Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us. 1 Thessalonians 2:18
Flip Wilson was one of the most successful comedians of the 1970s. Today’s text always reminds me of Flip Wilson, because one of his most famous punchlines and quotes was ‘the devil made me do it’. He got huge laughs as he used that line to explain why he did foolish things, why he played tricks on people, and why he did anything wrong. His most popular album was called ‘The devil made me buy this dress’. To Flip Wilson, it was a huge joke to be able to blame the devil for anything and everything, just another way in which people try to avoid taking responsibility for their own wrongdoings. But there are definitely times when the devil does interfere with us and anything we want to do for the Lord. In our text, Paul experienced such interference when he tried to visit the Assembly in Thessalonika. This interference came despite Paul’s deep desire and repeated efforts to make the journey. It was not for lack of trying that he didn’t make it. We are not told what Satan did to hinder Paul. But we encounter various ways in which he tries to hinder us. How can we tell that it is the devil who is hindering us?
We can tell by his objectives. It is always the devil’s desire to rob God of His glory. With Christians, he does that by getting us to deviate from God’s purposes for us. Only by obedience to God and likeness to Christ do we bring glory to God. The devil makes it his business to get us to disobey. If he can keep us from reading our Bibles, he keeps us from learning God’s will for us and God’s plan for our behaviour. If he can keep us from prayer, he keeps us from communion with God and from confession of sins, destroying our fellowship with our Father. If he can keep us from fellowship with the Lord’s people, he can keep us from participating in those activities that lead us to worship and to service for the Lord. This will also lead us to spend more time with those whose goals are the same as the devil’s, to rob God of His rightful glory.
We can also detect the devil’s hand by the methods that he uses. In contrast to our God Who cannot lie, we note that the devil is a liar and the father of lies and liars. So he will convince us to go along with his lies and listen to his liars. All that is false in the world, from the big lies of evolution and global warming to the little lies of compromise and comfort, work on our minds and drag us away from the purity and holiness of God. The devil knows that the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10), so he often uses riches, or the promise of riches, to hinder us from pursuing righteousness and holiness. In contrast to God Who is loving and kind, the devil would have us involved in things that are cruel, hateful, and mean. In contrast to Christ Whose selfless compassion and love for others is the great Example for us, the devil would have us to be selfish and self-centred in our lives. Look out for number one, the devil keeps telling us, not adding that number one should be our Lord and not ourselves, and that number two should be others before ourselves.
Are we hindered by Satan today? Let us make sure that we don’t go along with his hindering. -Jim MacIntosh