Kept from being deceived when we speak truth from God

Pam Padgett ... teacher

Matthew 13:24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

When we bring forth fruit from God, speaking and doing as we are led by the Holy Spirit, those who do not love God and His Word become apparent. 

We may think others are just like us because we have something in common with them or find them interesting in some way.   We can easily deceive ourselves about these people. 

But when we speak and do according to the will of God, truth about the person becomes apparent.  Are they really like us and love God and bow their knee to His Word?  Or do they hate what we have said or done and want to stop us or avoid us? 


Several years ago I was engaged to marry a man.  He said he was a Christian and we enjoyed some of the same activities such as hiking.  In the excitement of dating a man who seemed to like me and whom I enjoyed being around I'm sorry to say I overlooked things that troubled me.  I didn't want to see the truth.  But then he told me his son was planning to marry a divorced woman.  He was happy about this, but I was very troubled.  When I shared scripture which warn us that the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery and the divorced woman who remarries commits adultery, he no longer wanted anything to do with me.   We broke up. 

After this the Holy Spirit reminded me of the following ...

2 Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Although this man said he was a Christian, he was an "unbeliever".  He wanted nothing to do with scripture, the Word of God, that warn us about the adultery that results when a divorced woman remarries. 

Jesus taught ...

Matthew 5:32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery:and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

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Many years ago as I was finishing college I attended a church which had a group for those who were single.  This group met on Wednesday nights and I came to be acquainted with several people in the group.  We all said we were Christians, attended the same church group and even carried our Bibles with us to the church services.  I rented a room in the house owned by one of the women I met in this group.  She had been divorced twice and had a young daughter. 

At first she seemed content to be unmarried and raise her daughter.  But eventually she started obviously looking for another husband.  I shared scripture with her which warns that she would commit adultery and the man who marries her would commit adultery.  It was shocking to me when she said that she didn't care what the Bible said, she knew what she believed!   This showed truth about this woman.  She believed what she wanted to believed, not what God has told us in the Bible....

Matthew 5:32 But I (Jesus) say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

I moved from her house shortly after this.  The place where I moved to was quite a way from where the church group met. I no longer attended the Wednesday night singles meetings but continued to go to the Sunday morning service. 

At one point I heard that this divorced woman was engaged to marry a man I knew from the singles group.  I went to this man and shared scripture with him warning of the adultery they would commit by marrying.  He said he would consider these things, but I later learned that they still planned to marry. 

Then I heard that the maid of honor was to be a woman I also knew from the singles group.  I went to her and shared scripture warning of the adultery that would result from this marriage.  She said she knew this marriage was wrong, but that they would get married regardless so she was going ahead as the maid of honor. 

Before long I began to notice that those in the singles group would no longer sit near me during the Sunday morning service, even getting up and moving away from me one morning.  I didn't know why this was happening and called out to God asking if I had done something wrong. 

A few weeks later a woman stopped me after the Sunday morning church service and said she had a message from God for me.  The message she delivered was that God knew how I was being treated by those in the singles group and that I needed to know this was because I had done HIS will in speaking against the marriage of the divorced woman.  It was wonderful to be given this information. 

Looking back, I can see that the people I thought were just like me in that church group were not like me.  When I spoke scripture according to the will of God, they ignored these scripture and went on their own way and despised me. 

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For many years I worked as a programmer at FedEx.  Although most of the people I worked with did not identify themselves as Christians, we had work projects in common and we seemed "alike" as we helped each other.  And a few people, including one of my managers and his boss, said they were Christians. 

At one point I was assigned to lead a large project which vice presidents of the company were watching carefully, wanting it to move forward.  But, strangely, my manager and his boss gave each of us who were assigned to work on this project other assignments which they said were higher priority.   I clearly told my manager and his boss that we could not make progress on the large project with these other assignments.  Instead of adjusting work assignments, my manager and his boss gave very deceptive project status reports to the vice presidents.  I provided accurate status reports to my manager telling how little was being done on the project, but he and his boss made it look as though significant progress was being made on the large project in the reports they presented. 

I felt pressure to keep my mouth shut and not speak up about what was being reported to the vice presidents.  But when I prayed I was reminded of the following ...

1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

This strengthened me to walk in truth, even in this secular matter.  I could not walk in darkness by going along with the reports.  I continued to give accurate status reports to my manager and point out that this was not being accurately reflected in the reports for the vice presidents which I was asked to review. 

It was obvious that those around me thought I should keep my mouth shut, that it really didn't matter.  This showed truth about them ... what was true was not important to them.

As I continued praying about this situation, this was worked out for me by God in a remarkable way.  One of the vice presidents came to our location to personally hear the status of this project.  My manager and his boss again put together a presentation which made it look like the project was doing well.  Those of us who were assigned to work on the project were invited to attend this presentation.  I was very concerned that I would become angry when this presentation was given and start screaming, so I prayed asking God whether I should even attend this meeting.  I became convinced I should attend it, and prayed that God would help me speak what HE wanted me to speak, nothing less and nothing more. 

When the meeting started someone handed the vice president a copy of the presentation that had been prepared.  He pushed it aside and said he didn't want to see this presentation, he wanted to hear from the people actually working on the project.  (I had never before seen a vice president do something like this).  Without thinking, I began calmly and clearly telling this man exactly what was really going on with this project.  At some point I realized that the others assigned to work on the project were shaking their heads in agreement with what I was saying.  My manager and the woman who had helped put together the presentation looked down at the floor.  When I finished speaking the vice president said he would take action to free us from other assignments. 

I was so grateful to God for working this out.  After the meeting the vice president talked directly to my manager.  My manager later stopped by my desk and told me the staffing changing that would be made.  I told him how glad I was to hear this.  His response was to say how "uncomfortable" this had been for him. 

No love of the truth.  Tares. 

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Our flesh wants to be accepted, to be one of the group.  We know if we speak and do as led by God we may be hated, so we don't want to do that. 

But we need to speak and do as led by the Holy Spirit.  This is right in the sight of God and also keeps us from deceiving ourselves about those around us.