not something we do when it’s convenient.
Maybe that’s why Jesus was so forceful with the religious leaders who had convinced themselves they were Abraham’s children and therefore immune to the stain of sin. How did Jesus answer them? “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to it.” And to those who believed in Him, He said, “If you hold to My teaching, you really are My disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-34).
The first step toward reality is knowing our heart and knowing we can’t fully trust it. We can only trust the Word that God sent to save us, the Word that became flesh, and do what He alone bids us to do so that we might not perish, but have everlasting life.
“If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10).