|
Morning Devotion for the Season of Advent
December 18, 2024
Reading: 2nd Peter 2:1-10
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned. And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgement; and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly; and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement —especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority.
Meditation by Jeremy O’Neill
Commentators have often referred to the time in which we find ourselves as the “information age.” On the one hand that is true – I was thankful that I was in Graduate School in the era of online library catalogues and instant translations. On the other hand, it sometimes feels like information is harder than ever to come by. That is because there is so much mis-information out there, as the news cycle and the internet make it easy and tempting to spread false information, particular if that results in one’s personal gain.
This sobering passage from 2nd Peter describes the danger of “false prophets,” who “secretly bring in destructive opinions.” There are so many ways to interpret scripture, and indeed any form of text or information, that it makes sense that some narratives would take a drastically different approach to prophecy. This warning is not against creative license, however, but is against the deliberate misinterpretation for personal gain and is in opposition to one claiming to have the truth with no grounds with which to back it up.
I struggle with anyone who claims to have the “correct” answer when it comes to scripture or the nature of God, but also feel that we have a responsibility to act faithfully in our interpretations of our beliefs and make sure that the focus is on the glorification of God rather than the glorification of ourselves.
The work of discernment, and indeed the work of the Spirit, is to do our best to be honest not only to others but also with ourselves. I feel that some of the deepest false prophecies are the lies we tell ourselves. Why we do this, I can only speculate as I am not a psychologist. But I do think that comfort is a part of it. If we have been telling a certain narrative about ourselves both internally and externally, it is difficult and uncomfortable to shift that narrative even if it no longer holds true.
Pontius Pilate famously asks “what is truth?” which is a great way to start a debate in a philosophy class. A more fair question we ought to consider is where does truth come from, and thus where to lies come from? Truth comes from God, while lies come from our own self-interests. So let us choose truth – even if we don’t know what that means and recognize that there are many paths to it.
Prayer (attributed to the monastic community of Stanbrook Abbey in Wass, North Yorkshire, UK.)
O God of truth, prepare our minds
to hear and heed your holy word.
Fill every heart that longs for you
with your mysterious presence, Lord.
Almighty Father, with your Son
and blessed Spirit, hear our prayer.
Teach us to love eternal truth
and seek its freedom everywhere.
| 
