The Bait of Satan

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Meditate

Trapping animals and catching fish require two things: the trap or hook must be hidden, and it must be baited. Our spiritual enemy works the same way. Satan's traps are usually concealed, and the bait is chosen carefully to appeal to our human nature.

We may expect the enemy's most successful bait to be something obviously immoral. But one of the most productive forms of bait in the Church is far more subtle: the bait of offense.

M.I.P.
Satan uses offense to trap us, but God can use the same trial to purify us when we surrender our pride to Him.

The wrong done to us is not itself the trap. The trap closes when we take up the offense and hold on to it. The offense begins to become part of us. It shapes our thoughts, controls our emotions, influences our decisions, and redirects our relationships.

Once we take the bait, anger can grow into bitterness. Resentment can become hatred. Pain can produce strife, envy, insults, attacks, division, separation, betrayal, and even spiritual backsliding. A poisonous root does not remain contained within one heart. Hebrews 12 warns that bitterness grows up to cause trouble and corrupt many people.

Peter loved Jesus, but he was viewing the situation only from a human perspective. Jesus called that perspective a dangerous trap. The Greek word behind the picture is skandalon-the part of a trap where the bait is placed. It is the source of our word scandal.

That should make us pause. When we become offended, we almost always defend our human point of view: "I deserve to feel this way. I am the one who was hurt. I am the victim." We become so focused on the wrong done to us that we may never recognize the trap closing around us.

Offense becomes especially powerful when it comes through someone we trusted: a close friend, another believer, someone we served beside, or a pastor or leader we respected. David described the pain of being wounded not by an enemy, but by a companion and close friend with whom he had shared fellowship in the house of God.

The closer the relationship, the more deeply the offense may be felt-and the more damage the enemy may try to produce through it.

Offended people often fall into two broad categories: those who truly were treated unjustly, and those who sincerely believe they were treated unjustly. In the second group, conclusions may have been formed from incomplete information, inaccurate assumptions, or perceptions distorted by pain. But in either case, once offense is taken up and held, our understanding becomes clouded.

The chain that often keeps us trapped is pride. Pride distorts our vision. Pride darkens our understanding. Pride refuses to consider, "It might be possible that I am wrong." Pride tells us that the other person is entirely bad and that we are entirely innocent.

That is a sobering truth: believers can become trapped, held captive, and used to accomplish the enemy's destructive purposes-all while believing their anger and bitterness are completely justified.

Apply

Jesus confronted the church in Laodicea because they could not see their true condition. They believed they were rich and needed nothing, but Jesus said they were spiritually poor, blind, and naked. Pride had hidden their condition from themselves, though nothing was hidden from God.

Jesus then invited them to receive gold purified by fire and ointment for their eyes so they could truly see. That picture helps us understand what God desires to do when we walk through the fiery trial of offense.

1. Recognize when you have taken the bait.
   The first question is not merely, "Was I wronged?" The deeper question is, "What is this offense producing in me?" Is it controlling my thoughts? Is it shaping my conversations? Is it affecting where I go, whom I trust, how I pray, or whether I remain connected to Christian fellowship? Is it producing anger, bitterness, resentment, hatred, division, or a desire to retaliate?
2. Ask God to crush your pride.
   Gold is first broken down before it is refined. In the same way, the purification of our hearts begins when we ask God to break the pride that keeps us defensive, self-righteous, and unwilling to examine our own condition. Pride says, "I already see this perfectly." Humility says, "Lord, show me the truth-even if the truth exposes me."
3. See the offense as a refining fire.
   Scripture speaks of God refining His people in the furnace of suffering and testing faith as fire purifies gold. When offense brings hidden impurities to the surface, God is not revealing them to destroy us. He is bringing them into the light so they can be removed.
4. Choose who will use this trial.
   The enemy wants to use the offense to make you bitter, divided, hardened, and spiritually imprisoned. God wants to use the same painful situation to humble you, purify you, soften your heart, and make you more like Christ. The question is not whether the trial is painful. The question is whose purpose you will surrender it to.
5. Ask God to anoint your eyes.
   Pain can blind us. Pride can blind us. Our fallen human perspective can blind us. We need the Lord to open our eyes so we can see that something larger is happening than the immediate wrong. We need to recognize both the enemy's trap and God's refining work.

In the refining process, intense heat draws impurities to the surface so the goldsmith can remove them. The process continues until the goldsmith can see his own reflection in the gold.

That is what God desires to do in us. The fire of offense may bring pride, anger, bitterness, insecurity, self-protection, and resentment to the surface. We may not have realized those things were present until the heat exposed them. But once they appear, we have a choice: defend them, or surrender them.

What the devil wants to use to destroy you, God wants to use to purify you.

If the offense is making you bitter and producing the works of the flesh, you are allowing the enemy to use it for destruction. If you are surrendering your pride, allowing God to expose your heart, and beginning to see His transforming work, you are allowing God to use the same fire for purification.

The goal is that Christ's character would become increasingly visible in us-that the Goldsmith would see His own reflection in our hearts.

Respond

Being free from the trap begins when we stop focusing only on what someone else did and allow God to examine what the offense is doing inside us.

• Ask the Lord to reveal every offense you have taken up and held onto.
• Confess the anger, bitterness, resentment, pride, or hatred it has produced.
• Ask God to crush the pride that insists your perspective must be completely right.
• Invite Him to use the fire of offense to expose and remove what does not look like Jesus.
• Ask Him to anoint your eyes so you can see your true spiritual condition.
• Choose God's purpose of purification instead of the enemy's purpose of destruction.

You may have been genuinely wronged. You may have been wounded by someone you trusted deeply. But the enemy does not have to receive the final victory from that pain. You can bring the offense to Jesus and say, "Lord, I choose You. Do not let this imprison me. Purify my heart through it."

The enemy wants the offense to become your identity, your prison, and your excuse to produce the works of the flesh. Jesus wants to give you His righteousness, open your eyes, soften your heart, and transform you into His image.

Get the entire "Bait of Satan" teaching series.