Exposing Deception Must Begin With Our Own

Author and blogger Sam Augsburger reminds us that our 
only safeguard against deception is a good dose of humility.

 Sam Augsburger's recent post on his Slices of God blog really caught my attention. He maintains we are all at least partially deceived, in that none of knows everything about everything, and each of us has our blind spots. 

He summarizes his provocative August 10 piece with these points:

I do not know everything (I am finite).

Since there are deficits in my knowledge bank, I am most likely deceived.

Arrogance is evidence of deception.

Humility is the only antidote.

Furthermore, Augsburger makes the obvious point that none of us, when deceived, believes that to be the case, which is a part of the very definition of deception. 

Many years ago I was introduced to the "Johari Window," a diagram which highlights four areas of our awareness. 

source

The transparent and public self is what we know about ourselves and others know about us, and, I would add, that we learn from our understanding of God. We expand that area by being receptive to the light of as much truth as possible, by honestly disclosing to others and by receiving feedback from others we trust. In doing so, we reduce that part of ourselves that we are unaware of, our blind spot, and we become more self aware and more closely aligned with the truth. 

But even at our best, there will aways remain much that is unknown and that we may never fully comprehend. In other words, we always "see through a glass dimly," and will always only "know in part."

That's where humility comes in. "Blessed are the meek, the teachable," Jesus says, "for they shall inherit the earth." As children of God (yes, children) we recognize there is always so much that remains to be learned, more understanding than we will ever be able to gain in a lifetime.

Here's a link to some thoughts about followers of Jesus discerning between true and false prophets. 

http://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2020/09/six-guidelines-for-detecting-false.html