They did not want us to be ignorant of Satan’s designs.
“What comes into your mind when you think about Satan and his demons?”Īnd they repeatedly warned Christians to “be sober-minded watchful” because “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). They understood that they - and all Christians - are involved in a war in which “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). When Jesus commissioned his early apostolic leaders, he sent them into a world of unbelievers “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). When Jesus’s closest disciples described his miraculous ministry, they said, “he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38). He also taught that Satan understands his massive influence in the world as his “kingdom” (Luke 11:17–18). Jesus taught that demons actively enslave people (Luke 13:16), actively seek to gain influence over religious leaders and institutions (John 8:44), and actively oppose and seek to undermine and corrupt gospel work (Luke 8:12). From his temptation in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry (Matthew 4:1–11) to the events surrounding his crucifixion (John 13:27), Satan and his forces were an ever-present reality. “The devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41) factored prominently in Jesus’s life, teaching, and miracles. They determined to “not be outwitted by Satan for not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). The New Testament authors wrote with a profound awareness of the cosmic war they were involved in. Because how we think about satanic forces also determines in significant ways how we live. What do we think of what God has to say about the existence and activity of devils in Scripture? How seriously do we take what he says - not just in creed but in deed? How much does a conscious awareness of spiritual warfare functionally factor into our daily life? How does it affect how we pray? How does it inform the ways we see our areas of chronic temptation, fears, family dynamics, church conflicts, physical and mental illnesses, inhibited gospel fruitfulness, geopolitical events? What kinds of strategic spiritual action do we take in response to these things? “We must be more willing to be considered fools than to cruelly leave people the victims of enslaving evil.” But what we think about the demonic realm is certainly not unimportant. And what God thinks about Satan and demons is infinitely more important than what we think of them. Now, what comes into your mind when you think about Satan and his demons? Certainly, it is not the most important thing about you.
How we think about God determines how we live. infinitely more important” than how we think of him - Tozer’s point is still crucial: “We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God” ( The Knowledge of the Holy, 1). Lewis’s response to this line of thinking - that “how God thinks of us is. Tozer once memorably said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Though I agree with C.S.