If you are a person who thinks for themselves, who evaluates things to come to a knowledge of truth, then you will be targets of those who love their fantasy.
The narcissist will interpret every action and every word we say in light of their own desired premise about us.
One good example of this are the scientists who chose to believe there is no God. They set out to prove another way the universe came about rather than the way it really occurred. Then the public institutions, who are hostile toward God, began to brainwash the children in them, to belief their way.
We see this same dynamic in relationships too. The one who desires to see their target as a bad person, perhaps out of jealousy, will construct in their own mind a myriad of ideas about that person, based on nothing more than their own prejudice, after which they begin to impart their ideas to others.
There was a couple who adopted several older children. The children knew their bio parents and were resistant to any acceptance of the adoptive parents. These parents also had two natural children of their own. A family member who was hostile toward his sister, the adoptive mother, began spreading lies about the couple out of jealousy.
This brother told his sister's parents that she and her husband were raising the children badly, that they paid more attention to the natural children and that's why the adoptive children went off into rebellion.
The truth was that when children are older and already rebellious when you get them, there is no turning them around except for them to accept Christ.
This jealous brother lived a thousand miles away, never visited, never wrote and never called to know anything about what was going on in the household of the adopted children, but he passed on his contrived information as though it were fact, to other members of the family.
When the father of the brother objected, claiming the things he was saying were not true, the brother exploded in rage at his father, hoping that raging would intimidate the father into accepting the brother's opinion. This is the nature of narcissism, when they cannot control the thoughts and opinions of others they will rage, attempting to intimidate those that will not comply.
When a narcissist does not like someone, their favored tactic is to presume everything they say and do is bad without any reflection on other possibilities. The devil has twisted the mind to see things the way the devil wants them to be seen. The purpose is to cause a broken relationship, especially if the people involved are Christians.
Without family support there is greater possibility of failure. However for the believer, we have no need of family support when we have Christ. Christ is enough, we can carry on in obedience in spite of the lies of the narcissist.
Sadly there are many of these narcissists and liars in the church gatherings. They bring arrogance and an attitude of superiority, the down fall of any gathering. Far too many people remain silent when they see it, or often the narcissist hides it while demonstrating a false humility and friendliness to those they wish to impress while poking at those they do not respect.
The narcissist respect only those that elevate them personally. They disrespect anyone who shows them their true self, the one they hide from everyone else.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 and Matthew 7:21-23 tell us what these people look like. They do good deeds, they stay out of trouble for the most part, but the abound in haughtiness and an exalted stance.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
“Difficult Times Will Come”
3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these."
Matthew 7:21-23
"21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many [a]miracles?’
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"
1 Corinthians 13:2 "2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
There are those in the church who have much knowledge about the Bible but little about Christ-like love.
The solution; we should all be examining our motives and our responses while praying for Christ to make us into His image. When we walk closely with Christ we will not be seeking to undermine others to elevate self.
