Fruit Flies and the Devil's Lies - The Christian Online Magazine

The Christian Online Magazine -

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

Proverbs 14:12

While the entire world around me slept, I was on a cleaning binge. As I waxed the kitchen table, I spied dust collecting on the crystal fruit basket which holds a few cloth napkins and some of the most impressive fake fruit you have ever seen.

As I carried the basket over to the sink to empty the fruit and wash it, I was a little surprised to find some dead fruit flies lying in the bottom of the basket. Chuckling to myself, I thought, “Gee, we must have the dumbest fruit flies in the world here in Tennessee.” Apparently they had met their fate while swarming around the beautiful fruit. Fruit that, unfortunately for them, was fake. It is one thing for a person or two to be occasionally fooled, but why in the world would these little experts on swarming delicious, sweet, overly ripened fruit, die for a lie?

The longer that I thought about the question, the sillier it became to me until the Holy Spirit began His gentle teaching. As He began to show me how fruit flies and the devil’s lies applied to God’s people, the concept at which I had once chuckled suddenly did not seem quite so funny.

How could they be so easily fooled? The same way that we are so easily fooled by sin. It is pleasing to the senses—looks good, feels good, etc. Yet in the end, just as in the case of the little fruit flies, sin according to the Bible brings with it its own reward…and that reward is death.

Do not be deceived today! That activity that you seem to crave, that habit, that behavior, that manner of speaking that feels, looks, tastes or sounds good if identified in God’s Word as sin is still sin. No matter how good someone makes it look, it will inevitably reap death. It could be spiritual death, emotional death, physical death, or all three. The enemy is a liar, and he will display that sin in a perfect place so as to send your senses reeling. He will try to convince you that there is no possible harm that could come to you. Just like the fake fruit…how could it be dangerous when it looks so good? The danger may not be visible on the surface, but hidden down deeper is death. His only goal is to, “fake you out” so that when you depart from this life to meet your Maker, it will not be a glorious encounter but rather a hellish one.

The question for us is: Will we be like the little fruit flies and die for his lies? Or will we resist the temptation, quieting the message of our senses and continue to move on—striving to walk in the truth of God’s Word? “You are of God, little children, and have overcome, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”(I John 4:4) Listen to that “still small voice”…it will never mislead you.