Deceivers Among Us

Ephesians 5:1-10 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

 

“1Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, 2and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God. 3But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed. 4Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving. 5For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

 

“6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. 7Therefore do not be partakers with them. 8For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, 9for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. 10Test and prove what pleases the Lord.”

 

Gatherings of The Church

 

Within the gatherings of the church, and among those who serve in positions of pastors and elders and missionaries and evangelists, we have many people who are teaching a false doctrine of salvation, who are leading many people to follow after the lies and to reject the truth of the biblical gospel. But the lies are not only related to the teaching of the gospel, but they are related to personal beliefs with regard to what or who constitutes the church and with regard to how said church is supposed to function, to operate.

 

I was not aware of what was going on until 1999. Now I had had some bad experiences within the gatherings of “the church” over the years, but I did not know what was behind it all. I did not see the inner workings. But then God began opening my eyes to see how, from church to church, they all seemed to be following the same man and the same program for how to grow their churches. But these were multiple church denominations following the same man and his program, and that used to be something unheard of.

 

And what I began seeing is that the church was now being turned into a marketplace, which God forbids, and they were (most of them it seemed) now marketing the church to the people of the world. And the church gatherings were being turned into businesses of men (which God also forbids) following the marketing schemes and tricks and tools for how to attract the world to their gatherings in order to grow their numbers. And the true biblical church, the body of Christ, was getting lost in the shuffle.

 

[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5]

 

Deceivers and Deception

 

And along with this came the diluting and altering of the gospel of Christ in order to attract the world and to appease human flesh. And so the gospel was now being presented in a way that had to do mainly with just making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ but with no repentance and no obedience to God’s commands required as part of God’s saving grace. Some will teach that we should repent of sin and obey God, but more as a suggestion, while others will deny that God even requires repentance and obedience to Him.

 

Even many of those who teach against sin, and against immorality and lying and cheating and stealing and obscenity, etc., they will not insist on death to such sins and obedience to God’s commands as required of God for salvation and for eternal life with God. Many are teaching that a profession only of faith in Jesus Christ is enough to secure anyone eternal life with God regardless of how they live. But that is not what Jesus and His New Testament apostles taught as the gospel of Christ, of salvation from sin.

 

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to Him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) Him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to His commands, in His power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls Him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

 

Imitators of God

 

So, contrary to what these liars and deceivers are feeding the people, our salvation from sin is not just so we get forgiveness of all sins and a free ticket into heaven so we can escape hell. Jesus gave His life up for us on that cross to put our sins to death with Him so that, by faith in Him, we will deny self, die to sin daily, and follow Him in obedience to His commands. We are to be Christlike and we are to live holy lives pleasing to God. For to walk in love is to walk in moral purity, uprightness, and in godly living.

 

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in Him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

 

Therefore, we are to let no one deceive us with empty words which appease human flesh but which speak lies to the people. For faith in Jesus Christ, which is biblical, and which is of God and is gifted to us by God, requires that we no longer walk in sin, making sin our practice, but that we now obey God and His commands as a matter of life practice, in the power of God, by the Spirit. For if sin remains our practice (habit), and not obedience to God and to His commands, we will not inherit eternal life with God. The Bible says!

 

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

 

Deceivers Among Us

An Original Work / September 14, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

Teach Them 

 

Based off various scriptures

An Original Work / May 24, 2012

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

Open up the blinded eyes of

Those who walk in sin’s darkness.

Turn them to the light of Christ

And to His righteousness.

Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.

Turn them to the peace of Christ,

So they may receive forgiveness

And eternal life.

 

Teach them to put off their old selves

And their former way of life,

And to put on their new self,

Reborn to be like Christ;

To not copy worldly customs;

Be transformed in life and mind;

Obey freely His word in them,

Pleasing unto God.

 

Teach them how to love their neighbors

Truly as they love themselves;

Be a witness; share the gospel;

Satan’s lies dispel;

Comfort all who mourn in sadness;

Share Christ’s love and joy today.

Do this through your life and witness

For your Lord always.

 

https://vimeo.com/125485489