1 John 3:8

THE DESTRUCTION OF EVIL WORKS

‘For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.’

1 John 3:8

Here St. John tells us of the purpose of the Incarnation.

I. The works of the devil.—What are these works of the devil?

(a) In the human heart. Selfishness—all sin is selfishness—hatred of the brethren, unbelief, doubt of the love of God even more than doubt of the existence of God—these are some of His works. Belief and love go hand-in-hand, then, and it is the devil’s work to destroy both the one and the other. How hard, we may say, it is to believe, and how hard to love. But it is not doubly hard to do both. It has been well said that the two are together easier than either of them, and the half more difficult than the whole. Man’s doubts are solved by obeying and by loving. ‘If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine.’ A common work of the devil is that form of unbelief known as despondency. That kind of unbelief is one of the things which the Lord Jesus was manifested that He might destroy.

(b) In the Church. And then there is unbelief in the Church—denying the power of God. I speak not in the theological sense, but in the sense of the power which is in the Church of God to win back and to save that which was lost. True, here an effort and there an effort is made, but we do not recognise that it is our first duty to seek and to save. Another of the works of the devil in the Church is the spirit of formalism. How often we have the form of godliness but not the power of it. This temptation is far greater for those called to the ministry than for the laity—the danger of bearing sacred words constantly on one’s lips while one’s heart is far away. It is the work of the devil to take all the true life out of that which was meant to be our help. Again, it is through the work of the devil that the Church, instead of being in the very vanguard of all social progress and true reform, seems always to be behind.

(c) In the world. Again, the Son of God is manifested to destroy the works of the devil in the world, and I think one of the greatest of these is cruelty. We are called upon as Christian people to throw all our efforts into such work as will prevent cruelty to man or beast, and especially cruelty to children. Intemperance, too, is one of those works of the devil in the world by which countless thousands are kept in a bondage too hideous to be thought of. I have known those whom doctors said could not be cured, cured by the power of God.

II. In all these matters God now works through us.—God claims to use us—to manifest Himself through us. The Son of God is being manifested now in every true and pure and noble life which is being lived in His faith and fear. If this be so, shall we not determine to take our part in the conflict of Christ with the forces of evil? It has been well said, ‘A child of God in this conflict receives indeed wounds daily, but he never throws away his armour or makes peace with his deadly foe.’ God grant to us this spirit. God grant to us that the Son of God may be manifested in our lives, that through them the works of the devil may be destroyed.

—Rev. H. W. L. O’Rorke.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

SIN AND ITS CONQUEROR

Even those who would do away with a belief in God can hardly do away with the existence of wrong and of a radical propensity to wrong as working in men’s hearts. A most patent fact; yes; and a most troublesome fact—troublesome to ourselves, to society, to government; indeed, the radical secret of all the troubles of the world. And to those who are alive to the existence of an infinite God this evil assumes its true character, not merely of crime, wrong-doing, disorder, but of sin—crime against God, wrong-doing against God, disorder against God.

I. Sin and its aspects.

(a) Deception: ‘Hath God said?’ So, whenever ‘led away by our lusts and enticed,’ it is really the old story—old as the first transgression—‘Hath God said?’

(b) Alienation: ‘Ye shall be as gods.’ Too true. A false independence. Man deifying himself the worst idolatry.

(c) Disobedience: ‘Knowing good and evil.’ Alas! how often the last part of this malign promise is realised among men! ‘Only evil continually.’ Such this first great work of the devil. And the second is its other self, death! (i) Loss of God. How sudden, swift, and sure! The Lord was gone, and His returning presence brought only pain and shame: ‘I was afraid!’ So now God is gone. The temple is deserted, the life is desolate, the heart is dead. Is it not so? There are, indeed, gaiety and mirth, but how sickening! the dead playing at being alive! (ii) And amongst men? Jealousy, mistrust, hate, blood. The disintegrating work of sin—social death. Is it not so? (iii) And in the world? Toil, sorrow—‘cursed for thy sake.’ A crown of thorns, but not irradiate, as that Other Crown, (iv) And self? Perverted spirit, disordered soul, diseased and dying body. ‘The works of the devil’—ruin, havoc, hell!

II. Their destruction.—An adversary? Yes, and a Rescuer. The picture of Genesis 3:15; serpent coils, crushed limbs, agony. A Mighty One appears; the bruised head, the bruised heel. The Son of God! this attests the power of sin. His wrestling unseen with sin, as in Jacob’s case. The manifestation of which we read in text, as Son of Man.

(a) The conflict. With the tempter. Who shall know its fierceness? With human sin in all His public work. With the world’s death: Calvary.

(b) The conquest. The incipient conquest in the desert; the progressive conquest in the life; the culminating conquest on the Cross. So, after the agonised climax of the conflict, the ‘It is finished!’ And the resurrection the seal of victory.