The Devil Made Me Do It

 

 

In John 8:42-44, Jesus said to those who were trying to kill him, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” 

 

In the late 1960’s through the early 1970’s show “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In”, Comedian Flip Wilson coined the phrase: “The devil made me do it.” We joke, but who really is this devil which the Apostle John calls in Revelation 12:9, “the great dragon… that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” 

 

The term “the devil” in this passage is the Greek Work “diablos”, translated as calumniator (One who slanders; one who falsely and knowingly accuses another of a crime or offense, or maliciously propagates false accusations), a false accuser, slanderer). 1 Peter 5:8 tells us, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil (diablos) walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” In the Christian theology, the devil is the evil One; the fallen archangel Lucifer, expelled from heaven for rebellion against God; Satan, the chief of the apostate angels; the implacable enemy and tempter of the human race. In Luke 10:18, the Lord Jesus said to his disciples, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” The Greek word “Satan” here is “Satanas”, and translates as the adversary, the name given to the prince of evil spirits, the inveterate adversary of God and Christ. He circumventing men by his wiles (tempting charms, deceits, cons, guiles and deceptions. Satan is the grand adversary of man; the devil or prince of darkness; the chief of the fallen angels.

 

Satan is a great deceiver. He first blinds his victims before he binds and leads them unto destruction. The three members of the unholy trinity are the sinful desires of the flesh, the God-reject world system, and the devil. All three tempt, lie and deceive us into sin. The deception can be very small at first. At Stone Mountain in Decatur, Georgia, so gradually does it slope downward that if one were to get within 75 or 100 feet of the edge, they would already find themselves slipping toward the precipice and would be unable to recover themselves. With no way to stop, until they plunged over the edge to their death hundreds of feet below. Sin, like this same slippery slope, pulls us down into things that we never expected we would do; and the wages of sin is death – Romans 6:23. You see the unholy trinity’s results in Ephesians 2:1-2, “you were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [Satan], the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”

 

On Christ's return from heaven he will be bound with chains for a thousand years, but when the thousand years are finished he will walk the earth in yet greater power, but shortly after will be given over to eternal punishment. James 4:7 concludes, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Ephesians 6:11 explains that we are to “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” In addition to doing our part in consciously facing the devil’s attacks armed and standing firm, we know that the Lord is behind us and protecting us. The Lord instructs us in John 17:15, “I do not pray that You {heavenly Father God] should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” Meaning that God build a hedge of protection around us [His children] from the devil. 

 

As Jabez called on God in 1 Chronicles 4:10 saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”, request the divine, supernatural and spiritual protection of God. Remember that Satan told God in Job 1:10, “Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side?” 2 Thessalonians 3:3 confirms, “The Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.”

 

We don’t have to say, “the devil made me do it”, because we can choose to “walk in the Spirit”. As Jesus taught his disciples to pray in Matthew 6:13, petition to God, “do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” 

 

In Christ, Brian