John 10:7-10
So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
The cast of characters in this worldwide play has been the same for a few thousand years: humans, Satan, and Jesus. Every human is in one camp or the other. You are either a child of the devil or a child of God (1 Jn. 3:10). One “father” will lead you into pain, misery, and eternal loss while the other will lead you into abundance, joy, and eternal rewards. As the sheep in this passage, every one of us will choose which voice to follow.
In simple terms, Satan is a petulant child pouring out his temper tantrum on anything and everything his Creator has brought into existence…but nothing gets his attention more than God’s special creation: mankind. What began in the Garden of Eden has expanded into a worldwide system of lies that is organized into powers and principalities that span every aspect of culture from government to entertainment including education, industry, and even religion. It was Satan (or one of his minions) that visited Muhammad in the desert and gave him the vision for Islam and it was the same dark force that corrupted Joseph Smith’s mind to give birth to the false religion of Mormonism. Who else could create such effective means by which to lead billions of people away from the One True Shepherd into the pasture of perdition?
Kill. Steal. Destroy.
“Kleptes, and lestes—the thief and the robber—should be properly distinguished; one takes by cunning and stealth; the other openly and by violence” (Clarke). Do you not see both in full operation across the world? The lies of the devil have been both obvious and invisible…gentle as well as violent. In one realm he kills with a whisper while in another he kills with forceps. All he ever does is kill, steal, and destroy. If you reject Christ’s offer of grace you are inviting in—and will receive— every single aspect of Satan’s “job” here on earth while he is allowed to roam mostly free (but never beyond God’s limitations).
The very first Christian book I read after being saved back in 1994 was The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. It is a “Must Read” for followers of Christ because it provides a profoundly eye-opening look into the dealings of the agents of chaos as they seek to keep one man out of the Kingdom of God. Everything in his life becomes a tool…an opportunity…to hide or mask or distort the Shepherd’s voice in order to “consume” the soul of just one of God’s special creations. It is a pseudo-fictional glimpse into the working out of Satan’s job description…for which there is only one escape: Running into the open arms of Jesus Christ who offers you abundant life.
