One of the traps that we 21st century Americans often fall into is to fail to believe what the Bible teaches about spiritual warfare. While some traditions within Christianity place a great emphasis on this biblical truth, others almost deny the reality altogether. We would do well to heed the warning of our Lord Jesus when He promised in Matthew chapter sixteen that he would build his church. The other part of that promise is that the gates of Hades would not prevail against that church. The implication is both stunning and real. Satan would attack and seek to destroy the church.
The Apostle Paul warned the Corinthians that Satan would indeed attack and stated that we must not be ignorant of Satan’s subtle strategies. In the immediate context, Paul clearly warns that unforgiveness among the members of the church was one of these strategies. Unforgiveness will lead to resentment and the breakdown of relationships. Satan’s strategy is not simply to get rid of the church. He wants to distract the church from its Christ given mission to take the Gospel into all the world. This simple distraction leads to infighting and also to the church members forgetting about the mission.
Another way that Satan derails the church is by bringing in so much confusion that people forget what the main message and mission of the church is. We can be dragged into disputes and also guarding our own territory that we no longer are focused on the main thing. There are two Satanic strategies I am going to consider in the remainder of this article.
Satan will often twist the Gospel into a performance based religion. I have personally witnessed this first hand. Grace becomes guilt. Faith becomes works. Devotion becomes a measuring contest to find out who the better Christian is. Where grace, faith, and devotion to Christ was at one-time paramount, what has replaced these three ingredients are activity, unbiblical standards, and even perceived ministerial success. In Philippians chapter three, Paul warned the church of those who were coming in to do that while he was in prison. The version of Christianity these heretics were teaching was for everyone to do more and prove themselves.
So how does Paul combat this? He reminded the church that we are the true people of God who worship by the Spirit, boast or glory in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence in the flesh or in fleshly accomplishments. To summarize what Paul meant is simply to state that our worship should be guided by the Bible and all of our confidence rests in Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished by his perfect life and sacrifice for sinners on the cross.
Second, Satan will often distract Christians with material gain and worldly success. Paul fought off this urge by stating that all his worldly success and perceived gain was nothing at all in comparison with Christ and knowing Him. Churches can easily fall into this trap. When we start seeing numerical growth as the lone measure of our success, that can corrupt our doctrine and also lead us to neglect what the Bible says we should do. We can easily fall into man pleasing. Thus we equate size, budgets, and numbers with spiritual vitality. We can even prize talent over truth, crowds over commitment, and personality over purity. That is merely shifting our eyes from heaven to earth.
Satan’s strategies have not stopped working. He has been around a long time. We are here for a short time and it typically takes a lifetime to have enough knowledge to recognize when we are being manipulated. May the Lord help us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Pastor Joe Tolin
Kingman Presbyterian Church
