November 19, 2008
“Self Deception ”
IDear Friend,
Even good people with good motives can slip into self-deception. Self-deception gradually blinds us to important truths. We begin to displace quality behaviors with noble intentions. We think that because our intentions were proper, our actual behaviors must be.
Sunday we learned from Job that this self-righteous deception can even reach the point that we see everything we do as right. At one moment Job felt more right than God. This led to a great deal of pain in Job’s life, and Job’s pain spilled over into his relationships with God, his wife, and his friends.
I would like to suggest three ways to challenge ourselves about the self-deception of always being right:
- 1. Is being right more important than being loving?This question challenges us to put our sense of what is right to Christ’s test of loving people the way God wants them to be loved.
- 2. Why does my ego require me to be right?Self-deception has more to do with ego than it does with the actual realities of truth and error.
- 3. Am I even willing to consider another perspective?This question permits us to challenge the assumptions that underlie our self-deceptions.
We can reduce the pain we experience in our day-to-day lives and the pain we cause others by confronting our own exaggerated sense and need to be right. Even Jesus Christ said in John’s Gospel, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32.
Doc
Dr. Dave Collings
Lead Pastor
Christ Church
