“Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile” (Psalms 32:2).

Guile (Heb): Remiyah from Ramah: Treachery, deceit, to betray, delude, remiss with falsehood

In the absence of guile there is honor, honesty, integrity and truth. Sorrowfully, in our world today there is too little of the virtuous and too much of the treacherous. Just as Judas Iscariot there are too many who are ready to betray, who align with the Evil One, the master deceiver and father of lies.

In the absence of guile there is trust, faithfulness, loyalty and true friendship. Today there are lovers of self, who are untrustworthy, faithless and disloyal to family, friends and country. They are groomed to play a part whose actions are only deceptions and snares for the gullible and innocent.

The Psalmist wrote: “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile” (Psalms 34:13). In the absence of guile there are good intensions, there are words spoken to promote goodwill, love, peace, encouragement and all that edifies and uplifts. The evil heart brings forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness and blasphemies (cf. Matthew 15:19).

Imagine a world with the absence of guile in the marketplace, in the world of finance, in the making of contracts, and the taking of vows of faithfulness. How wonderful that world would be. But those full of guile produce fine print that contains snares and traps for the man of honor and the unsuspecting. The “generation of vipers” are plotting their way to take captive the man of integrity and crucify him. These consult together how they might take by guile (Gr. Dolos) and kill the Righteous One (cf. Matthew 26:4). In the world full of guile there is always a Judas to do the bidding of the wicked.

The Apostle Peter exhorts us in his First Epistle: “Wherefore lay aside all malice, and all guile, hypocrisies, envies and all evil speaking” (I Peter 2:1). Then concerning Christ, he wrote:

“Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him Who judges righteously. Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the Tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness; by Whose stripes you were healed” (I Peter 2:22-24).

The Apostle speaks further in his Epistle thusly quoting the Psalmist: “For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile” (I Peter 3:10).

It was the testimony of Jesus concerning the disciple, Nathaniel: “A true Israelite, indeed, in whom there is no guile” (John 1:47).

In the absence of guile there is godliness, holiness, purity and love. The Apostle John speaks to us richly when he wrote concerning those “who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, the Redeemed from among men, the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the Throne of God” (Revelation 14:4b-5).

Oh, to live in that world in the absence of guile.

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