Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour.
-I Peter 5:8
Something which hinders as much as a hateful attitude towards one another is the arrogance which abounds today in matters of faith. I recently came across an article on the Internet written by an individual, and he spent what would have been 20-25 typed pages explaining why most Baptists are going to hell – because we aren’t part of his particular group of Baptists. Clearly he views you, me, American Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and anyone else outside his group as the enemy. Again I say that our enemy is the devil.
Years ago I had a neighbor who sometimes tried to get me to defect from the Baptist church I was attending to his church because he believed that we were all lost and everyone in his church was saved. I gently tried to explain to him on one occasion that his energies could be far better spent trying to reach the lost. I am a child of God; I have been born again, my sins cleansed by the blood of Christ. Stop trying to save me – I already am! He left me alone after that.
As we follow Christ let us reach the lost, do the work of evangelism, edify one another, and urge one another onward to good works. Do not allow the devil to have a foothold in our lives.
