The Devil Made Me Do It!

Years ago, LONG before my time, a comedian named Flip Wilson made popular the phrase, “The Devil made me do it.” If you’re interested, you can view a funny clip of Wilson on the Ed Sullivan show here. That sentiment, “the Devil made me do it,” is very popular; particularly among Christians. Most of us may not directly blame Satan for our sin, though I’m sure some do, but we do give him quite a bit of credit for our struggles and temptations. I routinely see posts, Tweets, or hear prayer requests by well-meaning Christians, who are struggling with an issue or having a particularly bad day, that read “Satan is really attacking me right now,” “The Devil is really at work in my life (family, business, etc.),” or any of a hundred other variations of the same sentiment. Don’t get me wrong; my intention is not to belittle those people or make light of their struggles, nor is it to render Satan’s attacking of Christians trite. But I wonder if our thinking and expressions in this matter are biblically accurate; if our theology of Satan hasn’t become somewhat misaligned in recent days and we’re giving our Enemy too much credit.

Satan in Scripture

The Bible presents Satan (a.k.a. Lucifer, the Devil) as the pinnacle of God’s angelic creations (Isa. 14:12-15; Ezk. 28:12-18 ). Pride filled his heart and he rebelled against God; apparently convincing 1/3 of the angelic beings to follow his leadership over God’s (Rev. 12:3-4). His position and authority as the supreme angelic being were stripped from him and he was consigned to spend his time among the crown of all of God’s creation; mankind (Job 1:7). This does not mean that Satan does not have access, at times to the presence of God (Job 1:6, 12; 2:1, 7).

As an angelic being, it should be noted that Satan is powerful; much more powerful than a human being (Acts 26:18; 2 Thess. 2:9). He has lived since the opening days of creation and has observed things we have not; therefore, he knows much more than we do (Job 1:7). He has authority over the lost world and those who live in it; influencing kingdoms and rulers to accomplish his will over God’s (Dan. 8:25; Eph. 2:2; 6:12; Mark 4:8-9; Luke 4:5-7). As a created being, however, it should be noted that Satan is not coequal with God. He is not omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnipresent (everywhere present at once). No, Satan is limited by time and space like we are, has limited knowledge, and can only exercise power under God’s authority. We shouldn’t buy into the popular myth that Satan and God are two coequal opposing forces; one good and the other bad; balancing each other like light and dark, yin and yang. Don’t get me wrong, God is good and Satan is bad, but they are not coequal and do not balance each other. Satan, though rebellious, must always submit to the power and authority of God (e.g. Job 1-2; James 4:7).

Many of the names by which the Bible, and we, refer to Satan are not proper names at all; they are titles and descriptors of his work and character. An understanding of a few of the most common is helpful to our query. Satan is a transliteration of the Hebrew word שָׂטָן (spelled satan). It means simply “adversary or accuser.” Devil comes from the Greek διάβολος (diabolos) and refers to one who is a slanderer or false accuser. Both the Old and New Testament concepts found in these titles refer to Satan’s primary job, post-rebellion; to accuse, slander, or discredit believers before God (cf. Job 1:6, 12; 2:1, 7; Rev. 12:10). Lucifer is the Hebrew word הֵילֵ֣ל  (heylel) which means “shining one, morning star, light-bearer” and may refer to his pre-rebellion status as the glory bearer for God himself (Isa. 14:12). Satan is also known as the Wicked One (ὁ πονηρὸς – ho poneros) which is rather self-explanatory, and the Tempter (πειράζω peirazo). The latter, Tempter, is a generic term from which we get the idea of one who brings a trial or test. It can be either positive or negative depending on the one doing the testing. There are a couple of other terms, but not as widely used in Scripture.

Source of Temptation

Looking at the names/descriptors of Satan, it’s obvious that Satan does tempt believers (1 Thess. 3:5; Heb. 2:18). But that doesn’t solve the riddle of temptation for the believer. If Satan, or one of his demonic minions, is always the one tempting us to sin, then we cannot be ultimately culpable in it. It would be easy to say, like Flip Wilson, “But God, the Devil made me do it!” And yet, we cannot say that when we sin. Why? I believe Satanic forces are, on occasion, a factor in the believer’s temptations, but not the primary factor.

The apostle Paul uses the term flesh throughout his epistles to refer to that part of the believer that is, as of yet, unredeemed. It is that part of us which is still temptable and still desires the sinful things of this world. It is our flesh which is the primary source of our temptations. In what is perhaps the earliest epistle of the New Testament, James writes, “When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death (Jam 1:13-15 NIV).” Follow the logic of James’ argument. The believer cannot blame God for his temptations to sin because God does not and cannot tempt anyone with or to evil. Yet, everyone is tempted to sin when they give in to their evil desires (Paul would call the flesh). This temptation itself is not sin, but verse 15 establishes that the giving in to our sinful, fleshly desires is sin.

This idea of our flesh, giving in to our own lustful and evil desires, is used more than 100 times in the epistolary literature of the New Testament; many, many more times than Satan tempting the believer is mentioned. I am left to deduce that it is the Christian’s own flesh, that part of us which still struggles with sin and still wants what this world has to offer, is our primary source of temptation.

Putting it All Together

Does this mean that Satan does not tempt us? Not at all. Does this mean that Satan is always the one tempting us? Not at all. So, what does all of this mean. I believe Satan and his minions do tempt Christians, but they use our own fleshly desires to do it. For example, it would be foolish to tempt me to sin with heroine; I’ve never done heroine or gotten high using any chemical means, so my flesh does not desire that. However, it is very easy to tempt a recovering addict with his drug of choice; his flesh still wants the drug. Satan uses our own flesh, our own lustful desires, to tempt us, but he does not always have to be the one doing the tempting. Many times we tempt ourselves. James 1:13-15, for example, never mentions Satan as the tempter. When Paul speaks of the flesh he leaves Satan out of the mix. It is not that Satan isn’t involved on occasion, but why should he waste his time tempting us to sin if our flesh is weak and we do such a good job of it ourselves? Remember, Satan’s primary job descriptor is “slanderer or accuser” who works day and night to slander us before God (Rev. 12:10).

How, then, do we nullify Satan’s efforts to accuse and tempt us? James gives us a simple solution, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (Jam 4:7-10 NIV).” When we submit our flesh to God in humility and dependence upon Him, then, and only then, are we able to stand our ground against our Accuser. If I can paraphrase, loosely, these verses; we need to get over ourselves and submit our fleshly desires to God.

Let’s stop blaming Satan for all of our woes. As I said earlier, I think we give him too much credit for our temptations, and way too much ammunition for accusing us before God. It would be much better to be like Job whom God brought Satan’s attention, I believe, because there wasn’t anything there for Satan to use to accuse Job before God.