“He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.” I Timothy 3:6,7
“Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” II Corinthians 2:10-11
“Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6:11
Last week I wrote about three of the Devil’s plans for our churches. (Click here to read it now.) I’ve seen these in the Bible, and I see them in living color in churches everywhere.
(1) Division – The age-old, “divide and conquer” strategy, that keeps working so well year after year.
(2) Debauchery – Destroying our testimony/effectiveness with sensual indulgence. Notice how I Timothy 3:7 (above) mentions church leaders bringing disgrace upon the church with their bad behavior in the community.
(3) Deformity – Keeping Christians and churches immature and ineffective.
Regarding (3) above, it goes without saying that Satan isn’t intimidated by hordes of spiritual children on the battlefield (Matthew 16:18). I Timothy 3:6 (above) warns us about immature, unqualified church leaders becoming conceited. Is any problem more common than this in our “more eager than discerning” (I Timothy 5:21-22) churches?
Here’s a correction: Last week I said that “Clearly, the secret to Christian growth has little to do with having great pastor-teachers!” What I should have said was, “While it’s very important for churches to have competent pastor-teachers, Christians who do not apply what is being taught are going to stay immature indefinitely.”
It would be great if these were all the plans that the Evil one uses against our churches, but there are more:
(4) Delusion and Deceit
What could be more tragic than to be deluded regarding one’s eternal salvation? The following might be the scariest passage in the Bible:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons, and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.’” Matthew 7:21-23
Churches are for regenerated (born again) persons. Those who live as if they are unregenerated are to be excluded or removed from churches (I Corinthians 5 and 6) quickly and graciously because the deleterious effects of having such people in an evangelical church are legion.
The Devil also loves to plant deceivers in our assemblies: those who know that they are not real Christians but seek to con those around them for their own selfish reasons. Usually, it’s simply the unsaved child or teen who doesn’t want to admit this to mom, dad, the deacons or the pastor. Far worse is the adult, opportunistic deceiver like Ananias or Sapphira of Acts 5:1-11, Simon the Sorcerer of Acts 8:4-25 or Elymas of Acts 13:4-12. These people are extremely dangerous and should be treated as such.
(5) Disrespect and Defiance
The simple disrespect or more serious defiance of God-ordained authorities causes countless heartaches in our churches. I Thessalonians 5:12,13 and Hebrews 13:17 are the classic passages regarding the deference which is owed to our church leaders. We are to respect them more than any other individuals or categories of individuals on the planet, not because of their personalities but because of the positions they hold. We are even told to obey them so that their important work will be a joy to them.
It’s a great victory for our enemy when our armies (Matthew 16:18 again), divisions and battalions are distracted and divided by our foolish and selfish disrespect for and defiance of our leaders.
Oh, that we could see clearly that this is not a mere problem of human personalities; it is a spiritual problem of cosmic significance!
(6) Decline – Churches turning inward and sliding downward towards death.
Since I write about this problem often – see “The Church Lifecycle” for starters – I’ll simply say that in too many cases the devil needs only to encourage our natural, human tendency to turn inward and slide downward.
Whether it’s the theological problem of no longer believing that those who haven’t trusted Christ are truly lost, the emotional problem of losing our love for God and His gospel, the relational problem of being content with a small group of friends, or the logistical problem of turning inward to meet the multitudinous needs of a host of new converts, the result is the same: a thirty year (typically) slide towards coldness and death.
No matter the scenario: the Devil wins when our churches decline and it doesn’t require some dramatic event to take a church “off the battlefield.” A long, slow death will suffice.
Do any of these scenarios have to destroy our churches? A thousand times NO!
We can humble ourselves in prayer, putting no confidence in our human flesh, pray steadfastly and watch carefully.
We need not fall victim to the Devil’s plans for our churches, but we do need to understand them.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
- Does our church function like a “squadron” of soldiers of Christ, aware that they are under surveillance and under attack by a powerful enemy?
- Which of the Devil’s plans has he had some success with at our church?
- How do we respond when we suspect that we have unregenerated (unsaved) people in our congregation?
- How do we teach our people to respect and follow the leadership of our church’s leaders? Is this teaching successful?
- Where is our church on the lifecycle? Is Satan defeating our church by way of a gradual decline?
