THE DUAL LIFE

THE DUAL LIFE 

Scripture: Ephesians 5:3

Topic: The Dual Life

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

Ephesians 5:3

God’s expectation is that as children of God, no form of sinful living should be found in us. So fornication, uncleanness and the like should never be associated with any Christian. 

People who are called Christians and yet live a different lifestyle underneath are guilty of duality. Duality is the state of living a double standard life. It is the state of having two personalities or two natures embodied in one person.

It is when you have one lifestyle displayed in public, and the other one shown in private. Such a dual person has one behaviour pattern he exhibits when he comes into public. This is usually to impress the people around. He has another type of behaviour when nobody can see him. For those who claim to be Christians, one lifestyle is displayed in church, and the other, outside of church.

Duality encourages the spirit of hypocrisy, the spirit of lies and the spirit of self-deception. One of the greatest forms of deception is self-deception. When you are a fool and you don’t know that you are a fool, your situation is worse than a fool who knows that he is a fool!

Often, when I counsel people and can get them to understand the problem they are faced with, much of the work is already done. When doctors are able to diagnose the sicknesses of patients, often it means that fifty per cent of the work is done. This is because the doctor now knows exactly what he is dealing with.

Deception is a very dangerous act, which comes about by repeated lying. When you knowingly and continuously lie, you begin to believe the lie. Self-deception occurs when you do something wrong, but repeatedly tell yourself that what you are doing is right. In the end, you will believe when you commit sin, that you are actually doing the right thing. You have done it so many times for so long that, you have convinced yourself it is the right thing.

During the dark years of Nazi Germany, the Nazis convinced themselves that killing Jews was right. At a point they believed that the Germans were really a special race which was superior to every other race. They also believed that all their problems were caused by the Jews.

Then they came up with what they called the FINAL SOLUTION: How to solve the Jewish problem. They believed in it, preached it, taught it in schools and they gradually eliminated and annihilated as many Jews as possible. They must have believed it with all their hearts, because they killed the Jews consistently. They murdered thousands and thousands of them. The Germans used some of the crudest methods the human brain could possibly devise. In some cases, they made the Jews dig trenches and then told them to line up by these pits. Then they shot all of them in cold blood.

If you continue to lie to yourself about something, you will begin to believe that the wrong is right. On the other hand, you also know that right is right. So now you will have two acceptable standards right is right, and wrong is also right. This is the foundation for double standards and double-dealing, which is the double life duality!!

Unfortunately, there are so many Christians who are two people in one. Some years ago, I used to be a musician and moved around with many other musicians. Many of them had two personalities. When they stood on stage they would sing songs like, Amazing Grace, I Love You Lord, and many other beautiful songs. But if you met them off stage, their lives were something else. It got to a point when I was no longer impressed with any Gospel singer.

There are many singers and choristers who sing beautifully, but have horrible private lives. They have two lives! One life is evident when they sing and lift up their voices to the Lord. The other life is portrayed when they are off stage. Indeed, some of these singers can even bring you to tears. But then, when you get closer, you would wonder whether these people are even Christians. Your life on stage should conform with the one in private. If someone comes to live with you, he should discover that the character on stage is the same as the one at home.

It is very easy to fall into a dual life. Therefore, you must consciously check the things that are private, which nobody knows about and do your best to make your private life  line up with the Bible. What you say and what you do must tally. It is very dangerous to have a double life. Your lies will eventually catch up with you and you will be exposed, disgraced and  most definitely destroyed.

It is my prayer that God will deliver you from  the spirit of hypocrisy, lies and self-deception before these spirits destroy your life and ministry.

Excerpt from:

Duality

Bishop Dag Heward-Mills