In one of Paul’s letters, he charged his son Timothy to study hard and learn to rightly present the word. That was because the word of truth can be wrongly presented. This is usually the root of many crises. Paul had learned not to handle the word of God with deceit. Deceit here means to adulterate. We have come to realize that when Satan wants to ensnare people, he adulterates the word of God for them. That was what he did to Eve as we mentioned in the previous meditation. “Has God said…” he queried. And when the woman replied that they could indeed eat from all trees but one, telling him also the consequences of disobedience, the tempter assured her that she would not surely die. (Genesis 3:4).
The devil often seeks to contradict the word of God. Where it is not a direct contradiction as we have with Eve, it comes in misinterpreting or misapplication of the word. We see this in his second temptation to Jesus. The devil asked Jesus to cast Himself down from a cliff, citing the scripture that God would give an angel to hold Him up and prevent any fatality. It is important in this age that the people of God stop being simpletons. We must search the scriptures daily to be sure that what people say of the word is true.