Know Your Enemy- Tactics of the Devil

When I was a kid, (high school was over 25 years ago, sheesh!), I was in an Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFJROTC) unit at my local high school. While many of us had military aspirations (I had thought about it myself), something that this course taught us was discipline, honor, and respect. One thing, in particular, that I remember, was a part of our honor code that stuck out to me:

“On my word of honor, I will not lie, cheat or steal, not tolerate those who do. I will not quibble, use evasive statements, or technicalities to shield guilt. “There was more to it, but this is the part that has stuck out to me my entire life. It has informed much of me, and I have, though I am no longer a JROTC Cadet by many years, tried to live my life by it. In many respects, I have noticed that the Enemy of our soul uses exactly these tactics to get our focus off of our purpose: quibbling, which means to argue or find fault over trivial matters or minor concerns or To evade the point in question by artifice, play upon words, caviling, or by raising any insignificant or impertinent question or point; to trifle in argument or discourse; to equivocate; using evasive statements: statements that dance around the truth, or hide accountability of the person speaking them; technicalities: pointing out small details to prove a position, but, again, shielding one from accountability.

This is what the enemy does: he will do anything he can to get us off of the main issue, and make no mistake, the main issue is the Gospel. He will quibble over details, avoid the subject (sin and personal accountability), and get us to say “technically, it wasn’t my fault, and here is why.” The Gospel is that we are sinners who cannot save ourselves. Jesus had a conversation to this end:Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” John 3:3-5 

Nicodemus understood Jesus’ meaning. Being Born again was not a new idea to him, as people would get ceremonially washed, or baptized, signifying this very concept (as they were doing with John the Baptizer). But he was using a technicality to avoid spiritual responsibility.

Again, and again, we see such things happening throughout Scripture: Adam blamed his wife and God for his own sin (“this woman YOU gave me” is definitely within the realm of quibbling); Cain didn’t want to take responsibility for himself, so he killed his brother, and tried to hide the evidence (“am I my brother’s keeper” is an evasive statement); David didn’t kill Urijah the Hittite, but had him killed (technicality); and these are just THREE examples. The tactics of the enemy remain the same: entice us to sin and then encouraging us to avoid responsibility by playing the victims of circumstance.

In this way, we’re ensnared to our sin, even going so far as to justify ourselves by avoiding accountability for our examples. We blame everyone else for being mean and hateful, setting ourselves up as gods in our own lives, and damning ourselves to a life, and, indeed, eternity, of regret, shame, and suffering. Know your enemy. Don’t buy into the lie. If you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive, and He lived perfectly, died for our sin, and rose again that we may have new life in Him. It’s time to set aside our arguments and justifications and surrender to the designer and lover of our souls.

Romans 1:16-2:11

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Chapter 2- Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.