The Sword of the Spirit

January 4

Genesis 7-8

Psalm 3

Proverbs 1:8-9

Matthew 4

The Sword of The Spirit

“But He answered, ‘It is written….’  Jesus told him, ‘It is also written….’  Then Jesus told him, ‘Go away, Satan!  For it is written:” Matthew 4:4,7,10 HCSB

When tempted in the desert by Satan, Jesus did not try to reason with him or argue with him out of His own reasoning and understanding.  Each time Satan tempted Him, He responded with scripture.  2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (NIV) If Jesus inspired every word that was written, it seems logical that He didn’t need to quote Himself.  He could have just given Satan an answer to each temptation.  Instead, He purposefully and intentionally quoted scripture each time.  I believe He did this as an example to us of how we should respond when tempted by Satan. 

Unlike Jesus, our own reasoning and understanding is no match for Satan’s attacks.  He is smarter than we are, and He knows our weaknesses better than we do.  We are ill-equipped to stand up to his schemes and pretensions.  Fortunately, we do not stand alone.   We stand in the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.  We have been equipped with the armor of God found in Ephesians 6 that includes “a shield of faith with which we can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one……and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” (NIV) When faced with Satan’s arrows of temptation or accusation, Jesus modeled the perfect response.  The more time we spend reading, meditating, and memorizing God’s Word, the better we will be able to respond to Satan’s attacks.