Beware of Self-Deception! I do not normally start with this kind of introduction; however, I am convinced that we need to take a few moments here and now to consider this issue. In a world of quick-takes, Twitter-experts, social media stars, evangelical rock stars, and so many others who offer advice, we need to watch for self-deception.
For example, I recently read a post from a person choosing to deconstruct his/her faith. Person after person on Twitter offered affirming advice, pleasant words, and good cheer to this individual. The problem is the person who is convinced that he or she is doing the right thing and is helping others do the right thing is actually leading others toward further self-deception, potential denial of the faith, and significant difficulty. These enlightened ones encourage people to love Jesus but not the church. Or worse off, not love Jesus at all but search for their own way.
The Bible warns us of people like this. Today, I want to share one such warning with both specific application and general application for your daily living.
Watch for Your Own Enlightenment – That Isn’t
Hear what Jesus says:
Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. (Luke 11:35)
Jesus makes this statement in a larger conversation on the light that enters into you through your eye. The ultimate light He demands must be pure on the future judgment day. However, before He stresses the future judgment, He makes this clear warning. Here it is:
Possibly what you consider to be light is actually darkness.
Your Enlightenment may be no more than Self-Deception.
Just convincing yourself that you are right does not make you right.
These statements declare a warning to all of us. Jesus warns us that what may seem cool, enlightened, wise, clear, and true light, may be none of these things at all.
The person who calls on you to deconstruct, makes a YouTube video that thousands of teenagers watch and question their faith, and brags about his or her new-found freedoms on Twitter may actually be a self-deceived, sadly mistaken person who leads others toward destruction.
Being a woke Christian may be no more than a broke Christian theologically.
Higher enlightenment may be deeper darkness.
Self-perception may be simply self-deception.
Please friend, do not miss this. Parent, your children and teenagers need you to be on guard. Pastor, teacher, and counselor, those who listen to you deserve your attention here. Jesus warns us with reason.
Masks of Self-Deception
What seems like light, may be darkness. Jesus warns us. What then are some of those areas where we may be deceived?
Let me encourage you to read the rest of this article and consider these various masks. Here’s the deal: Jesus warns you that what you think is light may be in fact darkness. Therefore, I also warn you to consider your own heart. Prayerfully think through the categories that my friend Paul Tripp came up with so many years ago. He discusses various masks that parade as light when in fact they are only darkness.
Beware of self-deception!
As I just mentioned, Paul Tripp helps us with these categories in his classic article from the Journal of Biblical Counseling.[1] The rest of this article comes from excerpts from Paul Tripp’s article on “Opening Blind Eyes” where he uses the story of Celia to discuss these various masks.
The Masks of Spiritual Blindness
The difference between physical and spiritual blindness is that the former is blatantly obvious while the latter often goes unnoticed. A physically blind person is immediately confronted with his condition and the limitations it places on his existence. A spiritually blind person often not only doesn’t recognize his blindness but is convinced that he has excellent vision. A fundamental part of being spiritually blind is that you are blind to your blindness.
The Mask of an Accurate Sense of Self
Most of our counselees will have distorted views of themselves because the “mirrors” into which they have been looking are like carnival mirrors. They reflect the real you but with a distortion. The mirror at the carnival makes you look like you have an extremely long torso, with little stubby legs, or it makes you look like you have a huge head and a tiny little body. You are seeing yourself but not as you really are.
So it is with many of our counselees. Their sense of self has been developed by looking into the carnival mirror of others’ opinions, or a cultural view of success, or pop psychology, or past experience (the list could go on). The counselee is unaware that he has a distorted sense of self. He has the Word of God, but he has used it more as an encyclopedia of religious thought or a devotional tool. Even when listening to the Word preached, he will miss the revelation of self that is there. He hears stories or principles expounded but does not see himself mirrored in the passages.
The Mask of Being Sinned Against
There is no more powerful metaphor to describe how spiritual blindness masquerades as a sense of being sinned against than the “plank and speck” metaphor of Matthew 7. Imagine a person literally obsessed with a piece of dust in another’s eye while walking around with a plank jutting out of his own! He has a much more gripping sense of being sinned against than he has of being a sinner. Thus, to him, the change that is needed is change outside himself.
The Mask of Trials and Testing
Counselees in their blindness will call the consequences of their own behavior “trials” and the good things from God’s hand “testings.” They will be blind to the fact that God sends trials for the purpose of doing redemptive good. Instead of seeing themselves as ones who have been loved by God and who are being conformed to the image of His Son through circumstances, they see themselves as singled out for difficulty. To them life isn’t fair. Suffering to them is without redemptive purpose and a sign that God does not love them.
The Mask of Needs
Celia saw herself as needy. She viewed herself as one who had spent most of her life living without. She often said, “If only I had had ——, then I would have been able to ——.” Her understanding of needs was as cloudy as the culture’s around her. Yet her interpretation of her life rested heavily on this term. Essentially she was saying that the problems in her life were the direct result of her neediness. She carried with her the classic, “If only …” interpretation of life.
What Celia didn’t see was that her neediness was really more about the tragic effect of sin, which turns us from worshippers of God to those who live “gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts” (Ephesians 2:3). Her neediness revealed much more about who she was than about what she was missing. Celia’s sense of need revealed the lusts of her heart much more than it revealed the betrayal of others. And what she actually needed was the one thing she never craved—God. If you really want to understand what is important to a person, find out where he feels needy. Values become desires, desires become demands, and demands get expressed in counseling as “needs.”
The Mask of Wise Counsel
Like all of our counselees, Celia had many voices around her. Like Job, much of the counsel she received was not helpful; and it was not helpful because it was not biblical. Yet Celia found comfort in the words of her counselors, if only for a season.
Although she was coming for counseling, Celia often repeated to me the “wisdom” she had gleaned from those around her. But Celia only quoted people who agreed with her view of life and supported the decisions she made. She did not quote anyone who disagreed with her.
Another scriptural term for the spiritually blind is “fools.” Celia’s wise counsel was really foolishness. It only appeared wise to her because she was blind to the real issues in her life. Proverbs says that the fool has “no desire for wisdom” (Proverbs 17:16). Celia thought she was on a quest for wise counsel when really she was on a quest for support of her point of view.
The Mask of Personal Insight
Celia, like all human beings, was always seeking to make sense out of her life. She wanted it organized into categories that would help her understand what had gone on and what she should do about it. She spent much of her time analyzing things and felt it had been helpful. But her search was not open-ended: if I began to question Celia’s interpretations, there would soon be an air of tension in the room.
Spiritual blindness can even masquerade as wisdom! To be intellectually bright and actively analytical does not necessarily mean that you are wise. True wisdom begins with humility, the recognition that I do not have in myself all that I need. I need to be a seeker after the truth that is found only in God’s Word. Real insight does not result from being analytical but from being biblical.
The Mask of a Sense of Values
Counselees often do not recognize their blindness because it is masked by a passionate sense of what is right and wrong. The angry man who has for years hurt his family with his violent responses sees only what he has lost by being separated from them. To him what is important is his right to see his kids and to live in the home he pays for. He keeps saying in counseling, “This is not right, it just isn’t right!” Yet he is blind to the changes he needs to make in order for the family to be properly restored.
The Mask of Theological Knowledge
Celia knew a lot about Scripture and the doctrines of the faith. There were few biblical-theological terms that I could use with which she was not familiar.
Unfortunately, Celia’s theological knowledge did four things for her. First, it produced a level of confidence in her interpretations of life. She assumed that her ideas and actions flowed out of her beliefs. Second, it produced in her an assessment of maturity. Celia thought of herself as a mature believer and was offended if someone treated her as someone needing basic biblical teaching. Third, in counseling her knowledge gave Celia an “I already knew that and I already tried that” attitude. Fourth, it produced in her a sense that her problems were not her fault. She “knew what was right and did what was best.” So, the cause of the difficulty had to be outside of her. Her knowledge obscured personal responsibility and conviction of sin.
The fact was that Celia had not been able to apply her theology to everyday life in a way that made sense of her struggles. She was a lady without wisdom, blind to the fact that she was not spiritually mature. Spiritual maturity results from practicing truth in everyday life, not from knowing truth in one’s mind (Hebrews 5:11–14). But Celia was convinced that what was wrong with all of her Christian counselors was that they kept telling her things she already knew.
Coupled with this sense of theological adequacy was Celia’s tendency to ask the wrong questions. Celia’s questions did not lead her to a deeper understanding of her situation, a fuller hope in God, or a practical agenda for change. There is a principle here that we will consider more fully in a future article. It is this: insightful people are insightful not because they have the right answers but because they have asked the right questions. If you do not ask the right questions, you will never get to the right answers. Celia constantly found herself in an analytical cul-de-sac, leading to a loss of hope and a struggle with depression.
The Mask of Personal Holiness
Although Celia did not speak of herself using the biblical language of holiness, that is precisely what she thought she possessed. She believed that she wanted the right things and that she did the right things and she could not figure out why things were so wrong. Her belief in her personal holiness rested on a legalistic self-righteousness that had nothing to do with God’s call to “Be holy as I the Lord your God am holy.”
Celia was blind to the fact that she was a classic Pharisee. Like a Pharisee, she reduced God’s law to a doable human standard. The things Celia emphasized required no reliance on Christ—they were behavioral standards that made no demands on the heart. Celia saw the gospel as having to do with Heaven and Hell. She felt no need for the present redemptive power of Christ in her life because the “righteousness” she had attained was humanly attainable.
The Mask of Repentance
Celia, like many counselees, thought that being “in counseling” was an act of repentance. This is not always true. Many of those we counsel tend to see the talking they do as confession and their staying in the counseling process as repentance. But for Celia counseling was really more like penance. She was blind to the fact that what she was really participating in was an act of self-atonement. I call this “Protestant absolution.” The counselee confesses, examines issues, participates in an ongoing discussion of self and the situation and, week by week, leaves the counseling time feeling atoned, cleansed, right. Yet all of this is happening without any substantive heart or behavioral change. The counselees see themselves as being repentant, but in reality there are times when counseling becomes a way to avoid working on the issues that are on God’s agenda.
[1] Paul David Tripp, “Opening Blind Eyes: Another Look at Data Gathering,” ed. David A. Powlison, The Journal of Biblical Counseling, Number 2, Winter 1996 14 (1996): 6–11.
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