What comes to mind when you think of the word “expensive”? Usually, money comes to mind, as we are used to thinking that something that costs a great deal of money is expensive. Most all of us would expect that a luxury villa on a beautiful coastline somewhere would be expensive, yet “expensive” has a relative side, too. If you could buy a $0.59 candy bar at the store, and find the same one at a movie theater for $4.00, that is expensive as well. Something that costs a great deal of money but yields a great deal of value for us may not be deemed to be expensive, and we would say it is worth the price we paid. The Merriam-Webster (online) Dictionary definition of the word is “commanding a high price and especially one that is not based on intrinsic worth or is beyond a prospective buyer’s means.”
Why all this talk about this word? In the long run, there is nothing that is more expensive than spiritual deception. This cost of this deception is not measurable in mere money—it goes way beyond that. Spiritual deception will cause one to expend his or her entire life—money, time, and everything else—for things that seem worthwhile but in truth have no intrinsic worth. One’s efforts are directed at pleasures, ease, and even the necessities of this life with no view to the eternal. Or worse yet, a person may think his efforts and perceived goodness in this life are enough to earn him a pleasant eternity. The cost of spiritual deception is your eternal soul, forever separated from God in everlasting punishment in hell—talk about expensive! Jesus Himself asks:
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Matthew 16:26
Let us start by examining a Bible verse that teaches us about deception’s high cost:
Thus says the Lord: “Do not deceive yourselves, saying, ‘The Chaldeans will surely depart from us,’ for they will not depart.” Jeremiah 37:9
In the context of this verse, God had told Judah and King Zedekiah through the prophet Jeremiah that their enemy the Chaldeans would defeat them, bringing His judgment on them for their habitual sin. Instead of believing the reality and certainty of God’s words in this verse, that the Chaldeans would not depart, they substituted a message that was more palatable to them—they deceived themselves! It was easier and more appealing for them to believe what was not true, so they lied to themselves by telling themselves the Chaldeans would depart! They put more weight in their own opinion than in what God, who knows everything, had said! They later paid the price in being destroyed by the Chaldeans, as God had said they would be, ignoring the remedy God had given elsewhere which would allow them to escape with their lives.
Many people do the same when encountering God’s initial message to them in the good news of the gospel. God tells everyone to turn away from their sins and believe in His remedy, Jesus Christ, to escape this world with their eternal souls intact. Instead of believing the reality and certainty of God’s words, they believe what is more palatable to them, which can come in a number of different forms: “I’m a good person; God wouldn’t send me to hell.” “I can’t believe in a God who would send anyone to hell!” “I don’t believe all that stuff.” This list could go on and on, but the point is that by putting more weight in their own opinion rather than God’s truth (or what they deem to be someone else’s opinion), they are only deceiving themselves! They will pay the price, as God said they would, in the loss and punishment of their eternal souls, ignoring the remedy God has freely provided! They will in no way be able to say that the expensive price they will pay for all of eternity will have been “worth it.”
Wow, already an entire blog written, and only one verse covered! The Bible has more to teach us about the cost of deception, so I’ll get into that next week. Until then, I’m praying for you!
Author Stephanie Davison 