It has been said that
the greatest trick that Satan ever performed was convincing the world that he
didn’t exist. Unfortunately, many people
today, both inside and outside of the church, act as though he does not really
exist. This attitude leaves a great
opportunity for Satan to achieve his ultimate goal: separating souls from God!
In 1 Peter 5:8, we are told to be “sober, be vigilant; because” our “adversary
the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Using the language of battle, Peter teaches
us here that Satan is not passively sitting by the sidelines and hoping that
some soul will accidently end up in his hands, but rather that he is actively
searching out souls and looking for opportunities to snatch souls away from salvation. If Satan is actively working, then we must
also be actively working against him!
How do we as Christians
remove those opportunities from Satan? There are many ways to do this, but for
the next few articles we will look at how self-control aids our battle against
Satan in three key influential areas:
1.) self-control in who influences us; 2.) how modesty/immodesty impacts
our spiritual life; 3.) how not controlling the previous two can lead to sins
such as fornication and adultery. The
theme through all three sections is using the Bible to create proper
self-control and not allowing these temptations to control us!
In order to combat the
devil, we must control the outside influences on our physical and spiritual
lives. This includes the people we
interact with, as well as things that impact our thinking such as books,
movies, television, and many other possibilities. For us to be able to properly control these
mediums, we must first change our own hearts and minds so that we can properly
identify the wrong influences. In the
book of Colossians, we are instructed to put to death the old man of sin and to
put on the new man of Christ (Colossians 3:5-10; 12-17). This dramatic alteration in our spiritual
lives requires us to change at our very core: our hearts! In Matthew 15:19 we
read that from “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Thus, if we change the heart, we can more
readily identify the influences through which the devil seeks to devour
us. While our lives are to be guided by
the will of God, He is not going to take control of our bodies and force us
into the proper circumstances! If we control our hearts, then we will have the
desire to control the circumstances into which we place ourselves and we are
able to fight off temptation.
With this in mind we
should remember that we cannot fully remove ourselves from the world around us.
This is apparent given the infinite number of relationships a Christian will
participate in throughout the course of his or her life. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, writes that
Christians cannot remove themselves from the world and completely disassociate
themselves from the people around them, whether good or bad. We must still work with, do business with,
and go to school with people from the world that are still lost in sin. Also, take note that we are not discussing
whether or not we should be teaching the world about God; we are discussing socializing
with the world and the impact that can have on our spiritual welfare.
Not being able to
completely remove ourselves from the world does not give us the freedom to
excuse letting such associations have control over us! A common misconception
(read: mistake) that many Christians tend to make is that they should associate
with the most vile of people (meaning, they make them their best friends)
because they want to be a “good example” to them. Consider also 1 Corinthians 15:33 where Paul
writes that we are not to be deceived and that “Evil company corrupts good
habits.” If you take a good, healthy potato and place it in a bag full of
rotten potatoes, does that good potato heal all of the rotten ones?
As Solomon asks in
Proverbs 6:27-28, can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be
burned? So it is with evil companions! While we may seek to be a good influence
on our friends in the world by going out to a party with them, but not
drinking, we are only opening up an avenue of temptation through which the
devil may devour us. Consider it this
way: if a Christian struggles greatly with the temptation of drinking because
of their past life, then why would it be a good idea to go to a party with
worldly friends where drinking and getting drunk are the main forms of
entertainment? James 4:7 tells us that we should “submit to God” and that we
are to “resist the devil and he will flee” from us. In 1 Thessalonians 5:21-23, we read to “(21)
Test all things; hold fast what is good.
(22)Abstain from every form of evil.
(23)Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may
your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ.” The language in both of these applicable passages is
active: we must actively battle Satan and temptation by submitting ourselves to
God and controlling what events and activities influence us. We cannot place ourselves in circumstances
where we will be tempted and expect ourselves to be strong enough not to stumble
(see 1 Corinthians 10:12). Consider the
example of Joseph in Genesis 39: when temptation came on him in a circumstance
that he actually could not control, he literally fled. This is a perfectly acceptable reaction to
sin and temptation today!
Surrounding ourselves
with worldly companions simply opens a door for those influences to lead us
from the path of righteousness and into sin.
Consider how Solomon, in all of the wisdom given to him by God, chose to
marry wives from pagan nations; in the end, those same wives turned his head
from God (1 Kings 11:4). Remember also
the influential power of the people of Israel when they convinced Aaron to
create a golden calf for them to worship (Exodus 32). The people around us will have an impact on
the way we think and the things we decide to partake in, but we must control
that impact us by controlling those with whom we most closely associate!
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