The Devil Made Me Do It

The Devil Made Me Do It

Some of you who are older will remember the 1970s television comedy show starring Flip Wilson. Frequently, when caught in some prank, he would do a defensive little dance and say, "The devil made me do it."

I think that excuse was not original with him and has certainly proliferated since. But can the devil really make us do something? Think about it for a moment. Take a look at the other side, as we often categorize it. Can God make us do something? I think we more are more used to, at least coming from Christendom, believing that God can't make us do anything because he created us good with free will. As our Bible tells us, the misuse of that gift by Adam and Eve was what led to their downfall and the spoilage of the whole human race and earth ever since.

So, who do we think is more powerful? The devil or God? Again, according to Christian teaching, the devil is simply one of God's creations, an angel gone bad. If that is all he is and even God can't or generally won't make us do something, where does that leave the devil? When have we ever thought any other angel made us do something?

There is another significant aspect to this that I really had not given thought to until it was raised in a recent discussion I was having with my pastor, Tim Kuepfer. As he so obviously pointed out, again challenging the thought expressed in our title: as a creature, the devil is finite. He is not God who can be everywhere and anywhere at once, as we believe as Christians about our Creator. He would have to be doing a lot of lightspeed scurrying around if he was responsible for all the evil in the world. Now, of course, there has always been the thought that he also has a number of subordinate angels who serve him and delight to encourage us in evil directions as well. This is no doubt true, but again, how many of these angels are there? To be sure, they are spirit and can move around differently than we do, but they are still creatures and limited in their ability. If neither the devil nor his angels can be everywhere at once, it is also then impossible that they are directly responsible for all the evil deeds done in the world. Of course, we could argue that their influence was what led to evil in the world, but man still had to make a choice when offered those possibilities.

Of course, what happened with Jesus and what the New Testament also teaches is that the devil has been beaten at his own game. Jesus’ death removed for all of us and our earth the death that is the consequence of our making wrong choices, particularly choosing not to believe in God or follow the teachings of his son Jesus. So, if Jesus has overcome the devil with his death and resurrection, which demonstrated his power, as St. Paul says, what have we to fear (first Corinthians 15, especially 54-57)?

Now, that is not to say that we do not have to be on guard to a degree. St. Peter (I Peter 5:8) cautions us about that in his description of the devil as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." On the other hand, if we are Christians, living in Christ as our Bible-based belief holds, we have access to Jesus’ power and as James says, if we "resist the devil, he will flee from us." (James 4:7).

All of this does not mean that we can take the casual attitude about the devil that much of our world nowadays seems to have. The devil and his minions are still our enemies. We still do need to be on our guard to a degree, but it is more about the choices we make when tempted, not that the devil or one of his impish angels is going to suddenly appear and make us do something evil that we cannot resist. Unless, of course, we have entirely aligned ourselves with him as others do with Christ. But that is another story. If we as Christians are confident in our salvation and our faith, we need to be ever watchful, but we do not need to be, indeed must not be, fearful. And we should not use the excuse, "the devil made me do it," as that is all it is.