The Devil Made Me Do It The First Time

Second time I did it on my own, go the words of Billy Joe Shaver's song The Devil Made me Do it.

At Sunday School this morning, we were discussing why we still sin as Christians. One of the people offered that sometimes, the devil makes us do things. After church, I did some research and disagree with the statement.

I do not believe that the devil makes us do things. I think we do the things that the devil wants us to. There is a difference.

First, let's look at who the devil is. Satan was an angel who fell from Heaven. Jesus tells us in Luke 10:18 that he saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven. We are told in Ezekiel 28:12-28 that Satan was cast to Earth because of his sins. Ezekiel tells us that Satan was an angel who was blameless but later found wickedness in his heart. Since we know that Satan was present at the Fall of Adam and Eve, it stands to reason that this fall of Satan occurred before the Fall of man in the garden.

In the book of Job, Satan says that he walks the earth; however, we also see that he has presented himself before the Lord. So Satan can appear in Heaven even though he has been cast to Earth.

So what does Satan do? His very name means accuser, and Zechariah 3:1 tells us that. As Zechariah sees Joshua standing before an angel of the Lord, Satan is also there, accusing him. He tempts us. We find that even Jesus was tempted by Satan. Luke 4:1-13 documents this temptation in the wilderness. In the Garden of Eden, Satan tempts Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the book of Job, Satan tempts Job to curse God. Something interesting in all these cases is that Satan uses the word of God to try and tempt us. He takes the words, twists them slightly out of context, to try and convince us that he is right and that we should sin. Paul writes about this in 2nd Corinthians, saying "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." Jesus demonstrates the proper defense against the temptation of Satan, and that is an understanding of the scriptures. When the Devil tries to tempt sin by using scripture, Jesus responds with scripture.

So we see that he accuses us and tempts us, but not that he makes us do things. The decision is still ours and God gives us what we need to flee from the temptations. We also see that the excuse that the devil made me do it does not work. In the garden, after Adam and Eve give in to temptation and eat of the forbidden fruit, God arrives. When questioned on why he sinned, Adam blamed Eve. When God asks Eve why she sinned, she blames it on the Devil. God does not accept the excuse and punishes all three, the Devil, Adam, and Eve.

So if the devil didn't make me do it, why do I still sin? A variety of reasons. Sometimes it is out of ignorance. Leviticus 4 explains how to attain for an unintentional sin. Sometimes we give into temptation. We see the devil attempting to get people to do this in the book of Job and in the temptation of Jesus. We see the devil being successful in tempting us in the fall of man. Our human nature, as a result of the fall, often makes it easy for us to sin. Paul tells us about this conflict in us in Romans 7. Often times we sin because we are not following God's word. The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 119 that he treasures the word of God because it keeps away sin. Finally, we sin because we are not of God. Those who have not believed in Jesus live in sin.

The devil didn't make me do it, but he did his hardest to convince me that I should. We should remember to take responsibility for our actions, but also remember the power of Satan so we can avoid his temptations.