Thought for 17 October

 

2 Corinthians 11:3-4

But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent,  You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different type of gospel than the one you believed. 

Psalm 18:30

God’s way is perfect.  All the Lord’s promises prove true.  He is a shield for all who look to him for protection. 

I have managed to avoid watching the tv programme ‘Traitors’ up to the last couple of weeks when I’ve been drawn into the celebrity version.  Without trying to be a spoilsport because I realise a lot of folks enjoy watching it, I hope you will forgive me for making a few casual observations.

For anyone who has not seen this show,  a group of ‘celebrities’ are gathered together in a palatial Scottish country house to participate in a game with the winner winning money for his/her nominated charity.  Some of the group are fairly well-known, others I’ve never heard of.  The faithful are essentially the goodies with the traitors being the baddies.  Three of the group are secretly designated as traitors and they are allowed to ‘kill’ one of the faithful each night which basically means that person is eliminated from the game.  Each day, the whole group take part in a challenge and the better they do in the challenge means more money is added to the money that will eventually be given to a charity.  The whole group get together each night and select one person that the majority of the group think is a traitor.  For the two nights I’ve seen so far, it has been two faithfuls that have been eliminated thus proving the deceitfulness of the traitors to be fairly effective.

I hope that gives you some idea of how the game works.  To some degree, the whole show seems to be based on the ability of the baddies to deceive the goodies by behaving normally within the group, befriending the other competitors then the traitors secretly get together and decide who should be eliminated from the game.  During the challenges, one or two shields can be found which temporarily protects the finders from being eliminated.  One of the things I found interesting was that the three who had been picked to be traitors were hesitant when first selected but as the game progressed, they actually got better at being deceptive and selecting individuals to be killed.  At first there was a mutual feeling of guilt but as each day passed, they warmed to their role and appeared to get a level of real enjoyment out of it and the guilt pretty much disappeared.

All this made me wonder if this is one of the ways the devil works.  At various times of our lives, we will enjoy being part of a group.  It might be a department in a business, a youth organisation, a sports team, an amateur dramatic company, a golf club, a choir or even groups within the church. Does Satan choose one or two or more within a larger group and make them behave in certain ways that create disruption among the members while at the same time, appearing to be a valued colleague that you wouldn’t hesitate to put your trust in?

In our first reading, Jesus reminds us that the devil is cunning when tempting us to do the wrong thing, take the wrong options or be careless with the words we speak.  He also reminds us that his is the only true gospel as it is written and to beware of any teaching that deviates from this path.

Contestants in the game can sometimes get a shield which protects them for maybe one night and means they can’t be killed.  Our second reading reminds us that God will be a shield for anyone who trusts in him that will last for as long as we hold with him.  

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Word of truth and the pure gospel of salvation, which we have received by grace through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Be with us when we read and study your Word and help us to recognise when the truth of Scripture is being distorted in any way.  We I pray that we will not be led astray from the simplicity of the true and glorious gospel of grace and from pure devotion to Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen. (with thanks to knowing-jesus.com)