II Cor. 2:11 ... "That no advantage be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes."
In his first extant letter to the Corinthians Paul rebuked them for proudly continuing to fellowship a man who was cohabiting with his step-mother. He ordered them to "deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus," (I Cor. 5:5). In other words, in a solemn convocation in the name of Christ they were to withdraw fellowship from this brother in the hope that it might induce him to repent and return to a life of Christian purity, (I Cor. 5:4). We learn here in this Second Epistle that, upon reading these instructions from the apostle, the Corinthians were overcome with shame and took the prescribed action against the wayward brother. The outcome was as hoped. The man repented and appealed to the church to be forgiven and then reinstated in its fellowship. Strangely, however, the people who had formerly protected the man in his sin were very reluctant to forgive him in his penitence. In the first ten verses of II Corinthians 2, Paul strongly urges the church to forgive the man and accept him with the fullness of Christian love. He then warns them, "That no advantage be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes."
We must never forget that Satan lives in our midst here in this world and that he has a plan to turn every one of us away from God. How poignant is the warning in I Pet. 5:8, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." We should never take lightly the reality of Satan or the influence he exerts in our environment. The native Masai who roams freely and carelessly in the savannah in lion country may never return, but instead end up in the stomach of the king of the beasts. Vigilance and superior weapons are required daily to survive, for human strength is no match for that of the lion. Peter compares Satan to a hungry lion who constantly stalks humans as his prey. Martin Luther well expressed this reality in his hymn, Ein Feste Burg: "For still our ancient foe / doth seek to work us woe. / His craft and power are great, / and armed with cruel hate, / on earth is not his equal. / Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, / were not the right man on our side, / the Man of God's own choosing." Our defense against Satan is also vigilance and superior weapons, not those of our own design, but those supplied to us by our Lord Jesus, (Eph. 6:10-18). The one who ignores these and ventures out into life on his own will sooner or later be "devoured" by Satan.
Paul says that we not be "ignorant of his schemes." The Scriptures warn us that Satan has developed extremely effective "schemes" (strategies) by which he can overthrow the faith and righteousness of the unwary Christian. The word translated "advantage be taken" conveys the idea of deception, which is doubtless Satan's most successful "scheme." Later in this epistle, (11:14-15), Paul declares that "Satan disguises himself as an angel of light" and that "his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness." Through his agents, people who have submitted to him and are serving him, Satan tries to persuade us to call evil good and good evil, and to put light for darkness and darkness for light, sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet, (Isa. 5:20). At first, he induced the Corinthians to protect a man in the open commission of fornication; then Satan induced them not to forgive him when he repented. Satan always tries to lead us to do the opposite of that which God wills. We must study his "schemes" and learn to spot them clearly when they are applied. Then we must take care not to give him "advantage of us" by ignoring him, trying to beat him at his own game, or foolishly facing him without the presence of our Lord Jesus, against whom Satan cannot stand, (Mat. 4:1-11).
