KEY SCRIPTURE: JOHN 13:18. “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.”

 A pretender is one who presents himself for what he is not. He is a deceiver. Traitors are not just pretenders, but they deceive in order to betray or sell out their own associates.

 Jesus said the one who is eating with me has lifted his heel against me. He is a pretender and ultimately became a traitor. The scriptures are filled with lots of such people. In Genesis 37, Joseph’s brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites who also carried him to Egypt. His brothers brought his coat of many colours soaked in the blood of some animal. They showed it to Jacob to identify whether it was indeed Joseph’s Coat. All these brothers were pretending. They had betrayed their brother and came to the father pretending. They even mourned with him, yet it was all lies.

We find pretenders and traitors in all walks of life. At work places some pretend, and scheme to win the heart of their superiors. There are those who secretly tell lies about their colleagues, in order to get them sacked. Even in churches we find such people pretending to catch the eye of the pastor in order to be appointed into leadership. Some ladies pretend to win prospective husbands, only to show their true nature’s when they are fully married. Some men also join certain churches acting as true Christians, in order to win certain unsuspecting women. After marriage they even stop going to church.

Pray always to know the true nature of the people you are relating with. The consequences of being deceived by such pretenders can be very fatal.

The story is told of a pastor who got married to a lady, and after their first night together, the lady woke the pastor and asked him, ‘did you pray well, before proposing to me? I am a witch!’

  Why do people pretend and ultimately betray their close friends or neighbours? Pretense is a function of lies. Lies are always rooted in fear, and fear is also a baby of self-centeredness or selfishness. All these begin with a desire to have an advantage or a desire to partake of something that should not be rightly theirs.

  Dear one, who are you? Are you a pretender or a traitor? No Christian should be any of the above. The Christian is born of God with the seed of God in Him and should not manifest any of these traits. The man who does not know who he is, may do some of these things, but dear child of God, you are the workmanship of God created in Jesus Christ unto good works, which God has already ordained that you walk in them (Eph 2:10)

Those who pretend, always end in shame and destruction. Every pretender or a traitor is a tool of Satan, used to destroy other lives, but remember, Satan never leaves any tool , in its original state, he destroys it, after using it, and goes for another tool to cause more harm.

THOUGHT: IT IS REAL BONDAGE TO BE A PRETENDER, FOR THE DECEIVER IS ALWAYS DECEIVED

FURTHER STUDIES:

Romans 8:6 “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

1st John 5:18 “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.”

2Tim 3:13 KJV But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.