Sin Gives Place to the Devil
Colossians 1:13 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”
Another immediate consequence of walking in sin is that we now give place to the devil in our lives. So why is that? When we begin to walk in darkness we begin to walk in the realm where Satan is god. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us that when we are born-again that God takes us out of Satan’s kingdom which is the power of darkness, and He conveys us into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we were delivered from Satan’s kingdom and conveyed into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus, Satan no longer had any power over our lives. In fact the opposite came into effect, in that we are now given authority over Satan and his kingdom through Christ Jesus our Lord. This truth was revealed to us by the Lord Jesus when He taught us that He had given us authority over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19).
Ephesians 4:26-27 “be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, (27) nor give place to the devil.”
Once we come into the kingdom of God there is only one way that Satan can affect the life of the believer, and that is when the believer gives him that authority. So how does the believer give Satan authority to affect their lives? In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit gives us insight into this, for He tells us not to sin and to neither give place to the devil. And so clearly it is through the avenue of sin that we give place to the devil. On more than one occasion in scripture sin in the life of the believer is referred to as the snare of the devil. And so it can be said that when we give the devil place in our lives, that it is one and the same as if we have been caught in one of his snares. One who is caught in a snare is trapped by that snare and cannot escape. Our Lord Jesus put is this way, “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34).
2 Timothy 2:17-26 “And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, (18) who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. … (26) And that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
So why does Satan want to ensnare believers? We normally assume that Satan then places sickness on them, etc. but this is not always the case, for our sin not only opens the door for Satan to affect our lives but it can also open the door to affect the lives of others around us. For example think of David’s sins of adultery and murder that he committed. As a result of David’s sin Satan was able to take the life of his son, and even though David’s son went to heaven, the death of his child was still a tragic consequence of his sin (2 Samuel 12:13-23). Although Satan’s ultimate goal is to destroy the lives of those who commit sin he also uses them to destroy the lives of others around them. In the passage of scripture quoted above, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul reveals to us what Satan was doing in the lives of two believers who had become ensnared by him through sin. The context of this passage of scripture is that these particular believers had committed sin by listening to the doctrine of demons and straying from the truth. And so in doing this they had been taken captive by Satan to do his will, and Satan’s will for them was to continue spreading this false teaching in the church. One, who has given the devil place in their lives through sin, will be held captive by him to a greater or lesser degree. Satan is then able to influence them to negatively affect the church through creating strife and division, whether it is in the local church or among individual believers around them.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments