How to Combat the Deceitfulness of Sin

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” (1 Timothy 4:1-2)

I’ve always looked at this scripture in light of the way things will get really bad “in later times.” However, I recently realized that the “when” is not that important. The “what” and “why” is what we should focus on.

First of all, Paul is saying that some believers are going to abandon the faith. Now that’s a really heavy statement. You’re telling me that someone who loves Jesus and has experienced the joy of salvation is going to throw all of that away?! What in the world would ever lead someone to do something so foolish?!

We might think that that would never happen to us, but let’s not forget that no matter how firm we think we are standing, we need to be on our guard so that we don’t fall (1 Cor 10:12). These aren’t just false teachers. These are probably people who were once a lot like us…but something happened…

Paul said that they would abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. So they believed false doctrine, but I’m sure it didn’t just hit them one day and they decided to disregard sound teaching and embrace false teaching.

As someone who has been in the faith for over ten years now, I could never see myself following bad doctrine, especially doctrines of demons. But let me explain to you how this could happen to any of us. Paul said that these teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. The fact that he said they are hypocrites tell me that they would still profess to be believers. The fact that he mentioned their consciences tells me that their doctrine is a direct reflection of their morality.

So here is where I’m going with this. These teachers most likely fell into some sin, and instead of responding to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they found scripture to back up their sinful behavior. Instead of finding mercy through confession and repentance (Proverbs 28:13), they twisted scripture to justify their wickedness. This sounds bad, right? But don’t think it is something you couldn’t do.

Have you ever sinned? Of course you have. Now when you sin, there are several ways to respond. You could deny that you did anything wrong at all. You could blame others—embracing a victim mentality. You could justify your sin, finding a reason that what you did was okay. Yes, you know it’s wrong, but it was okay in your situation. You could minimize your sin. Yes, you know it’s wrong, but it’s not that big of a deal. Now…how should you respond to sin? You know the answer. It’s found in Proverbs 28:13: “He who conceals his sin will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them finds mercy.”

It’s that simple. You do have a choice in the matter, but make no mistake, one leads to life and one leads to death. There is no middle ground. If you deny, justify, or minimize your sin, you have chosen a path that leads to death. But it’s a slow death. You don’t realize how much you have drifted away. It usually takes a trip to God’s woodshed before you really get it.

I think that’s what happened to those that Paul is referring to. Certainly God chastised them in hopes of turning them back to Him, but they ignored His discipline. They clung to their false doctrines that justified their sinful lifestyle and they ended up with seared consciences. Nothing could get through to them because they were comfortable believing that God was smiling on them in their sin.

The same thing happens today, both on the corporate level and the personal level. It’s up to us to get it right personally, so we can take it on corporately. I believe that is why you later see Paul telling Timothy to, “set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.” (1 Tim 4:12) Timothy was a pastor, but we are all called to do the same.

If you have not responded to sin with confession and repentance, please get things right immediately. That might mean confessing to God AND to someone else. Often times, that is most difficult, and that is where it is easiest to justify and minimize sin. Don’t do that. You won’t find freedom outside of God’s will. Sometimes, you won’t realize how much you have minimized and justified your sin until you tell someone else, realizing the weight of it.

Once you get things right with God, you need to be faithful to bless others by warning them. Hebrews 3:13 says, “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Remember, apostasy doesn’t happen in a day. It happens when we fail little tests along the way, and refuse to do what is necessary to find freedom.

My prayer is that you’ll take heed, confess, repent and then warn others.