SATAN'S STRATAGEM
 
By A. W. Tozer

 
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
                                                         - 2 Peter 1:16
 
  It is amazing that Satan's wiliest stratagem against
Christian believers is to use our virtues against us!
Perhaps it is more amazing that he often does this with
great success.
 
  By means of temptation to sin he strikes at our personal
lives; by working through our virtues he gets at the whole
community of believers and unfits it for its own defense.
 
  To capture a city an enemy must first weaken or destroy
its resistance. The Church will never fall as long as she
resists. This the devil knows; consequently he uses any
stratagem to neutralize her resistance.
 
  Satan first creates a maudlin, inaccurate concept of
Christ as soft, smiling and tolerant. He reminds us that
when Christ, as a lamb brought to slaughter, opened not
His mouth-and suggests that we do likewise. Then if we
notice his foot in the door and rise to oppose him, he
appeals to our desire to be Christlike. "Love everybody
and all will be well," he urges.
 
  The shepherd, taken in by this sweet talk, is afraid to
use his club, and the wolf gets the sheep!
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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.