Rare is the person humble enough, honest enough, and shamed enough to fess up to a crime without being prompted, threatened, or punished. It happens, sure, but usually a person will deny, deny, deny, plead not guilty, and hope to escape justice on a technicality. If cornered and forced to admit even a degree of culpability, often the guilty party will cast blame on everyone and everything else he can to lighten the load of his own misdeed.
“It wasn’t me, it was the people I was with that wanted me to do it!”
“It wasn’t me, it was my terrible upbringing that led me to do it!”
“It wasn’t me, it was the Devil that made me do it!”
Is it true? Can people pressure you into doing something you know to be wrong? Yes, but you still made the bad choice.
Is it true? Can a bad environment weaken your sense of morals, dull your conscience, and foster a carelessness for the law? Yes, but you still made the bad choice.
Is it true? Can the Devil make a person do wrong?
No, but what the Devil can do is tempt you. How? By lording over a sinful and corrupt world, an environment that can easily weaken our sense of morals, dull our conscience, and foster a carelessness for the law. He can tempt us by corrupting our peers, and having them be his mouthpiece, pressuring us into doing something we know to be wrong. How does he get to our peers? Through the same sinful world—and the lusts thereof (1 John 2:17)—he uses to affect us. It might already be affecting our peers. They might already be willing slaves to the Devil, doing his bidding to bring you into the fold along with them.
That does not, however, mean that the Devil “makes” you do something. That’s an easy scapegoat that the Devil is happy for you to believe, because it keeps you from taking responsibility for your actions (and that for the better). The Devil cannot insist his way on you any more than God Himself. The Lord gave you free will. He will not take it away from you, and the Devil cannot take it, either. He might whisper temptations. He might try to allure you. He might offer you this or that to get you to leave the hand of God voluntarily, but you have to make the choice to go. In a similar way, God whispers sweet peace to you. He promises a rest to you. He offers Heaven to you, but you have to make the choice to take the offer.
In life, it’s paramount that we recognize our own responsibility and the power of our choices. We have the ability to resist temptation, to choose godliness over wickedness, and to make decisions that align with God’s values and not the Devil’s. The Devil cannot make us do anything, but every bad thing we’ve ever done can be traced back to the temptation of the Devil.
The threat of Satan is real, but do you know what else is real? The ability to resist (James 4:7), and the power to be forgiven (Acts 8:22).
~Matthew