In every way, God is greater than man. A man would have to be a thief to claim equality with God. Yet, Christ thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
Increasingly, the world is driven by the desire for more perceived outward beauty. Some people have gone so far as to change everything concerning their appearance in hopes of turning out more beautiful than previously perceived. Beauty, however, is an area where God and man think quite differently. God sees beauty as a matter of the heart, while man thinks beauty involves the putting on of more makeup (2 Kings 9:30), or changing hair color or hair style, or having some cosmetic alteration done to the teeth or body. In the end, the Lord says that man’s idea of beauty is actually quite vain. While men praise outward beauty, the Lord says that “a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.”
During the Lord’s earthly ministry, His most malicious enemies were not common men or even the Roman government. His greatest enemies were the religious leaders charged with maintaining the spiritual purity of the people of God. How could those most religious create discord with the very One who gave them the dictates for the Jewish religion they claimed to defend? The answer is simple. It was envy! According to John 11:48, the religious leadership of Israel determined that they could not allow Jesus to continue teaching, preaching, and ministering to others. These leaders realized that all men would believe on Him causing the Romans to demote them. They would not allow this to happen. How far would they go to keep their place and nation? The Bible reveals that they would even cause the crucifixion of the innocent Son of God.
The Devil was created perfect in every aspect (Ezekiel 28:15) with complete capacity to do right. Yet, he was also created with a free will to choose whether to do right or to do wrong. Sometime in the distant past, he chose to abide “not in the truth.” This conscious decision to depart from the truth caused him to become the “father” of lies. In one form or another, every lie traces back to the work of the Devil. As the enemy of God, Satan wants to deceive God’s creation into believing a lie so that rejecting the truth and remaining condemned in darkness (2 Corinthians 4:4) seems like the natural thing to do. Satan incorporates every deceptive means at his disposal. One of his main tactics is to convince people that there are many ways to heaven (good works, baptism, church membership, etc.) and many ways to know the truth (feelings, science, circumstances, etc.). Yet, the Bible emphatically proves that God is truth and His word is truth and only through God and His word are we assured of learning and knowing truth.
