Deception

Deception enters the biblical narrative in Genesis 3, where the serpent twists the word of God to persuade Eve to doubt what Yahweh has said. From that point, deception runs through Scripture as one of the primary expressions of the opposition between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the evil one. Jesus calls Satan “the father of lies” (John 8:44), identifying deception not as a personal weakness but as the defining characteristic of the one who opposes God.

The patriarchal narratives are marked by deception at multiple points: Jacob deceiving Isaac, Laban deceiving Jacob, Jacob’s sons deceiving Jacob with Joseph’s coat. These accounts do not excuse the deception or present it as harmless; they trace its consequences through multiple generations, showing how choices that enter a family through deception continue to shape it long afterwards.

The New Testament calls the church to put away falsehood and speak truth with one another (Ephesians 4:25), grounding the command in the nature of the new creation: “we are members of one another.” Deception among the people of God is a self-inflicted wound, an act of hostility against the body to which the deceiver belongs. The articles below trace this theme through several of its key passages.