Jump Start # 785

2 Corinthians 2:10-11 “But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ,in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.”

One more day on Satan. We have been looking at Satan these past few days in our Jump Starts. We’ve seen where we are engaged in a war with him, whether we want to be or not. We saw yesterday that his future is set and determined by God. He is destined to be tormented forever. Good! No tears lost there!

Today, we are reminded that Satan has plans and schemes. Paul said, “we are not ignorant of his schemes.” Part of the preparation that sports teams go through before a game is to study their opponents. In baseball, batters will study pitchers and pitches will study batters. In football, films of the other team will be watched over and over. They are looking and learning. They don’t want any surprises. They don’t want to be caught off guard.

There are three thoughts from our passage that we need to notice.

First, Satan has schemes. That word, schemes, in the Greek means something that is thought out. In legal terms, we might say, “pre-meditated.” It’s not something that is spontaneous or on a whim. It is looked at, thought out, and planned. It is calculated. Satan put time into tempting you. He’s been thinking about you. He has put time into you. I don’t know about you, but that bothers me. I’m not a huge fan of people thinking about me, much less Satan thinking about how he can trip me. Makes me wonder if he has been thinking about me more than I have been thinking about myself. It is so easy to just go through the motions of life, being busy every day with the stuff of the day that we forget about the spiritual. Satan hasn’t. He never does. Have you thought out where you will be spiritually at the end of the year? I expect Satan has already been thinking about that.

Second, the context of this chapter is about forgiving and accepting a repentant brother. The person in mind seems to be the same one in 1 Corinthians 5 who was in a moral mess with a relative. Paul led the church to discipline this person. Apparently, he came to his senses and wanted to return to a godly life. Forgiveness was in order by the church. Discipline, whether at home by parents, or from brethren is intended to lead one to a better life and better choices. Not forgiving is connected here with Satan. One of his schemes would be to use the closed hearts of brethren to cause his brother to be crushed with sorry. Rejection is hard to overcome. When one is wanting to do what is right but that is refused, that nearly cripples a person. Satan knows that. We fail to see that our attitudes toward others often plays right into the plans of Satan.  This was his scheme. He thought this out. This will work, is what he would have thought. If the Corinthian church would act like the prodigal son’s older brother, then Satan would have this one. It was a good plan. It was laced with pride and self righteousness. Just the right amounts to make folks turn their heads and walk away. Satan working through brethren.

Thirdly, Paul said, we are not ignorant of his schemes. We see right through this. We know what he’s up to. We know what he wants. He’s using us to hurt each other. We wants us to forget about Jesus. He doesn’t want grace and forgiveness. Paul indicates that they were on top of it. This wasn’t about to work. Oh, if we could be as sharp as Paul was. I fear that too often I am ignorant of what is going on. I only think of myself. I say and do dumb things because I forget about others. I play right into the hands of Satan. Feelings hurt, egos bruised, promises broken, all to the delights of Satan. I tire of being Satan’s puppet. I wish congregations could see this. Too many fuss about a bunch of nothing, never realizing that they are following the playbook of Satan. Don’t be ignorant! Wise up! The same goes for fussing at home. The same goes for hurting others by saying mean things. When are we ready to cut the strings and be done with Satan? We walk right into his trap over and over.

A simple thing such as forgiving…God’s playbook or Satan’s?

All this makes you wonder what the evil one has planned around the corner. Doesn’t matter when you are walking with the Lord as Paul was. He could see through those things. He was sharp and aware of what was going on.

Roger