FIFTEETH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR:Do not give the devil undue honour (On the Epistle)

In the wake of the sex scandals in the church in parts of the world, many Christians have stopped going to church. Convinced that the storms rocking the church is the work of the devil, they conclude that the devil has infiltrated the church and that it is, therefore, safer to abandon ship and go elsewhere. This reminds us of what happened in 1988,when a popular tele-evangelist, Jimmy Swaggart, was implicated in a sex scandal involving a prostitute. The Assemblies of God, to which he belonged, ordered him to stop preaching for one year. But Swaggart defied the order. “The devil made me do it,” he claimed. Then he announced that Oral Roberts, another popular Evangelical preacher, had prayed for him over the phone and cast out those demons in his body that were responsible for his immoral behaviour. Three years later, Swaggart was again implicated in a sex scandal with a prostitute. Swaggart was finally defrocked and removed from the ministry by the Assemblies of God. There comes a time when we have to leave the devil alone and accept our responsibilities.

The growing wave of Pentecostalism in our world today has reawakened the devil. Like Swaggart, many Christians in our world today see the devil where there is none. This is especially true in the young churches of Africa and the developing world, where the devil is blamed for every ill health and economic downturn. Someone has an unexpected ill heath. Their first port of call is not a hospital where the disease could be diagnosed but to a prayer ministry where the demon would be exorcised. Someone has a professional or business setback. They do not review their professional conduct or seek help from a business consultant, rather they resort to the ministrations of a “man of God.” In some prayer meetings, half of the time is spent praying to God and the other half rebuking the devil. The devil is enjoying a very high popularity rating.
The revival of the devil’s popularity is not a new thing in the church. The church has seen it before. It was there in the early days of the church as the church was spreading from Jewish to Gentile lands. It was known as Gnosticism. Christian Gnosticism is a belief system that gave as much importance to God or Christ as to the devil. Gnostics saw life as a combat between the principle of Good, God, and the principle of evil, the devil. As Christians, they understood their duty to be joining God in a daily fight against the devil. The devil was seen as God’s rival and competitor, only that God was somewhat stronger than the devil, especially when God got a helping hand from believers. The church condemned Gnosticism as a heresy, a deviation from sound doctrine.
Today’s second reading from Colossians cannot be clearer on this subject. It says of Christ,

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-- all things have been created through him and for him. (Col 1:15-16)It says that all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, were created in Christ, through Christ and for Christ. This includes the invisible created beings we call demons or rebellious angels. They still owe their existence, powers and activities to God. They do not pose a threat or constitute a rivalry to God.
Christ, not the devil, but Christ, is the head of the body, the church (Col 1:18). Christ is king, and he still reigns as head in his church and in the lives of all who surrender their lives to him. As Christians, we dishonour Christ when we believe that the devil in in control of our church or our lives. Whatever is going well in the church and in our lives today is as a result of God’s grace, and whatever is going wrong in the church and in our lives today is as a result of our failure to cooperate with the grace of God. We must stop glorifying the devil, giving him an honour that is not his due.