Runnin' With The Devil

Luke 19:10 “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

 

Driving home today, I was listening to music on my car radio and heard the old song "Runnin' with the Devil" played. If you are not familiar with this tune, it is a song by the American hard rock band Van Halen, released as the second single from their Self-titled debut album in April 1978. The song remains a staple track of classic rock radio and Van Halen's discography. The first two verses are: “I live my life like there's no tomorrow. And all I've got, I had to steal. Least I don't need to beg or borrow. Yes, I'm living at a pace that kills. Runnin' with the devil. 

 

I grew-up listening to the Los Angeles, California heavy-metal Rock stations of KLOS and KMET, so was well acquainted with the song, but never thought about the lyrics or the message in them. Obviously, the title/chorus speak to a life that is not following God, nor led by the Holy Spirit, but identifies as aligned with the ways of the devil. The first verse speaks to a fast-paced existential life without ambition or a moral compass, where the daily survival is self-centered and anything to achieve getting whatever you want, from whoever you want, whenever you want by stealing it better than asking or earning it. And, he not only realizes that the ultimate conclusion for such a life is an early death, but is running in the devil’s camp; a sinful life that is not pleasing in the eyes of God. 
 
The second verse reveals the knowledge of a life that realizes its misconception of what “real’ life truly is and the sad reality of a blind life in darkness, believing the wrong guide. It goes: “I found the simple life ain't so simple. When I jumped out on that road. I got no love, no love you'd call real. Ain't got nobody waiting at home. Runnin' with the devil.
 

 

Life in the jungle of this fallen world is no bowl full of cherries, which will tempt and deceive us that we do not need to know God’s Word, Will and Way, but to follow what the world says is the way to pleasure and happiness though the natural desires of the flesh. We grow up supplied and supported by our biological parents, but one day, we jump out on that road on our own, stand on our own two feet and have to earn our own way. We live a charmed life with everything provided, thinking that life and love is so easy in a secular world, but it is not. A Godless life has meaningless direction and seeks purpose, pleasure and love in all the wrong people, places and things. Wise old King Solomon lived this way himself and labelled this type hedonistic living as “chasing after the wind” that is neither “real life” or truly fulfilling. 

 

Jesus tells us in John 10:9-11, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” In Luke 15, Jesus tells the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. Why? Because we all are lost and dead in our trespasses, sins and inequities against God, in need of the Good Shepherd to seek us and save us.  

 

In Luke 15:7 Jesus says, I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. And in Luke 15:10, “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Galatians 5:24-25 verifies that, “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” 

 

The Lord Jesus instructs us in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.“ be one who finds the narrow gate, who is Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World. And walk the straight and narrow path of life which leads to Heaven that is laid out for us in the biblical truth of the Word of God for true, real and abundant living. The broad way that leads to destruction that many egocentrically run through life on is the “Highway to Hell”, but that is a different song by a different band for another post.

 

There is a love, a love you’d call real. There is somebody waiting at home for you. It is the One who has been loving and seeking you all along. Christ is waiting for you to come home. Quit runnin’ with the devil, turn around, walk with the Spirit and follow Jesus. 

In Christ, Brian