There Are No Shades of Grey

There Are No Shades of Grey God Is Truth

 

John 17:17 Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. (NLT)

 

The Garden was beautiful that day, as it always was. The sun shone down and the trees clapped their hands at the handiwork of God. The Garden contained all anyone could have ever asked for. Man walked with his creator, God Himself. The Garden of Eden was paradise itself. There was Adam the first man and his wife, Eve. But the serpent was cunning. He starts out his assault against Eve by mixing some truth with some untruth. Just enough to engage her in a conversation. "Did God really say you were not to eat from the trees in the Garden?" Now the enemy knew full well that this is not what God had said. God had only prohibited eating from one tree in the Garden, not all of them. But realize the purpose here for this sentence is merely to engage Eve in a conversation. While it is true that eating the fruit was the act of disobedience which led to the fall of man, it never progresses that far without the conversation. That is what the enemy still tries today. He is still asking half-true questions and proposing half lie answers. All in an effort to engage us in a conversation. All he can do is present something for us to consider. It is always in opposition to what God has already said and what we know to be true but like Eve before us we engage in the conversation and get distracted within.

 

Fast forward over a thousand years. A great victory for a fledgling nation. A mighty deliverance by the hand of God. The walls crumbled before the power of Almighty God. Jericho is defeated! In the midst of the celebrating and praising God, the enemy enters as he always does, slyly and subtly. Just as he slithered up to Eve; he now targets Achan the Israelite. He too is celebrating but instead of focusing on all God had just given him and his people, the enemy distracts him with something he does not have and has been told he cannot have. It is not a fruit this time which is pleasing to Achan's eye for the devil to point out. Just a "wedge of gold the enemy says, no one will miss it." Surely Achan must have resisted a bit at first "But God said not to take the devoted things." The enemy, ever-persistent, steps up the attack by showing Achan a beautiful Babylonian Robe and whispering again "You deserve this robe; look how bravely you fought today. It's not like you are taking everything!" And at that moment, Satan has trapped his prey. A stronghold is set up in Achan's mind against what God had specifically warned the Israelites about. He covets what he knows he cannot have and he takes it anyway. All the devil can do is present something for us to consider. It is always in opposition to what God has already said and what we know to be true but like Eve and Achan before us we engage in the conversation and get distracted within.

 

Fast forward several hundred more years and we see another scene. A husband and wife. Prominent; well-to-do. They are part of a new movement in the world. Followers of "The Way." Believers in a recently crucified carpenter from Galilee. The upstart church members shared everything they had with one another so that no one would want. Because they did and because of the powerful testimony of the Gospel, the spread of Christianity was underway. Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property and were deciding what to do with the money they received for it. The devil slithered up to them too. Just a little whisper.

 

"You shouldn't have to give all of the money to the Apostles."

 

"This was your property, why shouldn't you have some of the money for yourself and your wife you deserve it."

 

"They won't even know how much you really got for the property anyway."