Destroying the Works of Satan

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at a youth rally and my topic was the purpose of the church. I talked about how the church is God’s vehicle for saving the world today (through the preaching of the gospel), for influencing the world and trying to make it a better place (through service), and equipping Christians for those first two tasks (through education and discipleship).

And those are all pretty standard ideas—we hear about those things a lot when we talk about what the church should do. But the church has another important purpose that is often neglected in such discussions: the mission of the church is to oppose and destroy the works of Satan.

In 1 John 3.8, John said that Jesus came to earth so that “He might destroy the works of the devil.” In Ephesians 6.12, Paul says that our struggle as Christians is not against flesh and blood, but against the forces of darkness. 

These verses make it clear that as the church, we are a part of a spiritual battle against Satan and his influence. Moral corruption and sin are the works of the Devil (and we focus on things like that a lot),  but so are things like disease, starvation, poverty, terrorism, and racism. 

When you look at all the sad and messed up stuff that happens in our world—do you think God likes that stuff? Of course not! Children starving to death in the developing world, or innocent people being killed because of racial wars, or bombs going off at marathon finish lines—those are works of Satan, and when we take part in efforts to fight against those things, we are fulfilling the purpose of the church in opposing and destroying the works of the Devil. 

To me, realizing that when we fight against evil, we’re part of a cosmic struggle and are fighting against Satan himself gives us a whole new level of motivation for doing it. The decisions we make each and every day are important because we have the opportunity to stand up against evil. 

A cosmic struggle against evil: think about that the next time one of your friends tells a racist joke—are you going to sit there and laugh at the works of Satan, or realizing that God loves all people regardless of race and that racism comes from Satan, are you going to speak up and put a stop to it? 

Or the next time you have an opportunity to give to people, maybe people living on the other side of the world who have less than you do—are you going to be willing to use what you have to fight against the works of Satan like poverty and starvation, or are you going to hold onto those things so you can continue to pursue the idolatry of the “American dream”?

Studies show that a whole bunch of teens leave the church after high school, and I think a big reason for that is because it just doesn’t seem like the work of the church is all that important. After all, if we narrow down what church is to only a couple hours of activity a week, of course its importance is going to be diminished. But when we realize the cosmic nature of the struggle we are involved in—saving the world, serving the world, training Christians to do those things, and opposing the works of Satan—we see that the church is absolutely a cause worth giving our lives to.

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What Does Satan Look Like?

A lot of times when you see Satan portrayed, he looks something like this: red, horned, and terrifying. And although there’s no real reason that I am aware of to assume that Satan is a certain color or that he has horns, there is reason to depict him in a frightening fashion—1 Peter 5.8 refers to him as a “…roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” That is certainly a frightening idea, so the motivation to depict Satan as some sort of terrifying monster makes a lot of sense.

But perhaps we should be asking a different question. Rather than “What does Satan look like?”, maybe a better question is, “How does Satan appear?”, because if Satan always appeared as a terrifying monster who was eager to devour us, I think we’d do a better job of staying away from him.

Unfortunately though, that’s not how he usually appears. Instead, he’s the crafty serpent in Genesis who entices Eve to sin by lying to her and seeming to have her best interests at heart (Don’t you want to be more like God? Then eat the fruit from this tree…).

Later on, when he tempts Jesus, he doesn’t really come across as that bad of a guy. At least the first two of the things he tries to get Jesus to do don’t seem too bad, and he even uses Scripture to try to convince Jesus. Thankfully, unlike Eve, Jesus sees right through Satan, will have nothing to do with him, and once again serves as an example for us to follow.

We have to get beyond the idea of Satan has a repulsive monster if we can ever hope to discern his more subtle appearances. Sometimes Satan doesn’t look like a roaring lion; sometimes he isn’t scary. Sometimes he isn’t repulsive at all and in fact, in the heat of the moment, what he has to offer might seem more attractive than anything else in the world. But it’s exactly at those times—when Satan makes an appearance in an enticing offer to sin, or bad advice on the lips of a trusted friend, or the seeming importance of all that “the world” has to offer—that he is at his most dangerous.