“Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’” (Matthew 4:10)
Jesus was engaged in a spiritual battle throughout His life. When he started His ministry, he went out into the wilderness to confront Satan, His chief adversary. We know that the devil is quite powerful and crafty. This encounter with Jesus demonstrates his cunning and deceit. He has a better command of scripture than many believers do. He can twist it around, as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden so he can make it seem God is condoning or encouraging sin.
Although Satan could not fool Jesus, he can and often does fool us. He tempts both believers and unbelievers alike with the lusts of the flesh. He tempts Christians by subtly using God’s word to justify questionable, worldly, immoral, and selfish behavior. He uses Scripture to lie so that we are fooled into thinking that all our desires and thoughts come from God Himself. We wind up thinking that God wants us to act in a certain way.
Satan also works through false prophets and counterfeit Christians who twist God’s word so that it seems that God’s will is that all His children deserve to indulge themselves, to fulfill their fleshly desires, to be healthy, wealthy, selfish, famous, and proud. Thus we think we can live like the world because we think that it is what God wants when, in reality, it is what we want. Those who fall prey to the devil in this way are useless to God and in danger of falling from grace.
The temptations that the devil used to try and trap Jesus were like our own temptations: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and selfish pride. Jesus was easily able to overcome these for He knew His mission, He knew God’s Word, and He knew the Father’s will. Since we are daily engaged in this spiritual warfare, we must be properly armed. We must be in prayer and in the Word of God so that we will know His will, His commands, and our mission to live in His righteousness, holiness, and love and spread the gospel of faith in Jesus alone.