The Arbinger Institute has studied organization leadership for more than twenty years. Their studies reveal a surprising finding: “People nearly universally expect that they and others will rate themselves more highly than they will rate their employer organizations.”^[i]

The difference between the way individuals rate themselves versus how they rate their organizations is called the “self-deception gap.” The researchers concluded: “Self-deception is what explains this inflated view of ourselves relative to others.”^[ii]

Furthermore, self-deception is virtually a universal reality among organization leaders. The researchers said: “This nearly universal self-deception gap is reaffirmed in formal assessments we administer with our client organizations.”^[iii]

The Arbinger researchers concluded that the reason for self-deception was self-centered thinking. A Christian explanation would agree but would express the root issue to be systemic sin. Arbinger research explained self-centered thinking as human choice not systemic sin in humanity. The research discovered a real phenomenon—the proclivity among organizational leaders to self-deception. However, their interpretation is inconsistent with a Christian worldview.

Christianity offers a better understanding of truth: Because of the systemic nature of the fallen condition of mankind, organizational leaders are given over to self-deception. In fact, everyone is. The base nature of mankind is expressed by narcissistic, hedonistic, and mammon-driven behaviors.

Narcissism is extreme self-focus.
Hedonism is the worship of pleasure.
Mammon-driven describes the worship of money as a tool to support our narcissism and hedonism.

These three traits of humanism are rooted in the presumption that mankind can be a god to himself or herself. Adam and Eve acted as the first humanists when they rebelled against God in the garden of Eden. Because of their role as proxies for all of humanity, the default state of every human being from birth is humanism. It is, therefore, not surprising that humans default to self-deception.

Self-deception is the misunderstanding of truth because the bias to sin, systemic in human nature, blocks mankind from consistently seeing truth clearly.

An example of self-deception is the apostle Peter’s failure to understand God’s purpose to include all ethnicities in the building of the New Testament church or ecclesia recorded in Acts 10. Peter was highly biblically literate and had abundant opportunity to understand the revelation from Scripture and from Jesus about God’s purpose to bless both the Jews and the Gentiles.

This purpose was revealed in the Abrahamic promise of a blessing to all ethnicities (Genesis 12:3). Surely the apostle Peter knew this but could not see it. The apostle Paul clearly saw the connection between the Abrahamic promise and justification by faith for both Jews and Gentiles (Galatians 3:8). Nevertheless, during the early days of the formation of the New Testament church, Peter did not understand God’s plan included all ethnicities.

Furthermore, Peter heard Jesus give the discipleship mandate (Matthew 28:18–20)—the directive to make disciples of all nations (ethnicities), but he didn’t understand that this meant the inclusion of all ethnicities in the New Testament church.

And Peter even knew of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch—the first Gentile follower of Jesus—into the New Testament church, yet he still did not really understand the inclusion of all ethnicities. Peter was self-deceived. He had multiple opportunities to understand the truth of God’s plan but didn’t. It wasn’t until his experience with Cornelius that Peter truly understood God’s purpose to bless all ethnicities and unite them as in the New Testament ecclesia.

From a Christian worldview, self-deception is the bane of human existence. Truth can be revealed to us, but often either we don’t understand it or we are unwilling to understand it.

In the case of Peter, pressure to conform to cultural traditions may have blocked his understanding. And when his peers discovered what happened with Cornelius’s family and friends through Peter’s involvement, they opposed Peter (Acts 11:1–18). The apostle Paul even confronted Peter because of his failure to properly recognize God’s purpose to include all ethnicities in the New Testament church—a failure rooted in the fear of man (Galatians 2:11–12). Clearly, there was cultural pressure blinding Peter from seeing the truth.

Christians must recognize the ubiquitous proclivity of humanity to self-deception. Humans, by nature, deny God’s definition of truth and reality and, instead, seek to redefine truth and reality. This proclivity entered human nature at the fall of man and continues unabated except for those illuminated by Christ and the Holy Spirit. Only in Christ can people find freedom from sin and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to see reality correctly and live as unto the Lord. The best tool for Christians is to be regulated by Scripture as illuminated by the Holy Spirit. This means that Christians are able to and should seek to understand all truth and reality based on a Christian worldview.

This is very difficult. The bias to self-deception makes us vulnerable to believe that tradition and culture are more authoritative than Scripture. Today, the sound of the spirit of antichrist is clearer and louder than perhaps ever before. This spirit “denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22).

During the past four hundred years, the world’s societies have been “progressively” disconnecting from Christian norms. Progressive is a euphemism for the rebellious regression from Christian standards. Instead of being regulated by Scripture, the world is giving over to the spirit of antichrist and false ideas of living in God’s universe.

If one really wants to live free of self-deception and truly move forward and improve, one must reject the norms of the spirit of antichrist and embrace Christian norms—biblical norms. All aspects of life (self-governance, family governance, church governance, economic governance, social governance, educational governance, and political governance) are best defined by Scripture, not by culture and tradition. The true compass for life is defined by the Creator who has revealed himself through the Bible. The best antidote for self-deception is to subordinate all issues of life to the scrutiny of Scripture.

The apostle Peter struggled with self-deception regarding the multiethnic nature of the New Testament church, but in the end he surrendered to the truth of Scripture.

The Arbinger Institute rightly observed the ubiquitous bias in mankind to self-deception but wrongly assessed how to transform mankind. They presumed that mankind has the power of choice to not be deceived. This is not true. The human nature of each person is impotent to solve the problem of a fallen nature. From birth each person is born in bondage to sin. Only through Jesus is there deliverance from sin and the empowerment to live according to the will and ways of the Creator.

The way forward is to live biblically aligned, that is, according to a Christian worldview. This is the way to eternal life that includes success, significance, satisfaction, and safety as defined by God. Those who so live must surrender their humanism for a life of submission to the will and ways of God as defined by Scripture and illuminated by the Holy Spirit. May we all have the grace to surrender our self-deception and to live under the authority of the Scripture.

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[i] The Arbinger Institute, Leadership and Self-Deception (Berrett-Koehler Publishers), 183, Kindle Edition.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Ibid.