Matthew 13:37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

Acts 20:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

Hayfields are not fun. As the old saying points out, you have to cut hay while the sun shines. In the middle of summer, out in a big field with little or no shade, putting up hay in stacks, or loading it onto trucks, is downright miserable. Besides the heat and the sweat, the grass makes you itch, and tiny bugs we called chiggers compound the problem.

One thing about hayfields, like wheat fields, is that there are always weeds among the grass, no matter how well tended the field is. It just isn't possible to separate out the weeds while the grass is growing, but you can do that to some extent once the hay is cut. With wheat, the process of separation is much more thorough, as indicated in Christ's parable. As long as the wheat is growing, though, so are the weeds. This reduces the size of the harvest, and takes nutrients away from the wheat plants.

We Christians don't like to accept the idea that the Devil goes to church. We assume that, once the ushers close the doors, Satan politely stays outside. Not only does he attend, through those who serve him, but he listens and watches closely. We might expect that he uses nonmembers, avowed sinners. To an extent, he does, but mostly he uses people whose names are on the church roll. After all, these are the ones that attend meetings, offer opinions, cast votes, and carry out the work of the church. These are also the people with the most potential to cause damage to the church's ministry.

Paul calls them savage wolves among the flock. They may attend church faithfully, teach Sunday school, serve on committees, and even get elected as deacons or chosen as pastors. They have one main fault: they never truly accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. Sadly, many of them don't even realize they were never born again, because they didn't really understand what it meant. They assumed if they came forward in a church service and repeated the right words, that was all it took. Nothing really changed in their lives, except that they "got religion"; not Christ, just religion.

Others deliberately and knowingly live a lie, whatever their motives may be. They become experts at hiding, and distorting, the truth. Sometimes their goal is power, or maybe they hope to use the Gospel as an avenue to wealth. (Philippians 3:18-19) In still other cases, they are driven by lust, and use positions of trust to seduce weak and vulnerable people who come seeking help (2 Timothy 3:6).

As our pastor often points out, only we and God truly know whether or not we're really saved. There are signs we can look for, though, to spot the weeds among the wheat. As carnal, or worldly, Christians can cause many of the same problems as charlatans, we still don't really know for sure. If we see people in the body who cause division instead of unity, and strife instead of peace, and who are more prone to criticize than to praise, we should know that bad seed may well have taken root and sprouted.

One thing we can't do is try to use the Devil's own tactics to oppose his agents. It's far too easy to resort to accusations and counter accusations. I've seen my own church split to the point that both sides used sometimes vicious rhetoric and criticism against the other. No doubt, the Devil took both sides of the issue. Many members, and many sincere Christians, left the church. Christ understood well that trying to weed out Satan's followers from the church can destroy it. Not only does warfare in a congregation have the potential to expose sin and sinners in the body, it can also alienate and drive away believers.

That certainly is not to say we shouldn't oppose the Devil's tactics when we recognize them, whether he uses Christians or not. The weapons we use, though, are the ones Christ himself used: prayer, the Word, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Instead of cursing those who curse us, he said, we should bless them. Instead of striking back at those who hurt us, we should love them. (Matthew 6:44) Satan's lies we counter with the truth of the Word, not by engaging in an intellectual debate. (2 Timothy 2:23-24) When we do see sin the camp, no matter who commits it, we should confront the sinner in the way Christ says we should, first with two or three, then as a body. (Matthew 18:15-17)

Our church, Pikeville First Baptist, is in the early stages of revival, of that I have no doubt. The Spirit is moving in a mighty way in our worship services, the body is growing, and God is transforming lives every time we meet. Our choir, and our music director, are an integral part of what God is doing. I have never been in a congregation with so much freedom in worship and praise. "Pentecostal" and "Baptist" aren't often used together in a phrase, but I've heard that expression more than once these past months. The criticism and the rumors have already started; some of our members are offended because our services aren't quiet, sedate (and dead) as they used to be. Others took the occasion of a recent visit from a representative of the state Baptist Convention's music department to jump to some rather astounding conclusions; the man had come, they said, to investigate reports that Brother Greg, our music director, is some sort of heretic. The man actually is doing a study of worship around the state, and was quite impressed with our worship service and our choir. Still others said that Greg had been offered a six-figure salary at some undisclosed location, implying, perhaps, he was in the music ministry for the money. Both statements were preposterous, but some were willing to entertain them.

If nothing much is happening in your church, the weeds are hard to see. They just kind of blend in. Once good things start happening among God's people, though, expect problems to follow hard behind. If the Devil can get a church to spend its time putting out fires, or if he can cause division it, he has won that particular battle. Even if he doesn't succeed in stopping what God wants to do, he can divert energy and resources away from a church's ministry if it has to deal with internal problems. We must pray for discernment to recognize when Satan is at work, and for wisdom and power to meet his attacks.

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JESUS IS the Bridge Ministries

Beneath His Wings Devotionals - Vol. 2