I was thinking the other day about Paul, and how he wrote in 1st Corinthians 9 that he is “All things to all men.” Obviously, Paul’s goal was to influence as many people as possible, and therefore believed that being all things to all men gave him a better opportunity to do that. As I thought about that concept, I began to wonder what other agendas could benefit from this. The first agenda that came to mind was Satan’s.
First of all, I have admit that I haven’t studied this passage of scripture in it’s original text, nor have I read any commentary on it. This is very surface level thinking.
Second, I must confess that part of my thoughts regarding this could be that I’m annoyed by all of the misconceptions surrounding the “devil,” and how it is that he supposedly operates in the world. But I’ll save that for another post. Instead, let me simply ask: What if Satan operates this way? If it’s a great way to gain influence, which also happens to be Satan’s ultimate goal, why not use the same strategy, and “be all things to all men”?
As you look around the world, you see different cultures with different issues. People often wonder why some countries have a high amount of “supernatural activity,” while others simply struggle with poverty, while others seem to have an absence of all spirituality and just seem filled with pride.
I wonder if Satan plays into the supernatural superstitions of some cultures, while playing to the pride of others. It seems to me, it’d be pretty successful. Or maybe it already is. Hmmm….
It’s a simple thought, yet I’m not sure we view it this way very often. Just thinking out loud…what do you think?
Tags: 1st corinthians 9, all things to all men, deception, harris iii, paul, satan
Satan is the master at deception. We see that at the Garden and many other places. So he will deceive in any way he can but his key is to be as silent as possible while doing it. If being all things works he will use it…If using the Word of God incorrectly works he will use it. Remember we are fighting a loser and he will scratch, claw, bite and weasel his way around to drag as many with him as he goes. His battle plans are a kamikaze of sorts.
I think that this is an excellent assessment. He will use our greatest weakness against us. However that is where the Lord shines through. In our weakness he is strong. However is we don’t recognize this weakness the enemy and our flesh will use it against us. I do agree that people will use the Devil as an excuse for most anything that we may see as an obstical. However many times our obsticals are created through our own stupidity or lack of trust the in lord not because the enemy is attacking us. If we give the enemy too much credit we discredit what the lord may be allowing us to go through to actually learn something useful that we will need later in life to combat the enemy.
On the surface or even deeper I think it is a great observation. Christ tells us to come to Him in child like faith. To many times though we want to over complicate things and try to handle things on our own. So we in turn make it much easier for Satan to become that all and everything.
P.S. I don’t know if you read these comments but if you have never read Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis I think you would enjoy it. He addresses this issue in a unique way.