“WHAT is this you have done?” God asked Eve after she had eaten from the forbidden tree. “The serpent—it deceived me and so I ate,” she replied. (Gen. 3:13) Satan, the crafty serpent who led her to disobey God, was later called “the original serpent, . . . who is misleading the entire inhabited earth.”—Rev. 12:9.
This Genesis account presents Satan as cunning, as one who spins lies with the intention of deceiving the unwary. Eve certainly succumbed to his deceit. Nevertheless, we should not think that Satan is the only one who can mislead us. The Bible also warns about the danger of ‘deceiving ourselves with false reasoning.’—Jas. 1:22.
The thought of deceiving ourselves may seem highly improbable or even impossible. The divine warning, however, is obviously there for a purpose. So we would do well to consider how we might deceive ourselves and what sort of false reasoning could mislead us.
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