Have you heard about Anthony Weiner? He’s the former congressman who’s running for mayor of New York. He resigned from congress after it became public that he’d sent a nude picture of himself to a woman he wasn’t married to. Initially, he claimed his Twitter account had been hacked, but it wasn’t. He was lying. Eventually, he confessed and then resigned.

Well, he’s back. He wants to be the mayor of New York. And you’ve probably heard that Weiner has now admitted to sending sexually explicit texts to at least ten women in 2011 and 2012. All of this after he had resigned from congress. His campaign manager has quit, but as of right now–Weiner is vowing to stay in the mayoral race.

Anthony Weiner deceived his staff, the voters and his wife. To deceive someone is to give the appearance that something is true when in fact it’s not. But perhaps what’s even more alarming is that Weiner has so completely deceived himself. He knew what he was doing and yet he was able to convince himself that his actions weren’t inappropriate. He was able to continue deceiving his wife and all those around him and somehow still believe he was qualified to lead others.

Anthony Weiner isn’t the only one who is susceptible to self-deception. James 1:22 says: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

When we read or listen to God’s word and fail to apply what we’ve heard–we’ve deceived ourselves. Have you done that? Have you listened to a sermon, but not put it into practice? Have you sensed God speaking to you from His word, but not applied what He was telling you?

It’s a terrible thing to be deceived by someone.

It’s even worse when we discover we’ve done it to ourselves.