Satan’s power

The Bible teaches us that Satan’s power is greater than ours (Ephesians 6:12) but less than God’s (Job 1:12; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8). What we want to keep in mind is that while Satan is an enemy of God and followers of God, Satan has allies to help him in his evil work.

One ally is the sinful world in which Christians live. Satan can use the allurement of earthly wealth (1 John 2:15-16) to try to lure Christians into abandoning their real spiritual wealth (Ephesians 1:7). Satan can also use people in this world to oppose God and godliness (Luke 22:3; Acts 5:3).

Another ally of Satan is the sinful nature that lives within each person (Romans 8:7; Galatians 5:17, 19-21).

All this information means that Satan or his evil angels can tempt Christians. Satan can work through other people to tempt Christians. Satan can work with the sinful natures of Christians to tempt them.

This is not a hopeless situation though. Not at all. In the place of all people, Jesus Christ withstood every temptation of Satan (Matthew 4:1-11; Hebrews 4:15). By his holy life, innocent death and glorious resurrection, Jesus has crushed the power of Satan (Hebrews 2:14). Satan has lost the battle. God gives Christians powerful weapons to defeat Satan in the daily skirmishes of life (Ephesians 6:10-17).

I encourage you to look up the Bible verses that are included in this response. Since you also described yourself as someone who “doesn’t know very much about Christianity,” you would benefit from looking at another website from our church body – “What About Jesus?” There are many good resources there for you. God bless you and your study of his word.