“Our Worst Enemy”

“The devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8.

You have learned that Jesus is your best Friend, that He loves you more and has done more for you than even your own mother. Through each twinkling star, through every fleecy cloud, and murmuring brook, through the tiniest creatures and flower and leaf that He has made Jesus whispers, “I LOVE YOU, AND I CARE FOR YOU.”

What a Friend! so powerful that He made the heavens and earth and all things by His word, so wise that He made no mistakes, so kind that He fitted every creature with just the things it needs. Shall we not love and trust Him with our whole hearts? As we study this lesson we shall see more and more how much we need just such a Friend.

We learned last week that we have an enemy as well as a Friend. An enemy is one who is not a friend,—one who does not love but hates us and wishes to hurt and injure us in every way that he can. The worst enemy that we have is Satan. He is also called Devil and Serpent and Dragon and other names. In 1 Peter 5:8, we read that, like a fierce lion, he walks about trying to destroy people.

He does not look like a lion, for, you remember, he is a fallen angel; nor does he destroy people in the same way that a lion does. Satan destroys people by causing them to hate God and to refuse to have His goodness and eternal life.

You see no one but God has any goodness or any eternal life, and Satan knows it; so he follows us about and tries to make us afraid of God, and tries to get us to hate God so that we shall not go to Him for life. He knows that without God’s goodness we can have only wickedness, and without God’s eternal life we can have only eternal death. He therefore does everything in his power to deceive us and make us think that God is our enemy instead of our Friend. If he only can get us to refuse to have anything to do with Jesus, he knows that he is sure of our eternal death. And that is just like the selfishness of Satan; he has put off Jesus until he has lost all hope of eternal life himself, and so he does not want any of the rest of us to have it.

He knows, too, how God loves us and how it grieves Him to see us choose wickedness and death, and thus throw ourselves away. Satan therefore tries all the more to lead us into sin, for He hates God also.

He comes to us in different ways. He does not often come and tell us who he is and what he wants, but he slyly hides himself and talks through someone else, or makes himself look like someone else. Sometimes we do not see anyone, but we suddenly begin to think of something wrong and want to do something naughty. When we feel this way, we may be sure that Satan is near putting these bad thoughts into our hearts, coaxing and tempting us to deny our best Friend, and choose his way of death instead of Christ’s way of life.

But we do not need to do what Satan our enemy wants us to do, even though he is so much stronger than we, and even though he is constantly going about like a lion, seeking whom he may destroy.

How can we help it, you say? Easily enough, for there is a Friend going about seeking whom He may save, and He is so much stronger than Satan that Satan cannot overcome Him at all; he has tried it and failed every time. Can you not think who this dear Friend is?

Yes, it is, the powerful Creator of all things. He has seen your danger and has come to your help, and says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him.” {Rev. 3:20}

Oh, will you let Him in? If God be for you, who can be against you? All you have to do is to let Him come in, and let Him stay with you, and let Him drive Satan away when he comes to tempt you. Without Him you cannot overcome Satan once, but with Him all things are possible.

Then never fear. Although an enemy is constantly going about seeking whom he may devour, a mightier Friend is going about seeking whom He may save, and He will save you if you will let Him.