Identify the Lie

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”—John 8:44

One of the truths that we need to remember in the battle against sin is learning to identify the lie. In our passage for today, Jesus is rebuking the Jews for their belief that they were righteous in the sight of God because of who their ancestors were, but at the same time, He gives us some insight into the person of the devil, or Satan, who he is and how he operates. The devil is God’s adversary who wars against God and His people. He is a fallen angel, being cast down from heaven near the beginning of time (Luke 10:18; Genesis 3:1; Ezekiel 28:16). He seeks to attack the people of God in subtle ways. One of his most effective and often-used tactics is getting Christians to believe the lie. Satan is a liar and is the best liar the world has ever seen. We have all encountered people in our lifetime who were adept at lying. Whether it was a family member, colleague, friend, or salesman, we have encountered liars and probably even been taken in by their lies. Satan is a liar extraordinaire, the one who introduced lying to the world and uses it every chance he gets.

How does Satan lie? In a variety of ways, and one need to look only at the Garden of Eden to see how he started to use his most effective weapon. He went to Eve first, not Adam, and questioned her on whether or not she could eat of any tree in the Garden. Eve replied that they could eat of any tree, except the one that is in the midst of the Garden, because if they did, they would die (Genesis 3:3), which was true. But, it is at this point that Satan, personified by the serpent, starts to distort the truth. He says,  

“You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."—Genesis 3:4-5. 

 This is the lie! Right here! He makes her question the goodness of God. He made her think that God was keeping something from her that was good and desirable. And, I believe, he did so by doing the very thing that he wanted her to do—eating the fruit. In the next verse it says,  

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate”—Genesis 3:6.

When she saw that “the tree was good for food,” and it was “desired to make one wise” she ate of it. How could she have known that it was good for food and it made one wise? Undoubtedly, the reason she thought it made one wise was for the simple reason that the serpent was eating the fruit and speaking! If he were eating of it, speaking, and not dead, then he was right! God had to have been keeping something good from them! At least that is apparently what she thought, and that is the final step before her eating of the fruit and bringing about the fall of man. She believed the lie and we are all still paying for it.

Satan doesn’t just attack the naïve and spiritually immature, either. Eve was the new one to the Garden and Satan attacked her, not Adam. It could be argued, however, that Adam shirked his responsibility to lead his wife by seeing what was going on and then giving into her choice. He knew better and still did it. After all, the Scripture says that he was “with her” when she was deceived (Genesis 3:6).

Satan goes after everyone, no holds barred. He tried to employ this same scheme when he tempted Jesus in the desert. And how did he do it? He tried to use the Word of God against its author! He threw Scripture at Jesus! But, before we get ahead of ourselves and say: “What? You just said that he was a liar and used lies! How could he use Scripture and it be a lie?” The answer is that Satan uses the Scripture for his own means. He distorts the Word of God by misquoting it or taking it out of the context in which it is rooted. We must make every effort to know the Scripture by doing our  

“best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth”—2 Timothy 2:15. 

When tempted by Satan’s lies, Jesus quoted Scripture properly to counteract the lie, and so too must we. We must identify the lies of Satan for what they are—lies. And that is where the difficulty lies (no pun intended!). In the next few days we will begin to learn how to identify the lies of Satan so that we might not be duped by his deception. We will learn how to walk in truth, walk in light, and walk in victory so that we might avoid the traps of the devil. Jesus, who is truth (John 14:6), modeled how we should respond to the lies that come our way—by quoting the Word of God, and so too must we. But, in order to identify the lies, we must ask ourselves—what are the lies that I believe? How has Satan used them in my life in order to get me to turn my back on God or question His plan for me? And once we are able to identify the lie, expose it for what it is, we have taken the first step in a life of victory. Amen.