When I was a kid, I loved spy movies and characters in disguise. Many of my favorite movie memories contain names like James Bond, Jason Bourne, or even Maxwell Smart and Inspector Clouseau. Superman, Spiderman, and Batman all depend of hidden identity and “those meddling kids” from Scooby Doo always solved the crime by exposing disguises.
The Disguise
So why use a disguise? The idea of hiding your true identity can come in handy. You can infiltrate the lair of your enemy without detection. Once inside you can cause harm without being noticed. But first you have to get inside. What better way is there than a disguise?
As Christians, we have to beware of Satan and his disguises. Because he can do great harm with seemingly small tools once he infiltrates a local congregation. More than once in the New Testament, we are warned of “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” In Acts 20:28-32, Paul warns local elders to be on guard because, “fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.”
The Tools of the Spy
Once Satan has entered by disguise, his work is just beginning. The church is Satan’s enemy. The goal of the church, and its members, is to seek and save the lost and build up the saved to remain in “this grace in which we stand,”-Romans 5:2. Satan wants to hinder the spread of the gospel because, “it is the power of God to salvation”-Romans 1:16. If he can drag Christians away from the church, they become are easy prey for the wolves.
Division
To understand the destructive nature of this tool, you have to understand it’s purpose from Satan’s standpoint. Which is more of a danger? A strong, healthy congregation at peace with a stable eldership or a collection of splinter churches struggling to survive. Which congregation is most capable of fulfilling its mission? A church at peace doctrinally that is free to focus on reaching the lost and teaching the saved or a group which argues constantly and worries about inward problems and personalities?
Separation
Satan’s favorite trick for separation is false doctrine. In Acts 20:29-32, Paul tells us how those “savage wolves” will destroy the church. In verse 30, Paul warns that even from among the elders of congregations, “will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” If Satan can convince us, “the local church isn’t quite doing it right.” He can convince us to leave. How many Christians will leave churches in squabbles over minute details of Scriptural interpretation?
Discouragement
Maybe Satan’s most insidious tool is discouragement. He doesn’t have to divide a church. He doesn’t have to convince Christians to leave. He just has to get them to sit there and do nothing.
We are at war, “against the spiritual forces of evil”-Ephesians 6:12. Our enemy is trying to poison our hearts and minds from the inside and we should not be surprised, “for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”-II Corinthians 11:14.
Satan wants you to hate and envy your brothers and sisters in Christ. Focus on the negative. Be quick to complain, slow to serve. Satan does not want you motivated at all. Do not help. Do not work. Do not invite your neighbor. Do not give. Do not encourage. Just look down with a jaundiced eye and become discouraged. It makes Satan laugh every time.
Jesus wants Christians so busy glorifying God, they don’t have time to check their neighbor for spiritual ticks. Build up! Do not allow divisive words to leave your tongue! Do not separate! Do not remain in self-pity and discouragement.
Let’s defeat Satan. How wonderful would it be to have a large congregation of the saved in Clarksville? Let’s build a church with elders, deacons, young people, old people, mature Christians, and immature Christians (they’re the newly saved!) capable of spreading the gospel in Clarksville and all over the world. Let’s remain at peace and strive toward heaven together. Church growth is a defeat for Satan’s spies.
Let’s make him cry, “I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling Christians!”
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