Captured by the Devil

Oct. 2

2 Tim 2:14-26

Captured by the Devil

“And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.” (v.24)

Every “earthly” reality has a spiritual reality behind it. These two realms - both created by God Most High - are uniquely linked together. This has been God’s plan all along. As Jesus says during the Lord’s prayer, “on earth as it is in heaven”. This is true for the arguments and disagreements that we get in as well.

There is a lot of argument amongst the people of God. A lot of disagreement. There is a lot conversation about things that don’t matter as well as bad teaching that masquerades as something biblical but it is not. Whether we know it or not, this too is a reality of “on earth as it is in heaven”. The enemies of God Most High have always sought top breed dissension. This is the case here in this passage We know it because it says so:

“God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” (v.25,26)

Quarreling, in-fighting, irreverent babble… these are the byproducts of those “ensnared by the Devil” and “captured to do his will”. (v.14,16,26) At its heart, it is a form of spiritual warfare. According to this passage, these disagreements “ruin the hearts of the hearers” and lead people in go “more and more ungodliness”. (v.14,16) This is why you should: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (v.15)

What does it look like to be an “unashamed worker” for the Lord who “rightly handles the truth”? Well, ”the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.” (v.24) As good as it feels to “get angry” and win an argument, this is not actually bringing about the righteousness of God. We wage war against the Devil by being kind to everyone. We must be ready to teach the word correctly and patiently endure and put up with these people around us. It even means being kind kind and gentle when we correct those very same people. You see, “the anger of man will not bring about or produce the righteousness of God.” (James 1:20) When we face these argumentative people, we must realize that:

“we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6:12)

These people who war against God have been “ensnared by the Devil”… “captured by him to do his will”. Our hope in all this is that they would repent and come to the Lord… that they would be set free from the evil which ensnares them. Our battle is not with that person… we don’t wrestle flesh and blood … but the spiritual reality behind them is the our enemy. Through gentleness, kindness, a lack of quarreling, a loving correction, and rightly handling God’s word we will defeat the enemy and bring glory to God… “on earth as it is in heaven”. Love you guys! - JDP