The Devil in the Pews

It’s usually pretty easy to tell what commemorative event is coming next by popping into the shop closest to you. At some point in January, displays of hearts and chocolates will remind you that Valentine’s Day is coming. Soon after 15 February, Easter eggs will creep onto the shelves. Christmas displays start appearing in early November—but not before the September appearance of ghosts and goblins heralding the imminent arrival of Halloween.

Rusty Fischer famously said that “ghosts and goblins come out to play on October’s final day.” Along with all the costumes and candy, Halloween is widely acknowledged in cinema. My eldest daughter was recently looking at upcoming movies and asked me why there are so many horror films being released soon. The answer, of course, is because those are frequently scheduled to be released around Halloween.

One of the tropes in many supernatural horror films is that church buildings are a place of sanctuary. If you are fleeing an agent of evil, try to find a church because the devil is powerless inside the four walls of a church building. That may be true in the world of supernatural cinema, but it doesn’t exactly translate into real life.

The New Testament epistles warn Christians and Christian churches of the influence that Satan can have in their lives and their congregations. Of course, that influence does not display itself in vampire attacks or zombie apocalypses. Satan works to infiltrate the church in far more insidious ways. Here are four ways that Satan specifically targets the church, according to the New Testament.

First, Satan works to infiltrate the church through false teaching. False teaching can be overt or subtle. Anton opened the service on Sunday morning by speaking of “that demon Allah,” which may sound startling at first, but is perfectly consistent with apostolic teaching. Paul warned of “teaching of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1), implying that false teaching is, at its root, demonic. Paul similarly warned of Satan’s intent to lead Christians astray from their devotion to Christ by bringing to them “another Jesus than the one we proclaimed” or “another gospel from the one you accepted” (2 Corinthians 11:3–4).

When we encounter teaching that is contrary to Scripture, we must not think of it as just an alternate, but equally valid philosophy. Teachings, philosophies, and worldviews that stand at odds with Scripture are demonic at root. This is one way that Satan tries to influence the church.

Of course, this infiltration is not always injected directly into the church through pulpits and sermons. Often, it creeps in through Christians who embrace worldly philosophies and bring those philosophies to church with them. It is the responsibility of every church member to guard against embracing demonic doctrine and bringing it into the church.

Second, Satan works to infiltrate the church through hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is really just the opposite side of the false teaching coin because it is nothing less than false living.

Now, before I say anything else, let me caution that the oft-levelled complaint that “the church is full of hypocrites” is a gross overstatement. The church is certainly full of imperfect sinners, but all sin is not hypocrisy. However, hypocrisy is not entirely absent from Christian churches, and it is a powerful tool in Satan’s hand to destroy Christ’s church.

The first form of attack we see against the Christian church in the book of Acts was an external religious attack, levelled under the guise of politics. The Jewish religious authorities viciously attacked the church, riding the back of Roman authority. Revelation 13 reveals, in visionary form, the satanic nature of this attack.

But the first time Satan is explicitly mentioned in the book of Acts is in the context of an internal attack: when Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit and God judged them for it (Acts 5:1–11). Peter revealed that the couple had “lied … to God” (v. 4) and “agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord” (v. 9). Eric Alexander observes that their sin was “pretending to a godliness to which they were strangers. Their sin was in being more interested in reputation than in reality.” They professed one thing but lived another. God acted drastically because their hypocrisy had very real potential to destroy the church from within.

Every Christian is responsible to guard his or her integrity. A church that lacks integrity is a church that has allowed Satan into its pews. We should earnestly pray that God will deliver us from the sin of hypocrisy, which has the potential to wreak havoc in the church.

Third, Satan works to infiltrate the church through bitterness and unforgiveness. In his first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul rebuked the church for tolerating sin in its midst and urged it to excommunicate a member guilty of public and flagrant sin (1 Corinthians 5). By the time he wrote 2 Corinthians, it appears that this man had repented and had sought restoration with the church. Some in the church, however, were withholding forgiveness, seemingly arguing that the man had not experienced sufficient punishment, given the nature of his sin. Paul urged the church to “forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.” He exhorted the church to “reaffirm your love for him” by readmitting him to church membership. Forgiveness was essential “so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:5–11).

Notice how Paul refers to bitterness and unforgiveness as Satan’s designs. To harbour bitterness, and thereby withhold forgiveness, in the church is to be outwitted by Satan. It is therefore every church member’s responsibility to outwit Satan by putting off the sins of unforgiveness and bitterness.

Fourth, Satan works to infiltrate the church through self-exalting pride. James wrote of “quarrels” and “fights” that had erupted among the believers to whom he wrote and identified the source of those fights as pride. When we are focused only on what is good for ourselves rather than what is good for others, we quickly develop a combative attitude toward others. James’s counsel is simple: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:6–7).

Our sinful nature easily shifts our focus inward, but prideful focus on ourselves only leads to quarrels and fights, which have the potential to divide a church. It is every church member’s responsibility to “do nothing from self ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). We do so by adopting the mind of Christ (vv. 5–11).

Church buildings have no magical power to ward off the forces of Satan. Christians, empowered by the gospel of Jesus Christ, have the responsibility to do so. Some of the ways in which we do that are by guarding against anti-gospel worldviews, philosophies, and teachings; living lives of Christlike integrity; putting away the sins of bitterness and unforgiveness; and, in humility, counting others more significant than ourselves. May God make us wise to Satan’s schemes and give us the power to ward them off for his glory and the good of his church.