COUNTERFEIT

2 Thessalonians 2v9:
The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

'Counterfeit' definition: 'Made in exact imitation of something valuable or important with the intention to deceive or defraud.'

It is now getting extremely difficult to discern the true from the false in many of the Church's teachings today and even amongst many Christians that are all too ready to present 'bits' of truth that are given no context. Unbeknownst to us, the enemy has infiltrated much of the teaching that now circulates, and it seems that he's done it with relative ease. The reason for this is quite simple, the scripture above says that there will be people now that no longer 'love the truth.' They love aspects of it, but this isn't enough. If Jesus had just known or loved aspects or 'sections' of scripture when he faced the enemy in the wilderness, it seems as though, if he were anyone else, he would've been quite easily deceived. If He had only known and loved the scripture: 'For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" , He would've been deceived into thinking that it was ok to tempt God's grace, when it wasn't. Jesus knew this precisely because he knew more than one section of scripture. In answer to the devil He said in Matt 4v"7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]” In a day where the enemy will come in appearance as an angel of light, looking as though His power is so close to the real thing, will we as a Church be able to tell the difference between his power and working and God's power and working? The only way to know for sure is to know as much of the Word as we can and to couple that with a LOVE for it.

Many today however seem to believe that the Word of God, and knowing it thoroughly is completely redundant because all we need to do is love God and love others, and everything else will sort itself out. Let me just state what should be unbelievably obvious: WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO LOVE GOD AND LOVE OTHERS WITHOUT FIRST KNOWING THE TRUTH. PERIOD. Every bit of love not based on truth is COUNTERFEIT love (human love which comes from a fallen state + evil- coming from the devil), and, not only is it worthless but extremely deceptive, because counterfeit love will accept every piece of scripture quoted by the enemy just because IT SOUNDS LOVING. What the enemy said to Jesus SOUNDED LOVING. Think about it, whether it was about commanding stones to become bread (so Jesus' hunger could be satisfied), offering Kingdoms and their glory to Jesus (to give Him what He deserved and was rightfully His anyway), or trying to offer Jesus an opportunity to show everyone He was God by throwing himself off a high temple, what the devil seemed to do to Jesus, on the appearance of things, SEEMED to be perfectly loving. He even backed up what he was offering and trying to get Jesus to do with scripture! So why is that we think the enemy will work any differently with the Church at large? The answer is is that he doesn't work differently, we just usually never perceive it because we have placed a 'love of love,' before a LOVE OF THE TRUTH. Truth is that thing which sets a man free, then he is free to love in the vein of that truth, according to the wisdom that is spiritual and not fleshly (which bases itself purely on feeling and pleasure). If we place a love of love before anything else, we will love anything purely because we believe that such love is the highest standard for truth, but that is entirely false, and can end up making someone follow the devil rather than Jesus. People will even use scripture to justify that type of love and believe they are worshipping Jesus, when in fact they may be serving and worshipping the enemy and not even know it! While this kind of love may parade itself as so unselfish and caring, because it places the love and care of man before God, it turns itself into an idolatrous love, which actually misrepresents God to be something He is not and dishonours Him to the highest degree, because while fulfilling small truths taken out of context (ie 'love others'), it disobeys others, forgetting that God is to be first and foremost in EVERYTHING.

Make no mistake about it, the enemy has a power of his own that he strives to make just like Jesus' in every way. He strives to make it look wise, he strives to make it look angelic, he strives to make it appear pure, to make it seem reasonable and just, and he strives to reason even with God's people to make them see his way! How can we combat this? We must be diligent to know the Word of God, and we must desire to love the truth, no matter what cost it may bring us! As soon as we begin to only accept that which won't cost us anything or that which promises not to grieve us in any way, we make a deadly compromise that the enemy can work with in order to harm us spiritually. The enemy wants to make an exact imitation of the truth to deceive God's people, and make no mistake about it, that counterfeit truth is alive and well- just look for anything that places man at the centre of anyone's life, and that places the concern and care for men above the cares and concerns of the Lord. That which sees scripture's use as only that which should take care of men and his needs and desires, does not have the Lord as the centre of its worship, but its own interests and those interests of the enemy.