It has been said that the greatest trick that Satan ever performed was convincing the world that he didn’t exist. Unfortunately, many people today, both inside and outside of the church, act as though he does not really exist. This attitude leaves a great opportunity for Satan to achieve his ultimate goal: separating souls from God! In 1 Peter 5:8, we are told to be “sober, be vigilant; because” our “adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Using the language of battle, Peter teaches us here that Satan is not passively sitting by the sidelines and hoping that some soul will accidently end up in his hands, but rather that he is actively searching out souls and looking for opportunities to snatch souls away from salvation. If Satan is actively working, then we must also be actively working against him!
How do we as Christians remove those opportunities from Satan? There are many ways to do this, but for the next few articles we will look at how self-control aids our battle against Satan in three key influential areas: 1.) self-control in who influences us; 2.) how modesty/immodesty impacts our spiritual life; 3.) how not controlling the previous two can lead to sins such as fornication and adultery. The theme through all three sections is using the Bible to create proper self-control and not allowing these temptations to control us!
In order to combat the devil, we must control the outside influences on our physical and spiritual lives. This includes the people we interact with, as well as things that impact our thinking such as books, movies, television, and many other possibilities. For us to be able to properly control these mediums, we must first change our own hearts and minds so that we can properly identify the wrong influences. In the book of Colossians, we are instructed to put to death the old man of sin and to put on the new man of Christ (Colossians 3:5-10; 12-17). This dramatic alteration in our spiritual lives requires us to change at our very core: our hearts! In Matthew 15:19 we read that from “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Thus, if we change the heart, we can more readily identify the influences through which the devil seeks to devour us. While our lives are to be guided by the will of God, He is not going to take control of our bodies and force us into the proper circumstances! If we control our hearts, then we will have the desire to control the circumstances into which we place ourselves and we are able to fight off temptation.
With this in mind we should remember that we cannot fully remove ourselves from the world around us. This is apparent given the infinite number of relationships a Christian will participate in throughout the course of his or her life. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, writes that Christians cannot remove themselves from the world and completely disassociate themselves from the people around them, whether good or bad. We must still work with, do business with, and go to school with people from the world that are still lost in sin. Also, take note that we are not discussing whether or not we should be teaching the world about God; we are discussing socializing with the world and the impact that can have on our spiritual welfare.
Not being able to completely remove ourselves from the world does not give us the freedom to excuse letting such associations have control over us! A common misconception (read: mistake) that many Christians tend to make is that they should associate with the most vile of people (meaning, they make them their best friends) because they want to be a “good example” to them. Consider also 1 Corinthians 15:33 where Paul writes that we are not to be deceived and that “Evil company corrupts good habits.” If you take a good, healthy potato and place it in a bag full of rotten potatoes, does that good potato heal all of the rotten ones?
As Solomon asks in Proverbs 6:27-28, can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned? So it is with evil companions! While we may seek to be a good influence on our friends in the world by going out to a party with them, but not drinking, we are only opening up an avenue of temptation through which the devil may devour us. Consider it this way: if a Christian struggles greatly with the temptation of drinking because of their past life, then why would it be a good idea to go to a party with worldly friends where drinking and getting drunk are the main forms of entertainment? James 4:7 tells us that we should “submit to God” and that we are to “resist the devil and he will flee” from us. In 1 Thessalonians 5:21-23, we read to “(21) Test all things; hold fast what is good. (22)Abstain from every form of evil. (23)Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The language in both of these applicable passages is active: we must actively battle Satan and temptation by submitting ourselves to God and controlling what events and activities influence us. We cannot place ourselves in circumstances where we will be tempted and expect ourselves to be strong enough not to stumble (see 1 Corinthians 10:12). Consider the example of Joseph in Genesis 39: when temptation came on him in a circumstance that he actually could not control, he literally fled. This is a perfectly acceptable reaction to sin and temptation today!
Surrounding ourselves with worldly companions simply opens a door for those influences to lead us from the path of righteousness and into sin. Consider how Solomon, in all of the wisdom given to him by God, chose to marry wives from pagan nations; in the end, those same wives turned his head from God (1 Kings 11:4). Remember also the influential power of the people of Israel when they convinced Aaron to create a golden calf for them to worship (Exodus 32). The people around us will have an impact on the way we think and the things we decide to partake in, but we must control that impact us by controlling those with whom we most closely associate!
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