Saturday August 31, 2024

Genesis 3:1
“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

A person’s native language is the one he is most comfortable speaking, the one he reverts to impulsively, the one by which his values are most easily communicated. The Bible says that Satan’s native language is lies (John 8:44). Whenever he opens his mouth—or motivates someone else to open his or her mouth—it will also be a distortion of the truth.

Twisting the truth is what Satan did with Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Distorting God’s instructions is what Saul did when he was supposed to destroy the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15). When we find ourselves coloring the truth or distorting God’s Word to serve our own interests, we know automatically the source of that motivation. Sometimes we try to treat the truth like notes in music. If the truth is A, but we tell it as if it’s A-flat or A-sharp, we say, “But it’s still an A!” That doesn’t matter. It may be close to the truth, but it’s not the truth. If you are ever tempted to embellish, exaggerate, distort, color, hide, or otherwise not tell the truth—stop!

The truth is the currency of the Kingdom. Lies are like counterfeit money—they render all transactions meaningless.

David Jeremiah, Turning Points with God: 365 Daily Devotions (Tyndale, 2014)
Scripture for opening text taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.