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 Given how he met his end, I don’t know how much stock we should put in Caesar’s ruminations. Still, given that he was both a general, a politician and, for the briefest of moments, dictator of Rome, it’s likely unwise to wave him off as some ignoramus of the ancient world. It was none other than Gaius Julius Caesar who said that experience is the teacher of all things. If we hold his claim to be accurate, then the enemy knows you better than you know yourself.

He’s been at it since nearly the beginning, doing his utmost to pervert creation. As is his nature, after God created, he came along to pervert it. After God built it up, he came along to knock it down. Hatred fuels him, both hatred for God and for His creation, and so determined was he in his endeavor that the first fully human person to be born by the first couple God created turned out to be of the wicked one and a murderer to boot.

As I said, Jude distilled the origin, purpose, and destiny of evil in one verse, and that in itself is a feat given that evil has existed since the dawn of time itself, and its influence and presence have been visible throughout history. We have an old enemy who’s got a whole bag of tricks and is not shy about a bit of blood, or a lot, for that matter. The devil doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t tire, and he’s persistent to the point of obsession. Since Adam and Even roamed through the garden, humanity has been his singular target, and it has not changed over the millennia.

If the devil doesn’t quit, you can’t quit either, no matter how many others are or how tempting it might be. It may just be me that needs to go off on my own and pour my heart out to God occasionally. It may just be me that gets weary sometimes. I’m sure everyone else is a spiritual juggernaut who eats exhaustion for breakfast and weariness for lunch.

1 John 3:10-12, “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.”

Two brothers, born of the same parents but markedly different in one attribute. One’s works were evil, the other’s righteous. But that was then, this is now, and we needn’t bother with the past, some might say. I would agree if not for the fact that John prefaces the retelling of Cain and Abel by saying that whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

And Martha just put the sharpie back in the drawer.

I’m not trying to start a fight; I’m telling you what the Bible says. We Can’t ignore half the Bible just because we don’t like what it implies or what it outright declares. Another way of saying “in this they are manifest” is that you will know them by their fruit. If you do not practice righteousness, you are not of God; if you do not bear good fruit, you are not a good tree.

You can call it whatever you want. You can call it mean, unloving, calloused, inconsiderate, upsetting, or even frightening, but the only metric you should consider is whether or not it’s Biblical. Does the Bible confirm and substantiate these truths, or does it not? I showed the receipts. I took time to type out Scripture passages just so I don’t get accused of misquoting the Bible.

The default reaction by some will likely be, yeah, but that’s just John. Maybe, but it was also Jude, James, Paul, Peter, Jesus, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, so the nail some insist on hanging their theology upon grows flimsier still.

God will often use the past to telegraph the future for those in the present. Some of the New Testament authors approached it in a roundabout way; others were straight to the point, each scripture building upon and undergirding the others to the point that if you read first John, then Paul’s second letter to Timothy, with Scripture interpreting Scripture, you realize why Paul was so alarmed by the prospect of people within the church being unloving, proud, blasphemers, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. 

These are people filling pews, believing themselves to be children of God because someone assured them they were while being of the devil. Show me another way to read that. I’d love to be wrong.

If those who do not practice righteousness and do not love their brother are not of God, how can someone saying otherwise make it so?

Either we submit to the authority of Scripture, or we don’t. Partial submission is total rebellion.

It doesn’t matter how warm and fuzzy it makes you feel; a false sense of security is still false by its definition. It does make the devil’s job a lot easier, though, convincing folks they’re not supposed to resist him or strive against sin, doesn’t it?

The Lord may know those who are His, but the devil knows those who are his as well. Always be suspicious when a child of darkness promotes a supposed child of the light. The lion does not instruct the zebra on how it can avoid being dinner. The children of the devil won’t promote those who train others to resist their father.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.