March 10, 2023

Genesis 6: 5, 6 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. (NIV)

“I wouldn’t go around preaching it. But don’t you think there’s more evidence, sometimes, of evil everywhere, than of goodness?”*

Satan is famous for being a deceiver, a tempter, and a shrewd manipulator. He is so twisted and full of hate that when God condemned him to hell, he made it his mission to take all mankind with him. We look at the world around us and we see evidence of his success. The world is as evil today as it was in the days before God decided to destroy mankind with a world-wide flood. The thing is, based on this passage, God doesn’t seem to blame Satan. Men and women were responsible for their own wickedness and evil inclinations.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe that Satan is the source of all evil in the world – but he doesn’t force us to make sinful choices. He has put temptations in place; he knows our weaknesses; he is diligent in exploiting our weaknesses. But there seems to be a point at which Satan can leave a person to his own devices. There is no purpose in tempting someone who is already full of hateful intentions. Those parents who do horrific things to their children; those terrorists who blow up churches; that dictator who tortures Christians – Satan didn’t tempt them to perform their atrocities. They were already drowning in their own evil natures. No. Satan isn’t concerned about them. They are already on the road to hell.

From tempting Jesus in the desert to enticing you with your favorite vice, Satan has his hands full with the good people – and the marginally good people. He is victorious if he can cause a Christian to give in to the temptation to sin, but he does his best work when he can get an individual to believe a lie. Believers of false doctrine are just as lost as the remorseless serial killer.

I would never purposely mislead my readers, but if you don’t check my words against scripture, Satan has two potential victims – me, for perpetrating false teaching; and you, for believing it. We have a responsibility to seek the truth for ourselves. We are blessed to have God’s word so readily available to us and we have no excuse if we neglect to search out its truths. The Holy Spirit’s power is activated when we open our Bibles. Satan has no defense against us then.

We blame things on the devil that are actually the result of our own undisciplined natures.*