Fact 3: The Enemy Sows Discord

Third Fact: The Enemy Plants Discord

It has become much easier for people to hide behind their screens in the digital world by using a different name, allowing a single person to create multiple personas. This has enabled people to avoid the negative consequences of spreading false news and defamatory information about others. Online conversations have also been found to be more derogatory and condescending. Face-to-face interactions provide more feedback for communication, such as body language and facial expressions, allowing for better comprehension. However, because of the limited feedback available in the online environment, the digital space fosters harsh and cold communication, making dialogue difficult.

As a result, many discussions become unhealthily personalized, resulting in misunderstanding and discord. Furthermore, it has transformed social media platforms into a public stage where people can express their opinions and perspectives. Along with the ability to publicly express one’s opinion comes the tendency for people to criticize and ridicule one another. Finally, many people become hostile, antagonistic, hurt, and broken. The world we live in now is thus full of smokescreens: we are supposed to be more connected, but we end up isolated and lonely. Global war is no longer a possibility; instead, conflict and strife surround us. We can communicate quickly with others, but there is rarely any dialogue due to our arrogance and unrestrained self-expression.

Obedience, not perfection, is what honors God.

The desire to achieve perfection is a societal construct, not a gift from God. It is a society that expects us to be perfect. This is why we have phrases like “practice makes perfect” and “shoot for the moon so that we can land on the stars.” Perfectionism, on the other hand, can be harmful.

Perfectionists frequently set unrealistic standards and are terrified of failure. They can also be harsh on themselves and overly focused on the outcome rather than the process. Such rigid perfectionism is a form of spiritual enslavement. It can result in self-deprecation, unhappiness, unsatisfied cravings, and distorted desires. This is why God desires our obedience—that we say yes to Him and His will rather than striving to meet a standard we can never meet on our own. We will never be perfect, God knows. As a result, He has made way for us to be perfect before Him, not through our own merits, but Christ and his death. We no longer need to strive for perfection because Christ’s sacrifice on the cross has made us perfect before God.