Key Verse: Verse 3 – “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
Key Words: the serpent beguiled Eve
We are told in I Peter 5:8 that Satan is as a roaring lion. We are also told in II Corinthians 11:17 that he is an angel of light. In verse 3 of our text we see that Satan is very deceptive.
The family today is in great peril because of the deception of Satan. It was Satan’s deceptiveness that destroyed Adam and Eve; Achan fell through deception (Joshua 7:21); and the list goes on and on. So I caution you as dads, moms, and children to be careful.
I read some time ago about an Indian who decided to climb to the summit of a nearby snow-capped mountain. He donned his buffalo-hide shirt, wrapped his blanket around himself, and set off. When he reached the summit and gazed over the scenic view below, he began to swell with pride for his accomplishments.
Then he saw a motion at his feet. It was a snake that was cold and lifeless and about to die. The snake began to ask for help, “It is too cold for me up here, and I will freeze to death unless you carry me back down the mountain.”
The young Indian replied, “I know your kind. You will bite me and kill me if I pick you up.”
“No,” said the snake, “I will treat you differently. If you do this for me, I will not harm you.”
So the young Indian picked up the snake and tucked it under his shirt. Arriving in the valley below, he removed the snake and laid it on the ground whereupon the snake coiled and struck and planted his deadly venom into the young Indian. “But you promised,” he said.
The snake responded, “You knew I was deadly when you picked me up. I simply did what snakes do, I bit you.”
Now the moral of the story is simply this: If we fail to see sin as sin, and Satan as a serpent, we will be sorry – so be careful!!
✞ Stay away from compromising situations.
