The subtlest of lies can neuter an otherwise virile man.

And Jesus Christ’s disciple wears a target on his back today like never before. Perhaps the man of old fought more frequent and violent battles, but none seem to have been on a larger scale than the one he fights now.

Because today, we’re more likely to fall by the sword of pretense than of the hand, since the most convincing lies are devised to be the closest thing to the truth.

Look around.

The Great Deceiver lurks among us. He’s the pack of wild dogs which never initiate an attack on the assembled herd. He seeks out individual vulnerability and isolates it. He knows he can never sell in a healthy, discerning temple population. But the pangs of suffering and sinful behavior are easily soothed by deceit. And when we’re forced to witness this dilemma, we’re apt to let down our guard.

As a result, a malignancy spreads throughout the Body and all the tables in that temple [the Body of Christ] start filling up with stumbling blocks. But, by then, it’s almost impossible to flip them over like Jesus did because they’re loaded down with too much emotional baggage.

On the other hand, if we choose to actually emulate our Firstborn Brother, we’ll starting flipping tables from the moment we catch wind of any threat to the temple.

There are the tables in our own temple [physical body] and there are those those of our congregation’s.

If we can learn when to flip our own tables first, we’ll likely never need to flip the others.