Often have you heard that told.
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold.
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
Thus did the great bard emphasize the deceptive appearance of so many of the treasures to which people of the world aspire. Pyrite ("Fool's Gold") looks like the real thing but lacks the value of genuine gold. Apparently some people have been fooled into thinking it was actually gold. (Can anyone explain why gold is considered to have such value?)
Our text in Hebrews 3:13 compares the allurement of sin to that of pyrite - it deceives its victim by an appearance of value that it does not truly possess. When all is said and done, the brief excitement or pleasure of the sin evaporates, leaving the sinner with only the inevitable consequences: "the wages of sin is death".
Things are not always as they seem to be.
One of our small groups will be considering the deceitfulness of sin. It is crucial that we - as a committed group of Christian believers - learn to fight against this deceitfulness, and that we help each other in this fight (Heb 3:13). One means of overcoming deceit is, of course, to expose its real truth.
Nice people do not try to fool others!
How do we help each other in this life-long battle? Perhaps if it were easy, we would all be doing it more consistently. Somehow, we must overcome the cultural inertia of individualism and apathy and consider ourselves to be seriously engaged in a real battle, with real winners and losers. Another of our small groups will be glad to help us in this matter.
Don't take the battle seriously - we'll just clean things up afterwards.
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