Deceit is the act of convincing another to believe information that is not true, or not the whole truth as in certain types of half-truths. Deceit (or deception) involves concepts like propaganda, distraction and/or concealment. In many cases it is difficult to distinguish deception from providing unintentionally wrong information. This is a problem that began in the Garden of Eden:
Gen 3:13-14
And the LORD God said unto the woman, What [is] this [that] thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled (deceived) me, and I did eat.
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
The problem did not end there. Deception has been used by mankind to obtain power, money, status, and other forms of dominance throughout the ages. Deceit is a symptom of greed. You can be greedy and broke at the same time. Greed is the self-serving desire for the pursuit of money, wealth, power, food, or other possessions, especially when this denies the same goods to others. Self serving is the key word that links greed and deceit. Information that is self serving and knowingly a detriment to the other party is deceit. If you sell a car to another individual with the knowledge of an imminent repair issue, that is deceitful.
I received a coupon in the mail from a local car dealership where we bought our last vehicle, "$39.88 for a full service oil change and rotation". Hmmm, sounded ok to me since I needed an oil change. I took the car and the coupon in for the service and the service representative accepted the coupon. They summoned me when the car was ready and I went to the cashier to pay the bill and found that the cost was $3.68 greater than the coupon. When asking about the difference, they pointed to the fine print indicating an additional fee assessment. Now the issue was not the $3.68, it was about them being deceitful.
Deceitfulness is a societal issue. It is at the core of mankind. The LORD God acknowledged its existence by dealing with the serpent and cursing it. There are thousands of laws created to guard against deceitful behavior but those laws do not correct the problem. All levels of government, business, and individuals are exposed to deceit daily whether they are promoting the act or on the receiving end. Paul warned us of deceit:
2 Corinthians 11:3
But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
The serpent deceived Eve using logic directed towards her mind "by his craftiness". Often deception is encompassed with complexity thus placing the self serving person in a superior position to the one who is being deceived. This deception is at the root of the problem with financial derivatives. Investment banks wanted to increase profits and were looking for "new" ways to do so. By creating complex financial instruments, the investment banks were able to sell these instruments to intelligent, seasoned bankers and investors all over the world. How could that happen? Ego, pride, lack of revelation, trust in structure! In some cases, the bankers and investors bypassed due diligence because they did not want to admit that they did not understand the investment vehicle- ego, pride. In other cases, the recipients believed that the investment banks would not sell a misrepresented investment- lack of revelation, trust in structure.
The serpent was more subtle (crafty, shrewd) than any other beast in the field. Eve had not been exposed to television talking heads, the Internet, or millions of books on every subject imaginable, she and her husband had walked with the Creator of the Universe. She had the ultimate opportunity to ask any question and receive the perfect, honest reply but she didn’t. Our mind is the battleground where the war is waged. Appeal to our logic, pride, and ego is where deceitfulness can be carried out.
Paul provided us with a key phrase: Simplicity that is in Christ. As complexity increases, so does deceitfulness. Men hide behind complexity to mask the deceitfulness in their heart and this deceit becomes a subtle aspect of their character. As we walk in the simplicity that is in Christ, we will no longer be fooled by the self-serving deceitfulness of man.