“Christian blood
is sweet to Satan but the blood of the Christian's godliness is far sweeter.
Simple holiness, then, is the flag, which the
soul hangs out to declare open defiance of Satan and friendship with God, even
as the devil strives to shoot it down. And here is the ground of that quarrel,
which will never end as long as Satan is an unclean spirit and the saint a holy
child of God: "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution" 2 timothy 3:2.
Persecutors often try to describe their
malice under the pretense of good works; but the Spirit of God looks through
their hypocritical mufflers and knows the instructions they have from hell.
God's Spirit tells us that godliness is the target at which Satan levels his
arrows. Of course there are more kinds of godliness in the world than one, but
Satan opposes only the true one: "all that will live godly in Christ
Jesus."
Christian blood is sweet to Satan but the
blood of the Christian's godliness is far sweeter. He prefers to sever the
saint from his godliness rather than butcher him for it. Yet so he will not be
too conspicuous, he often plays a small game and expresses his cruelty upon
saints' bodies; but this happens only when he cannot capture their souls;
"They were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain" Hebrews 11:37.
What the persecutors wanted more than anything else was to entice them into sin
and apostasy; thus they tempted Christians severely before they killed them.
The devil considers it a complete triumph if he can strip away the saint's
armor and bribe him away from steadfastness in his holy profession.
The devil would rather see Christians defiled
with sin and unrighteousness than defiled in blood and pain, for he has learned
that persecution only trims the church, which soon comes back up all the
thicker; it is unrighteousness which ruins it. Persecutors, then, only plow
God's field for Him and all the time He is sowing it with the saints' blood.
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete
Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell. http://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41823&pid=53617
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