There are people you should love who should never again have access to you.
There are people you should forgive who should never again be trusted with your secrets.
There are people you should pray for who should never again be permitted inside your inner circle.
They may be your friends. They may be your coworkers. They may be people you have known your entire life. They may share your blood. They may sleep in your bed.
It doesn’t matter.
Some people are dangerous to your life, happiness, purpose, and well-being precisely because they have surrendered the responsibility of thinking for themselves.
Today, we have a crude but useful term for these people.
NPCs.
The term comes from video games. An NPC is a “non-player character.” It is a character controlled by the programming of the game rather than by the person holding the controller.
I don’t believe there are literal NPCs walking among us. Every human being is a human being. Every person has a soul, dignity, choices, and accountability before God.
But people can absolutely behave like NPCs.
They can surrender their judgment.
They can surrender their discernment.
They can surrender their moral compass.
They can allow the world around them to determine what they believe, who they hate, what they fear, what they repeat, and ultimately what they do.
And when someone refuses to think for themselves, somebody else eventually does the thinking for them.
That is where they become dangerous.
The Bible Already Described the NPC
Thousands of years before there were video games, algorithms, social media feeds, cable news networks, political parties, influencers, or viral talking points, the Bible warned us about people whose minds had become darkened by the world around them.
Ephesians 4:17-18 says:
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”
Read those words carefully.
Vanity of their mind.
Understanding darkened.
Ignorance that is in them.
Blindness of their heart.
There is your biblical description of NPC behavior.
It isn’t necessarily stupidity.
Some NPCs are highly educated.
It isn’t necessarily poverty.
Some NPCs are extraordinarily wealthy.
It isn’t political affiliation.
NPCs exist on the left, the right, and everywhere in between.
It isn’t religion.
There are NPCs sitting in church every Sunday.
It is a condition in which a person has surrendered the responsibility of examining the world with discernment.
Their opinions arrive preassembled.
Their enemies are assigned to them.
Their outrage is scheduled.
Their loyalties are inherited.
Their beliefs change when the crowd changes.
Their morality bends according to who is standing in front of them.
They don’t investigate.
They react.
They don’t discern.
They repeat.
They don’t ask whether something is true.
They ask whether everyone else believes it.
That person can become extraordinarily dangerous.
Why NPCs Are Dangerous
An NPC doesn’t have to hate you to destroy you.
That is what makes them so dangerous.
A malicious person can sometimes be easier to identify. You know where you stand with an enemy.
But someone without discernment can genuinely love you and still participate in your destruction.
All someone has to do is convince them that destroying you is the right thing to do.
Convince them that you are crazy.
Convince them that you are dangerous.
Convince them that everyone else has abandoned you.
Convince them that helping you might cost them something.
Convince them that the crowd will punish them for standing beside you.
Suddenly the person who told you yesterday that they loved you is standing twenty feet away while the mob approaches.
Not necessarily because they became evil overnight.
Because they never developed the internal foundation necessary to stand alone.
That is why discernment matters.
There will eventually come a moment in everyone’s life when doing the right thing means standing somewhere unpopular.
If someone cannot stand alone, you should never build your survival around their loyalty.
How to Spot an NPC in Your Life
Watch how people behave when pressure enters the room.
Pressure reveals programming.
An NPC will frequently change positions according to the people around them.
They will tell one group one thing and another group something completely different.
They will repeat accusations they have never independently investigated.
They will accept authority without questioning whether the authority is behaving honorably.
They will believe rumors because enough people repeated them.
They will judge people they have never met.
They will become frightened when confronted with information that conflicts with the story they have already accepted.
They will confuse popularity with truth.
They will confuse credentials with wisdom.
They will confuse power with righteousness.
They will confuse consensus with reality.
Most importantly, watch what happens when truth becomes expensive.
Anybody can tell the truth when truth costs nothing.
Anybody can be loyal when loyalty is convenient.
Anybody can defend justice when justice is fashionable.
Watch what happens when telling the truth might cost someone a friendship, promotion, invitation, relationship, reputation, or position.
That is when you discover who is actually thinking for themselves.
Stop Trying to Wake Everyone Up
One of the greatest mistakes discerning people make is believing that because they can see something, they can make everyone else see it.
You cannot.
You can present evidence.
You can speak truth.
You can explain yourself.
You can love someone.
You can pray for them.
You cannot force another person to develop discernment.
And eventually, constantly attempting to awaken someone who prefers sleep begins draining the person who is awake.
There comes a point where wisdom requires distance.
Not hatred.
Distance.
Not revenge.
Boundaries.
Not abandonment.
Repositioning.
You don’t have to throw an NPC into the wilderness.
You simply have to remove them from the control room of your life.
Remove Them From Your Inner Circle
Your inner circle is sacred territory.
Everyone should not have access to it.
Your dreams should not be discussed with everyone.
Your vulnerabilities should not be revealed to everyone.
Your plans should not be given to everyone.
Your spiritual experiences should not be shared with everyone.
Your business should not be placed into everyone’s hands.
The inner circle requires people capable of discernment.
People capable of standing alone.
People capable of hearing something about you and coming directly to you.
People capable of saying, “I don’t know enough to judge.”
People capable of examining evidence.
People capable of resisting a crowd.
People capable of changing their minds when truth demands it.
An NPC should never occupy that position.
Love them.
Feed them if they are hungry.
Help them if they genuinely need help.
Pray for them.
Forgive them.
Wish them well.
But do not hand them the keys to your house.
Figuratively or literally.
Family Is Not an Exemption
This becomes especially difficult when the NPC is family.
We have been taught that family receives unlimited access simply because blood connects us.
I don’t believe that.
Blood establishes a relationship.
It does not automatically establish trust.
Trust must be built through conduct.
The same applies to lovers, friends, coworkers, business associates, pastors, mentors, political allies, and anyone else occupying space in your life.
Your mother can be wrong.
Your father can be wrong.
Your brother can be wrong.
Your best friend can be wrong.
Your lover can be wrong.
Your pastor can be wrong.
You can be wrong.
That is precisely why discernment exists.
Truth does not change according to who is speaking.
Love Them Without Giving Them Access
This is where Love requires maturity.
Love does not require foolishness.
Love does not require handing someone the weapon they used to wound you yesterday.
Love does not require exposing your vulnerable places to someone who has demonstrated that outside pressure can turn them against you.
You can love someone and understand that they are unsafe.
You can forgive someone and understand that they are unreliable.
You can pray for someone and refuse to tell them your plans.
You can wish someone every blessing God has available for them while simultaneously changing the locks on the doors through which they previously entered your life.
That is not hate.
That is wisdom.
The goal isn’t to punish NPCs.
The goal is to stop allowing their lack of discernment to determine the trajectory of your life.
And Make Sure the NPC Isn’t You
There is one final examination that must take place.
Before identifying every NPC around you, examine yourself.
What beliefs have you never questioned?
What opinions did someone else hand you?
Who have you condemned without hearing their side?
What authority have you blindly trusted?
What group are you afraid to disagree with?
What truth would you refuse to acknowledge if accepting it threatened your identity?
Where are you walking “in the vanity” of your own mind?
That examination may be uncomfortable.
Do it anyway.
The objective isn’t merely to recognize programming in other people.
The objective is freedom from programming within ourselves.
Ephesians tells us not to walk with our understanding darkened.
So turn on the light.
Investigate.
Question.
Pray.
Listen.
Observe.
Test what you are told.
Have the courage to admit when you are wrong.
Have the courage to stand alone when you are right.
And surround yourself with people willing to do the same.
You don’t have to hate the NPCs in your life.
You don’t have to attack them.
You don’t have to humiliate them.
But you absolutely must understand the danger of giving someone who does not think independently a position of trust in your life.
Love everyone.
Trust selectively.
Forgive freely.
Grant access carefully.
And never allow someone else’s blindness to become the steering wheel for your destiny.
The Intuition Bureau