See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ- Colossians 2:8 NASB

Every once in a while I will assume I’m done with something (a project, job, season) and then I discover I’m not. 

Such was the case this last week after I published my last post. As soon as it was published I (as is my practice) asked God what I should write about next. Rather than a clear sense of direction, I got this weird sense I wasn’t done with the previous topic (The Five Lies Satan Most Wants you to Believe). After some prayer, it hit me the lies I discussed last week are the global lies Satan has been peddling since the dawn of time. There are a lot of other lies unique to our time I didn’t talk about.  These lies are deceiving all sorts of people both in the church and outside the church. The six big ones are:

God wants us to be happy- 

He doesn’t, not really. God doesn’t want anyone to be miserable. Satan wants us to believe God loves human misery. However, Jesus came to earth to die for our sins so we could experience an abundant eternal life of peace (shalom) and joy (John 10:10, 1st Peter 3:18, 1st John 4:9-10, Psalm 86:5). So, God clearly is not opposed to happiness. He’s just far more interested in our holiness. God knows happiness is a feeling and the feeling of happiness without the pursuit of holiness will always lead to separation from God. Separation from God leads to misery (sometimes eternal misery). The things Satan tells us will make us happy are almost always bad things like infidelity, venting our rage, theft, sexual immorality, idolatry, substance abuse and selfishness. (Romans 1:18-32, 1stCorinthians 6:9-10, Galatians 5:19-20). God forbids sin because it prevents us from becoming holy and ultimately leads only to brokenness, pain, and death (Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23)

Every boundary is good and life-giving-

Our culture has taken a good idea (boundaries) and weaponized it into one of Satan’s best schemes. Everyone everywhere is hard at work putting up boundaries all over the place.  Most of the time these boundaries are meant to prevent someone from doing something they don’t like. It doesn’t matter if the thing being done is just annoying rather than sinful, boundaries are boundaries. When one of their boundaries are breached (whether it’s reasonable or not), they feel free to cut the offender out of their lives forever. Typically, this punishment is meted out without a justified reason being given or an attempt being made to save the relationship. Satan is a huge fan of the current definition of boundaries because these boundaries most often lead to broken relationships rather than demonstrations of grace, forgiveness, and love (Luke 6:36, Ephesians 4:32, James 2:13, 2nd Peter 3:18).  If a boundary is given to safeguard and encourage a relationship, the boundary is biblical and lifegiving. If the boundary is meant to degrade, punish or shame it is not biblical, nor is it nice. Likewise, if a boundary has effectively cut off a relationship without prolonged conversation and a really good reason: congratulations you’ve bought into one of Satan’s best schemes (2nd Corinthians 2:11, Ephesians 6:10-12) I do understand there are situations of unrepentant abuse that make cutting off a relationship necessary. Nonetheless, those situations should be the exception never the rule.

God has softened His standards in the last two thousand years-

He hasn’t. Everything God declared wrong in the Bible is still wrong in 2026 (Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 13:8). Satan and the world want us to believe social acceptance of behaviors somehow equals God’s acceptance of behaviors. This is a lie.   Liars, thieves, greedy people, the sexually immoral and really anyone who makes a regular practice of any gross sin still will not inherit the kingdom of heaven (1st Corinthians 6:9-11, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 5:5 ). 

We get to choose how we treat people- 

We don’t, not if we want to live lives that honor God. Satan wants people to believe they are the ultimate deciders of who deserves mercy, kindness and respect. No human being is morally qualified to make those decisions. Thankfully, God gives fallible humans very clear instructions on how we are to treat people. None of them are easy to follow but all of them lead to relational peace, reconciliation and God being glorified. Matthew 5:1-48 and Romans 12:1-21 are the best places to start looking for that instruction. 

God’s standards for gender and rules for sexuality are burdensome and outdated- 

Nope, nope and more nope. Satan wants us to believe the lie that the whole notion of two genders is outdated and that God has changed his mind about homosexuality, adultery and promiscuity. He hasn’t because He knows anytime, we choose to reject God’s standards for sexuality and gender it ultimately leads to rejecting God altogether (1st Thessalonians 4:1-8). 

The lies Satan tells are intentionally calculated to convince us the doctrines and truths of Christianity are just a bunch of options we get to choose if we approve of them. This is a dangerous game to get caught up in.  God is truth and when we pick and choose which of His commandments, we will believe and obey we set ourselves up to be our own god. 

This is the fast track to judgment.