Neither give place to the devil. Ephesians 4:27
Someone posted a picture of a beautifully set table, with all of the plates, saucers, cups, glasses, goblets, napkins, and cutlery all set out in perfect order. The entire tablecloth was covered with dishes and accessories. Under the picture was the question, ‘Do you see a place here for the cell phone?’ The point being made is that only the most ignorant and selfish people will take a cell phone to the dinner table. It’s a place for food and fellowship, with no place for electronic interruptions. Just like there is no place for the devil in the lives of the Lord’s people.
The word translated ‘place’ in our text is the Greek word ‘topos’, which means exactly what the translators said: place. It refers to a portion of territory, a specific location. There is a place in our homes for certain things. The same goes for our cars, our desks, our back yard. The barbecue does not belong in the bedroom, nor does the dishwasher belong in the back seat of the sedan. Many of the things we have are good, as long as they are in their proper places. But there are some things that never have a right place because they should never be anywhere near. Few people keep pet rattlesnakes, for example, and even fewer build playgrounds from raw sewage. Those are just wrong, because they are dangerous. So is the devil and any of his associates and his tools.
The devil’s associates will encourage and entice us to spend our time and money on things that bring no glory to God. If we give him a place in our homes, he will use it to disrupt family harmony, to prevent us from praying and reading the Scriptures, to prevent us from entertaining the Lord’s people, to introduce the world’s entertainment, language, and lifestyles, to fill our minds with doubts and questions that are eerily similar to his original attack on our first mother when he whispered, ‘Yea, hath God said…? If he gets a foothold in our homes, he wins a major victory. If we give him places in our work, our school, in any of our activities, he is just as destructive and dangerous. One of the worst places to give the devil a place is in the Assembly of the Lord’s people. He will use that place to sow discord, to enhance personality clashes, to create discouragement, to induce indifference and and carelessness, in short to do anything that causes the Lord’s people to get their eyes off Christ and onto themselves and each other. No good ever comes of allowing anything of pride and personal agendas into the fellowship.
The devil wants a place in just about every aspect of your life. But if every aspect of your life is committed to the Lord, the enemy will be shut out. -Jim MacIntosh