READING:
One-year plan: Ezekiel 45-48, 1 John 3:11-4:6
Two-year plan: 1 Chronicles 17-18, John 19:31-42
———-
Believers are Satan’s primary targets because we are God’s plan to announce the good news to the nations. For that reason, we need to know how the enemy operates.
From John’s letter, it’s easy to see ways the enemy works. First, he propagates lies through false teachers, and thus believers must examine teachers and teachings: “Test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone into the world” (1 Jn 4:1). Particularly, he wants teachers denying who Jesus is.
Second, the enemy wants supposed believers to continue in sin while also convincing them that their spiritual condition is fine; that is, he doesn’t want them to consider this truth: “No one who lives in him [Christ] keeps on sinning” (1 Jn 3:6). No believer is perfect, but any “believer” who never truly turns from sin is no believer at all.
Third, the enemy delights when people who claim to be followers of Christ don’t love one another: “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister” (1 Jn 3:10). The one who truly follows God does what He demands, including loving others.
Here’s the good news, though: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 Jn 3:18). Jesus “laid down his life for us” (1 Jn 3:16), and He indwells us through His Spirit, the One in us who is greater than the “one who is in the world” (1 Jn 4:4).
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Are you living in victory because Jesus is greater than the enemy?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, thank You for sending Jesus to destroy the devil’s work.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Daniel 1-2, 1 John 4:7-5:21
Two-year plan: 1 Chronicles 19:1-21:8, John 20:1-23
*first published in 2016
