The authentic God follower must combat hellish lies with heavenly truths. The antidote for worldly wisdom isn’t more of the same, but the wisdom that comes from on high. This means that every Christian must be a person of biblical doctrine. We will notice the crafty, plausible reasoning of the devil’s lies only if we are well-studied in the solid, godly declarations of God’s Word.
In Ephesians 4, Paul begins sharing truths about the ascension of Jesus. Then he makes a direct connection between these doctrinal truths and our ability to withstand lies: “Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit” (v. 14).
If you are theologically flimsy when the devil shows up, you are ripe for his picking. You may even want to chart out ways that key Christian doctrines can help guard against particular weaknesses commonly exploited by Satan. . . .
At every point of satanic attack, we can have a word of Spirit-breathed truth at our disposal. For every one of his “Did God really say . . . ?” insinuations, we have an arsenal of “It is written” declarations.
The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and we are thoroughly equipped by God’s Word (2 Timothy 3:16–17) to rebuke him, for he cannot steal what we know is ours in Christ, he cannot kill what has been united to Christ, and he cannot destroy what has been eternally safeguarded in Christ. When he comes in a million different ways, with lies big and little, subtle and unsubtle, to condemn us in the face of all grace, we say to him, “Be gone, devil. For it is written, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ” (Romans 8:1).
Our enemy is shrewd, so it would be shrewder still of us to take as much of the Bible to heart as we can to be prepared for his schemes.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
II Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV
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