The Greatest of These

There is an amazing temptation, when we are confronted by spiritual challenges, to "shoot" the messenger, so to speak. Although, demonic spirits can independently inflict all manner of havoc on human beings, from physical illness to mental and emotional distress, they usually work through other people.

When we are attacked by a person, we tend to think we are simply the victim of a mean-spirited attack by a someone who has something against us. Perhaps there are such attacks, but the very fact we are being attacked demonstrates there is something going on behind the scenes we do not understand. We are assuming here that we have done nothing deserving of being attacked. People just do not attack other people for no reason. That sounds like a ridiculous statement until we think about all the reasons one person might attack another. When we break the reasons down to their essence we find there are really only a couple reasons for the attack. Either the person being attacked has something the attacker wants, or the attacker feels threatened in some way. Sometimes the threat can be a perception of loss of status as when one is insulted in the presence of a friend and feels the need to save face.

The apostle Paul said he had a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him. (2 Corinthians 12:7) He correctly discerned where the attack originated. Satan sent a messenger to attack Paul. Satan is still in the business of sending messengers to attack people.

Pay close attention now. This is a critical point. Many of those messengers are demonically inspired people. Although we say they are demonically inspired, these people have no idea they are being manipulated into those attacks. In fact they are good, God fearing, church going, tithe giving Christians. They may even think they are doing God's work. If they, themselves realized what they were doing, they would not do it. Again, we are seeing the very definition of spiritual deception.

Long time readers of this blog will not be the least bit surprised to hear me say the problem is the people who attack others are operating from their soul rather than their spirit. The human soul is the playground of demonic spirits, messengers of Satan. Again, read carefully. We are not talking about demonic possession or even oppression (the scriptural term for either of those conditions is really demonization). What we are saying is that demonic spirits can impress upon our mind and emotions, ideas that we may act on contrary to what we might otherwise do. As a result, we become angry and give full vent to those impressions--then we wonder how we could have done that. It is interesting that we see other people do those things and think they are just hateful people. We wonder what is wrong with them. However, when we do those things, we allow for the fact that we are simply human beings who sometimes have those problems. A friend of mine, Pastor Dennis Easter, is quoted as saying, "Isn't it amazing that we fail to see the grace of God working in others the way we know it is working in us?" Is that the sound of our common conviction I hear? Maybe it was just me.

What then should our response be when we are attacked? There is only one possible response to that question for the Christian. We must absolutely, unequivocally, respond in love. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second, He said, is like the first. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. (Matthew 22:37-39) We used to receive a church newsletter from a church we had never attended. We had become aquainted with the interim pastor and he decided to send us the newsletter. He routinely included in the newsletter, what he called "Scripture without comment." Following his lead, no brilliant analysis of those verses. Read them and do them. If you do, you will have fulfilled all the law and the prophets. (verse 40) "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13)