OUR
PERCEPTIONS
Have
you noticed how different people perceive the same events differently?
Consider
the past few weeks in the Washington, D.C., area. Authorities there encouraged
people to be alert for a sniper, and after receiving thousands of calls and
interviewing people at the scenes of some of the murders, they released photos
of vans the suspects may have been driving. Police also stopped many vehicles
fitting the generic description, and one man’s hoax led them astray for at
least a day.
People
had many different perceptions of the sniper(s) – of their mode of escape,
their race, their background and more. The cable networks paraded no shortage
of “experts” onto their airwaves, and “profilers” called on their past
experiences to identify the traits of the snipers. Most, if not all, of those
perceptions ultimately proved to be wrong because they were based on wrong
information.
The
same problem existed in Jesus’ day. He asked his disciples, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man
am"? Their
answer showed the different perceptions people had of Jesus. "Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias;
and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets" (Mt. 16:14). Three
perceptions, but none was correct.
How
do I know this? Because Jesus continued to ask, "But whom say ye that I am"? Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Had Peter made a correct observation? Evidently
so, because Jesus replied, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven". Peter's perception of Jesus was correct because it was
based on factual (revealed) information.
Today,
people's perceptions of Christ and his teaching are many, but all of those
perceptions cannot be correct. Paul admonished the Corinthians to "examine
yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves" (II Cor.
13:5). We are to have faith, but being in the faith requires more than a
perception that we are there. It requires obedience as God has commanded, not
as man perceives it to be acceptable (Mt. 15:9). The warning from the
scriptures is, "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth
to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise" (I
Cor. 3:18).
It
would be good if our understanding of and decisions about events of life were
always correct, religiously or temporally. But the scriptures warn us
continually about being lulled into such a perception. Some people purposely
deceive us (Eph. 4:14), some deceive themselves (I John 1:8), and others have
too much pride (Gal. 6:3), which causes bad judgments. Our thoughts often are
wrong, and a wrong perception of a statement Jesus made cost Him His life (Mk.
14:55-64).
In
a world of much learning, and an age of rapid distribution of information (much
of which is commentary, not fact), it behooves each of us to base our
perceptions on fact, and the one reliable source of guidance, even in how we
gather and use the information on which we make our perceptions, is God's word.
Let its instructions lead you in your daily decisions and perceptions of
others.
“Little children, let no man
deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous”
(I John 3:7).
Jack