"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." (Eph. 4:14 kjv)
Synonyms for sleight - artifice, device, dodge, fetch, flimflam, gambit, gimmick, jig, juggle, knack, play, ploy, ruse, scheme, shenanigan, stratagem, trick, wile
Translated we may say "by the sleight of men" or "by the trickery of men."
Commentary from preceptaustin.com (here)
Trickery (2940) (kubeia from kubos ~ gives us our English "cube", dice) literally refers to wicked dice playing or throwing dice and figuratively refers to intentional fraud or sleight of hand in the spiritual sense. Kubeia, the term for dice became synonymous with trickery of any sort. The dice were often “loaded” or otherwise manipulated by professional gamblers to their own advantage which is a perfect picture of men coming into a congregation and manipulating the Word of God to make it say what they want it to say!"
In 50 years of teaching the bible I have had to fight with heretics and perverters of the word and many of them were skilled in Sophistry and argument.
Warren Wiersbe has an insightful comment warning that...
The cultists do not try to win lost souls to Christ. They do not establish rescue missions in the slum areas of our cities, because they have no good news for the man on skid row. Instead, these false teachers try to capture immature Christians, and for this reason, most of the membership of the false cults comes from local churches, particularly churches that do not feed their people the Word of God. (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor)
By craftiness in deceitful scheming - This Greek phrase is somewhat difficult to translate clearly into English but in simple terms I have paraphrased it as...
"cunning methods which deceive, delude and lead astray (from the truth)"
The New English Bible has a vivid paraphrase...
“dupes of crafty rogues and their deceitful schemes”
This is an apt description of the many cultists, religious racketeers, charlatans, false prophets and teachers, and manipulative religious leaders who abound in our day. They trap many immature Christians (including many spiritually immature Christians who are chronologically "mature") with their teachings that sound so right and enticing."
Those "crafty rogues" who twist and pervert scripture are to be rebuked sharply.
"Craftiness (3834) (panourgia from pas = all + ergon = work) is literally "all working" or capable of all work. In the NT it takes on a negative meaning and conveys the ideas of trickery involving cunning, cleverness, craftiness or treachery. Panourgia conveys the the idea of clever manipulation of error to make it look like the truth. Someone who practiced panourgia would be willing to do anything to achieve his goals. Panourgia is the unscrupulousness that stops at nothing."
Now notice these verses that reference these crafty rogues:
"But we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." (II Cor. 4: 2)
"But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." (II Cor. 11: 3)
Do not ever twist the scripture! Be honest with it. Accept it for what it plainly says and allow no one to deceive you into believing that it does not mean what it says.
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