(All scripture references are NASB unless otherwise noted.)
“10 - But one whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did so for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11 - so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” 2 Corinthians 2:10-11
If you need a reason to practice forgiveness (beyond the amazing fact God has forgiven us, which is the primary reason), then thwarting enemy schemes is a good one.
But I mainly wanted to point out that clearly the enemy has 'schemes'. Here is the Greek word from Strong's for scheme:
‘3540 nóēma (a neuter noun, derived from 3539 /noiéō, "to exert mental effort") – properly, the mind, especially its final output (systematic understanding, TDNT). Note the -ma suffix which underlines the result of the thinking, i.e. the personal verdict that comes out of using the mind.”
Essentially schemes are how the enemy and his system (world and flesh) thinks and attempts to act upon that thinking. In this particular context, the enemy is anti-forgiveness, for he is anti-God.
God is forgiving by nature; love “keeps no account of wrongs.” The enemy is not loving by nature; he loves keeping score, and he wants us to do the same, either for ourselves or others.
He has many other schemes however. I will be focusing on one today that is related to requiring perfect beliefs to be a Christian; or at least a good one.
The Enemy Twists Righteousness
The enemy loves to twist 'righteousness' and use it against us.
There are two ways he does this:
He makes evil appear good
He sets the righteousness standard higher for us than God Himself does in scripture to the point where it is unachievable
In our more conservative spiritual communities, we are very good at pointing out the first one. After all it is quite easy to see how the world is trying to make evil things appear moral and good. Society is full of this.
However, often we not only do not oppose the second, we many times participate in encouraging it! It is much harder to be introspective for these non-obvious mindsets.
By righteousness, I don't mean true righteousness, I mean a righteousness we measure by looking at ourselves and our track record of performance.
Of course, the gospel says we have righteousness as a free gift. This is not based in our attitudes and actions. This is the first step to getting us off course: getting us to measure our Christianity by our 'successes' or 'failures'.
The enemy wants the Christian life, pleasing God, and relationship with God, to be complicated and difficult, with many hoops to jump through before we can feel good about ourselves towards God.
He wants us to get bogged down with all the requirements to be a 'good' Christian.
He does not want us to buy into Christ's truth that His yoke is easy and light. He doesn't want us to walk in rest because of our permanent rest in Christ. He wants us continually seeking some self-dependent route to finally be at peace with God and in His 'will'.
Thus, if he cannot convince believers that actual evil is good (like much of the world believes), then he will try to convince us that what we are doing (or are not doing) is never good enough!
And sadly many teachers in our spiritual communities push this mentality, however sincere they may be.
The concept is that there are a perpetual, never ending, set of activities that need to be done before we can achieve peace with God. And if we think we have achieved it, then there is always another scripture to twist and use as a weapon against God's peace.
Righteousness Is God's Nature
Psalm 89:14 - “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before You.”
There is some minimal evidence from the OT that the enemy was one of the few special angels that 'guarded' the throne of God.
There is of course symbolism threaded throughout scripture and I certainly don't want to get into all of that. I don't have enough life left, LOL, and that is a wormhole.
I simply want to go back to the original purpose of why the enemy would have this scheme.
The enemy's main purpose is to try and undermine God's authority. The only way to do this is to legitimately accuse God of being unrighteous and/or that He has committed an injustice. The throne of God has always been the enemy's goal.
Ultimately this proves the very insane pride he has. He is the ultimate narcissist. The truth is that he will never trick God into being something that goes against His very nature. It is impossible.
Please realize this plays a large role in the manner in which God played out the gospel. He full well knew when He created us that humanity would put Him in a bind caused by His own nature of love.
As is mentioned a few times in the New Testament, His plan was known before the creation of the world. Christ coming was always the plan.
Our Rebellion Was a Conundrum
When humanity rebelled and we went our own way, we gave up the life of God. We lost His protection. It was His life that protected Adam and Eve from death and destruction.
And of course, as Galatians 3:21 proves, God's life and righteousness are essentially the same thing.
Read again what David wrote about God's throne, which represents His authority. It is upheld by righteousness and justice. Satan well knew this, which is why he tempted Adam and Eve.
If God let their rebellion go without consequences then He would no longer be just. The very definition of 'unrighteousness' is that which is not of God. Death is the opposite of life.
That which is not God, or empowered by God, is death by default. The clock began ticking immediately for humanity. And the effects of losing life, of unrighteousness, began to be felt.
(The most obvious immediate impact was Cain and Abel. Loss of spiritual life inevitably leads to loss of physical life.)
The enemy thought he had won. He had finally put God into an impossible conundrum. If He wanted to save His creation, that He claimed to love, then He would have to accept unrighteousness, act unjustly, and then give up His throne.
Of course, as believers, we hopefully know the end of this story. Christ completed God's plan, enabled us to gain God's life and yet God maintains His righteousness and justice. Yet again, the enemy plan was foiled.
Not a big surprise…except maybe to the enemy…
If the Enemy Can't get God…
The enemy's #1 goal for humanity is to keep them from gaining life. For true believers, that goal has been thwarted.
Now, his goal is the keep us trapped in mindsets where we act as if we don't have Christ's life. If we have the enemy mindset that keep us busy trying to get what we already have, then we have an active life that is faithless.
There are many manifestations of this, but in this context I want to focus on one: accusation and condemnation that you are not good enough, doing enough, or you sin too much.
Has Not God Said?
One way the enemy brings us down is to accuse us of unrighteousness. And His favorite way to do this is to twist God's actual words into something that is not of faith.
His methods haven't really changed much from the beginning. What was his verbiage for Eve: “Has not God said?”
This continues today. As he did when He tempted Christ, he loves to twist scripture and use it to point out our 'failures', legitimate or otherwise.
Note: when I use the term enemy or references to it, I don't necessarily mean Satan explicitly. Most often it is the enemy ideas or schemes, which are perpetrated by many, and defined by the world and the flesh in scripture.
This particular scheme is quite effective because we know, in and of ourselves, we don't meet the mark, and never can. Thus, when our stumbles and failures provide proof of this accusation, it is easy to give in to it.
When we do this, we are walking by sight, not faith.
Faith is required to realize and believe we have Christ's righteousness even amongst, or especially amongst, our struggles.
What takes more faith?
To look at our track record and still claim our free gift of righteousness?
Or look at our stumbles and focus on ourselves claiming woe is me, I'm dirty and distant from God because, just look at me!
If you can only accept peace with God when you have “done your part” then that is not faith. That is works.
This is how the enemy measures righteousness, not God. We must be careful that in our thinking and especially our teaching, we don't follow the enemy playbook.
‘Righteousness’ on Steroids
This accusation takes many forms. But the one I want to focus on is where the level to achieve ‘righteousness’ is raised to a point of impossibility.
Again, this is not true righteousness that can only come from Christ. The enemy form of righteousness always requires self effort and avoids trust in Christ for righteousness.
The idea that you must believe perfectly to be at peace with God is one form of this. This is an impossible requirement. And as I have already covered, it is a narcissistic one.
But this is the scheme…convince you that you are not meeting the mark in some extreme way and then provide an answer that actually pushes you into a truly sinful attitude that is worse than what you are trying to 'fix'.
But once you are tricked onto the path of achieving righteousness (or sanctification) on your own, then all sorts of layers can be added to the pile.
Works Based Sanctification
In my circles, a works based salvation is never taught and is even decried (which is good); but a works based sanctification is shouted from the rooftops. It is claimed to be the way forward for growth.
It may not be described that way, but that is essentially what it is. And the load feels ever more increasing to achieve. And many burn out or just start to fake it until they make it.
However, some are strong in the flesh: they have good looking flesh. They have flesh that is easily able to do all the good Christian things outwardly - so they think they are good. A form of godliness without the power.
I know of what I speak. I once lived that way and had everyone fooled. But now that I am learning the difference between flesh and Spirit power, I can see plainly that it was mostly flesh. And trust me, I can still easily fall back to flesh power. We all can.
This mindset reminds me of Matthew 23 where Christ proclaims several 'woes' on the religious leaders of the time. He states that they create heavy burdens but won't lift a finger to help with the burden. Later He calls them “sons of Hell”.
And He rightly calls them this since this idea is truly from Hell.
This is all part of the same enemy scheme. Make the Christian life nearly impossible to live and then keep believers in a perpetual state of shame and guilt over their failures.
He truly is the 'accuser' of the saints.
Flesh vs. Spirit Power - Is it Fruit?
Often those who are doing 'great' spiritual things in flesh or self power are put on a pedestal with minimal recognition of whether they are displaying fruit of the Spirit within those activities.
I have observed this over and over. Some of the most sourpussed, mean spirited people, who have an obvious lack of peace and joy in their lives, are often the most active in the church.
There is almost this compulsion for spiritual activities, and many times they are quite faithful and dedicated, yet something is missing.
(Yes, I realize we all have bad days. What I am referring to is a consistent attitude that does not seem to reflect Spirit fruit at all.)
The activities become the focus, not the Spirit working within the activities. The Spirit can work in all activities, not just the 'official' ones in our spiritual communities.
But the 'great' works of God are often lifted up above the mundane activities of life. The truth is that we are called to bearing the fruit of the Spirit in every moment, not just certain spiritual looking activities.
The office worker who reflects love, joy, peace, patience, etc, in their everyday life is walking just as well, and fulfilling their calling from God just as well, as the missionary in a foreign field.
And sometimes they may be walking better! We can't judge the heart, but certainly there have been missionaries or others in full time ministries who were guilted into it or had other non-Spirit based motivations.
Again, it is not the activity that determines the spiritual value; it is the motivation or power that naturally instigates the activity that matters.
Paul, the most profligate missionary in history, would be the first to emphasize this. All that matters is the new creation he would say (and did write).
Those with natural giftings or inclinations to certain spiritual looking activities are often touted as role models without emphasizing reliance on the Spirit; or it is an afterthought.
These unrealistic demands on the body of Christ for some kind of perfect walk or work without a primary focus on the Spirit empowering us is harmful.
Those who do not have the natural abilities and are not taught how to rely on the Spirit for power then compare themselves and find they don't measure up.
This leads to burnout and discouragement and ultimately giving up. Often they have struggles from their past that almost serve like a spiritual disability. Yet comparison to this perfect standard is expected.
The enemy's goal is then achieved because that person is no longer bearing the fruit of the Spirit and reflecting the love of Christ to the needy world around them in their everyday activities.
This happens either because they have given up trying or because they begin simply to hide their failures and put up the good little Christian front by checking off their list of things to do.
Sadly, many of our spiritual communities teach and encourage this cookie cutter, follow the rules, Christianity that has little to do with faith or the Spirit.
I feel this often comes from not truly understanding what the new birth and becoming a new creation is. There is a dearth of “identity in Christ” teaching on our communities.
I do want to say that there are many Spirit motivated people serving joyfully in spiritual communities the world over. I do not want to diminish that fact.
But it seems like this happens not because of, but in spite of, the vast majority of 'Christian' teaching that is out there. The Spirit works despite our poor attempts to teach. Yet, we should strive for the correct mindsets.
The Answer is Always Christ
These ideas are all forms of the fiery darts from the enemy. Faith requires that we look away from ourselves, our failures, our humanity, and fix our gaze on Christ.
Yet, the enemy wants us to focus on our failures, our inabilities, our insecurities, etc; especially spiritually. He wants a life connected to Christ to seem difficult and challenging.
If a shell of religious spirituality can be put on a mindset that is the opposite of faith, then we think we are serving God while serving the enemy! Many are trapped in this mindset.
Yet the answer is always Christ. Every; single; time. I will do an entire article on this, but the armor of God mentioned in Ephesians 5 is Christ.
It is not a set of works to do, it is a mindset of faith in what Christ has done for, to, and in us.
Knowing we are armored by Christ quenches all darts, even the religious, spiritually coated ones.
When Paul talks of “putting on” the armor, he is not asking us to do anything except have faith in Christ and set our mind on what Christ is doing.
Belt of truth - Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6; 1 John 5:6)
Breastplate of righteousness - Christ is our righteousness. (Romans 5:1, 5:17; Phil. 3:9; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21)
Gospel of peace - the good news about Christ. (Romans 1:9, 15:9; 1 Cor. 9:12; 2 Cor. 2:12; Gal. 1:7; and many more)
Shield of faith - faith in Christ. Faith allocated by Christ. (Gal. 2:16, 3:26; Col. 1:4; Rom. 3:22, 12:3; Phil. 3:9; and many more)
Helmet of salvation - Christ saves us. (Acts 4:11-12; Hebrews 5:7-10; 1 Thess. 5:9; and many more)
Sword of the Spirit - Christ is the Word. (John 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:18; 1 Thess. 2:13; 1 John 1:1)
Those who would teach this as a list of activities that we must do to put on the armor are misguided. This is a mindset of faith in Christ as our armor. All of these things are pseudonyms for Christ, not a checklist of activities.
Faith Is Not Passive
Faith does result in doing. A passive faith is no faith at all (James 2 is clear on this). But the doing motivated by faith is the only worthwhile action.
Paul was speaking to believers in Romans 14 when he said whatever is not of faith is sin.
Let that sink in. A missionary could be in the field for years and it be purely a works based effort with little Spirit powered or motivated work.
In the spiritual life of that person, it would be considered sin. Consider what this verse is really saying: it is profound.
God will work all things for good. Let me repeat that, God will work all things for good. Yet, clearly we are called to set our minds, to let Christ's mind, His thinking, work in our minds.
Faith is cooperating with God to have His mindset and work Spirit motivated works.
Yes, God can do the impossible, and accomplish His work whether we cooperate or not. Nevertheless, we should make His work easier, LOL, by having a faith mindset!
Hebrews 11:6 says without faith you cannot “please God”. As Christ mentioned earlier, faith is the only work. Actions that occur spontaneously and naturally from faith are awesome and amazing.
That verse is amazing. It says that you must believe God “earnestly rewards those who seek Him”. Do you realize that true faith believes God gives good gifts? That is the basis of true faith.
A non-faith perspective sees a demanding Zeus-like God where we must endlessly strive to make Him happy. This is an enemy perspective.
Yet, Hebrews 11:6 indicates true faith sees that the nature of God is a giver, not a taker. All we need to do is seek Him.
Faith Based Work is Easy and Light
Once you experience faith based works (as opposed to works that are trying to mimic faith) you will experience the amazing difference and only want more.
They will truly be easy and light. And faith will enable you to ignore all the voices (some very spiritual sounding) telling you that it is not enough.
This “easy and light” standard is a handy measurement of whether a work is faith based or not.
Note: I'm not saying your life or circumstances will be easy and light. But faith will make it easy and light to bear them. Bearing Spirit fruit within the circumstances will seem easy and light compared to self-effort.
When the Spirit is truly involved then fruit just comes naturally and effortlessly.
When we are trying to bear fruit using flesh power, then everything becomes drudgery and difficult, where we are basically having to psych ourselves into believing that we are enjoying it.
This is a sad place to be as I have been well aware of in my own life. True faith is fun and it is actually really fun, you don't have to pretend it is.
Ten minutes of faith based activity is worth more to the kingdom of God than ten thousand hours of self motivated activities trying to make yourself feel better towards God.
How Much Is Enough?
There is another trap linked to the idea that you must believe or behave perfectly to please God. How much 'spiritual' activity is enough to meet the goal? How perfect does your belief system need to be?
Again, when the goal is a “never ending impossible to meet challenge”, that is simply not of God.
It may make the flesh feel better that you have had the 'faith' to accomplish great things, but feeling better is not the goal. Genuine faith is the goal.
Faith Based Work is Successful
Scripture is full of example of amazing things accomplished by faith. There is an entire chapter, Hebrews 11, dedicated to that topic.
Yet, the author makes it very clear it is faith that he is praising, not the results.
The tiniest, seemingly insignificant, thing we might do, coming from faith; from Christ; in the Kingdom of God, will far exceed mighty works done in our own strength.
A cup of water given in His name is all it takes to prove you have faith (Matthew 10:42; Mark 9:41).
The enemy wants us to measure our deeds, to compare them to others, either contemporarily, or from the past. Paul calls this mentality foolish. All enemy mentalities are of course.
Yet, so many are burdened down with the idea that their life is not worthy in some way. They are not serving God well or are living in some constant failure mode.
This may or may not be the case. For some, great faith is required just to get out of bed in the morning. For others, they can serve all day in their own strength and never need faith at all!
Faith Is A Gift - Not a Work
I realize that Christ said the only work is faith, yet in context He was responding to their question about works, so He used the same word to make a point.
Yet later in the epistles, we find that even faith is a gift:
Romans 12:3 - “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
Notice what Paul says: God has allotted to each a measure of faith. He gets at a similar concept in 2 Corinthians 10:13 -
“We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you.”
Each of us has a “sphere of service” assigned by God. The enemy mindset wants us to look at other people's sphere, compare, and decide they are more spiritual than us. Thus we should be discontent with our sphere and try to act more like them or make our sphere look more like theirs.
And finally, Ephesians 4:7 - “Now to each one of us grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Paul goes on to describe how each individual contributes to the entire body of Christ.
These are the truths that you can firmly grasp in your mind to enable protection against the fiery darts of “I'm not good enough or I don't believe properly enough or that person is more spiritual than me because of all they are doing.”
Do not be discontent with your sphere assigned by God. Simply learn to bear His fruit within that sphere.
We are Set Spiritually Because of Christ.
If we do nothing else, if our only contribution is a “cup of water” in Christ's name, which means out of faith, then that is enough. We have Christ, is that enough for you?
Or will you fall for the tantalizing spiritual sounding lies of the enemy that your spirituality is not measured by looking at Christ; but by looking at yourself; your good or bad deeds; or even what you believe?
I am exhorting you to have the mindset that Christ is enough. What flows from that are simply benefits of being a new creation, bonded with Christ.
We Must Be Ready
Much of what I have written could potentially be interpreted as “well, we have Christ, we can just sit around and wait for Him to move our body.” I hope that is as ludicrous to you as it sounds.
We must be ready to give an account of the hope that is within us. We must be ready for the “sphere of service” God has gifted us.
We must learn to rely on Spirit power, so that when the works God created for us before He creates the world are put before us, we won't hesitate, we will do them.
Real faith is not passive. Again, James 2 illustrates this. His point is to not get confused over fake 'faith'.
My concern is the stuff we do because we were guilted into it by our spiritual community, not given it by God.
Or what we are doing in order to gain something from God that He has already gifted us through Christ.(closeness, peace, assuaging of guilt, righteousness, fruit, etc.)
It is a huge problem when our service to God is actually what is preventing the fruit of the Spirit.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control and the like are real. They don't have to be faked. They are legitimate.
Serving God by faith does not stress you out. It does not cause or respond to guilt trips. It's hard to put it any better than Christ did: it is easy and light.
If that does not describe your life and walk, then perhaps consider if you have bought into the enemy scheme of some impossible standard that you must achieve to be at peace with God.
If you do not have peace with God even when sitting still, please consider. Everything we have in Christ is a gift. Christ is the gift. When we have Him, we have everything.
No imbellishment or improvement needed. Nothing we need to add to that, we simply live from the life He sacrificed so much to freely give us.
I have one more thought to conclude this series that is related but important: What difference does the Spirit make? An important question I will delve into next. Hope you come back. Thanks.