We often think the opposite of truth would be lies, but it’s not so simple. The opposite of truth can be error. Errors deceive us by not being so blatantly easy to see as an outright lie. This is why excellence is important in our lives. To be excellent is to be as God created us. To be excellent is be godly because it is to remove error through the discerning of truth and error in all we do. Can believers be deceived by the world? The quick answer is yes, we all can sin and we are all capable of misguidance by error.
1 John 4:6
“We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
God’s word tells us there is a Spirit of truth and a spirit of error. To error, make mistake, sin, practice wrongness, flaws, defects, etc., can be caused by a spirit of error that deceives, misguides, confuses, makes us wander, and go astray from God’s plan. We often error when we mistake man’s knowledge as God’s knowledge, man’s ways above His ways, or our thoughts above His thoughts.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Isaiah 55:8-9
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
God is Spirit
John 4:24 tells us that God is spirit and to worship Him, we must worship Him in spirit and truth. This means to determine or discern what we believe in our thoughts is of truth or of error. What kinds of things would cause us to fall into error? False teachings? Misunderstandings of teachings? Hearsay leading to heresy? Sometimes, it can be a simple missed idea while other times, it can be an unteachable spirit at play in our minds preventing us from understanding and discerning what is truth and what is error.
Error is not a fault of our knowledge, but a mistake of our judgment giving assent to that which is not true.
John Locke
Power of the Error
The Bible also tells us that satan is the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). There are other verses that tell us that there are the things of this world and the things of God and that those who love the world do not love God (1 John 2:15) and friends of the world are in enmity with God (James 4:4).
We can be disobedient to God through error. When we believe in false doctrine, misunderstand God’s truths, disagree with something written in our Bible, or choose to replace His truth with our judgement.
An example of this is where many who interpret the Bible to state that homosexuality is acceptable to God, but most who practice this lifestyle for sexual preference would want to disagree, argue, and dismiss what God’s word and spirit testifies about the matter. There are many who believe it is right by pointing out issues of the doctrine in other matters, e.g. slavery, polygamy, etc., and there are some challenges with interpretations and mistakes possible, but they dismiss the overall wisdom of why God says that homosexuality is of the world and not of Him.
Without digressing into this much further, the book of Malachi tells us how God hates divorce, but most importantly, why the union of man and woman exists in Malachi 2:15, which is to produce godly offspring. Lastly on this point in Romans 1:27, it unequivocally states that acts done by those in same-sex relationships receive into themselves the due penalty of their error.
This is just one sin created from error the Bible tells us about, repeatedly. There are many more and they are very challenging to us when we are in the world or living carnally and not by the spirit. Lust, adultery, lying, stealing, bearing false witness, sexual immorality, and more in Galatians 5:19-21 are all ways we get it wrong and many are done by us through the spirit of error.
When we choose to ignore or be complacent with God’s word over things of this world and the many ways to sin, we can receive the due penalty of the error, whether the world says it is okay or not. These penalties can present in illness, sickness, depression, disease, mistakes, injuries, pain, suffering, loss, and up to and including eternal death when we fail to recognize the error for what it is, sin. Thank God there was something that was done about our sins!
and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2 Thessalonians 2:10
Repentance and Salvation
We all get it wrong and we all sin (Romans 3:23). There are more sins than just homosexuality and they are all written about in Bible, but we must never be fearful of what God says, because the word of God is truth and to love the truth is to love God. We all make errors, some critical, and some leading to eternal death. We all must continually seek the truth and not as the world gives it, but as God does. The words of Jesus in our bible give us revelation as to what we should and should not be doing. Operating in the spirit of error causes many to sin and when we weaponize ourselves with God’s knowledge of the truth, then we have a way to escape.
That escape route is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He forgave us all while He was crucified on the cross to pay for our sins. Those who believe and have accepted the spirit of God, which is the Holy Spirit, have a new life and are new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).
Each day we have an opportunity to test the spirits in words, thoughts, our beliefs, and our actions. When we rightly divide truth from error, we can fully expect that our eternal prize is life with God. It’s possible, but we must do what Jesus commanded us to do to receive the promised reward. God is good and He wants all to succeed and He wants to have a relationship with each of us through His Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and discerning the error that causes separation from Him.
Blessings to you this day, may the Lord grant you peace, joy and understanding in His truth. God bless and enjoy your day as you stay in relationship with our savior, Jesus Christ. You are loved!
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
1 John 4:1-3