Who are the three enemies of the Christian life, and how do we fight them?

Question 11065.

The three enemies of the Christian life have been named in that order for centuries, the world, the flesh and the devil, and the grouping is not a piece of ecclesiastical tidiness. It comes straight out of the New Testament and it is enormously useful for diagnosis.

The reason it matters is that these three enemies require different responses. Applying the wrong tactic to the wrong opponent is one of the commonest reasons believers fight hard and get nowhere.

Where the grouping comes from

Paul brings all three together in the opening of Ephesians 2. He says we once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. World, devil, flesh, in a single sentence.

John supplies the classic definition of the first, warning us not to love the world or the things in the world, and naming the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and pride of life. You can read it at 1 John 2:15 to 17.

So the three enemies are not a later invention. They are a summary of how the New Testament describes what a believer is up against, and each has its own character.

The world and its pressure

The world in this sense is not the planet or the people on it, both of which God loves. It is the whole system of values, assumptions and pressures organised without reference to God. The Greek word kosmos carries that ordered arrangement, and Scripture uses it of an arrangement in rebellion.

Its weapon is not argument but atmosphere. The world rarely tells a believer that God does not exist. It simply makes him seem irrelevant, week after week, until a Christian finds they have absorbed a set of instincts they never consciously adopted.

The remedy Paul gives is transformation by the renewal of the mind rather than conformity to this age. That is a slow, deliberate counter pressure, and it happens mainly through Scripture and through the company of other believers. I have written more in what the Bible means by the world.

There is a further point worth making about the world. It is not only hostile, it is temporary. John finishes his warning by saying the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides for ever. Of the three enemies, this is the one most easily exposed by simply asking what will still matter in fifty years.

The flesh and its appetite

The flesh is the enemy inside the wire. Paul uses sarx not for the physical body as such but for the old pattern of life that still exerts a pull on a believer, and he is honest that the conflict is ongoing.

This is the enemy most Christians underestimate, because it does not feel like an attack. It feels like me. When the world tempts, something external is pressing. When the flesh tempts, the desire has my own face on it, which makes it much harder to resist.

The remedy here is not resistance in the same sense. Paul says to walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. The strategy is displacement rather than suppression, and I have set that out in how we know whether we are walking in the Spirit or the flesh.

Note also what Paul does not say. He does not say the flesh has been eradicated, and any teaching which promises that a believer can reach a state where the pull has gone is setting people up for despair. Romans 7 and Galatians 5 both describe an ongoing conflict, and the conflict itself is evidence that something new is present and pushing back.

The devil and his method

Peter describes him as a roaring lion prowling about, seeking someone to devour, and tells us to resist him firm in our faith. Paul says to give no opportunity to the devil, and describes his schemes, a word suggesting method rather than raw force.

His characteristic weapons are deception and accusation. He is called the father of lies and the accuser of the brethren, and both are worth noticing, because a believer under accusation often thinks they are simply being spiritually sensitive.

The remedy is explicit. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Note the order. Submission comes first, and resistance without it is bravado. I have written on this at what resisting the devil means practically.

It is worth adding that his power over a believer is limited and derivative. He is a created being, not a rival deity, and he cannot be everywhere at once. Most believers will never encounter him personally, though they will certainly encounter his system. Treating the enemy as omnipresent grants him a status Scripture never does.

Why the three enemies need different tactics

Here is the practical payoff. Scripture tells us to flee the world’s entanglements, to walk by the Spirit against the flesh, and to resist the devil. Those are three different verbs and they are not interchangeable.

Resisting the world head on usually produces a bruised legalist. Fleeing from the flesh is impossible, because it comes with you. Trying to walk quietly past the devil rather than resisting him leaves ground occupied that should not be.

Getting the diagnosis right is therefore half the battle. When a believer keeps losing the same fight, it is often because they have been applying a good tactic to the wrong one of the three enemies.

Do not over diagnose the devil

I am a continuationist and I take the demonic seriously, but I have watched real damage done by believers who attribute everything to direct satanic attack. Some of what we blame on the devil is a bad night’s sleep, and some of it is a sin we do not wish to name.

Scripture is quite capable of saying each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. That verse alone should slow us down before we reach for spiritual warfare language about every struggle.

The three enemies are real, and so is the temptation to blame the most dramatic one. I have written more on that in whether we can blame the devil for our sins.

They work together

Although they are distinct, the three enemies rarely operate alone. The world creates an atmosphere in which a particular sin looks normal, the flesh supplies the appetite, and the enemy suggests that nobody would know and that God would not really mind.

That is exactly the pattern in Eden. The fruit was good for food and a delight to the eyes, which is appetite, the serpent supplied the lie, and the whole thing took place in an environment where a rival account of God had already been floated.

Recognising the combination helps. When temptation feels overwhelming, it is usually because more than one front is active, and naming each one takes some of the power out of it.

Jesus faced the same combination in the wilderness and answered each move with Scripture. That is instructive. He did not debate, he did not negotiate, and he did not appeal to his own status. He quoted Deuteronomy three times and the encounter ended. The account is at Matthew 4:10 to 11.

The war is already decided

None of this is a fair fight in the sense we might fear. The world is passing away along with its desires, the flesh has been crucified with its passions and desires, and the devil is a defeated enemy awaiting sentence.

That does not make the fighting easy. It does mean we fight from victory rather than towards it, which changes the whole temper of the Christian life. A soldier mopping up a beaten enemy carries himself differently from one who might lose the war.

So take the three enemies seriously without taking them too seriously. Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world, and that is not a slogan but a statement of the actual balance of forces.

So, now what?

Do some honest diagnosis this week. When you next lose a familiar fight, stop and ask which of the three enemies you are actually dealing with. The answer will usually be obvious once the question is asked, and it will tell you which tactic to reach for.

Then strengthen the ordinary defences. Scripture in the morning, believers around you, honesty with somebody who will ask. Most spiritual collapses are preceded by weeks of neglect in exactly those areas, and none of them are dramatic.

And stop fighting alone. The New Testament assumes a company, not a solitary hero. Who knows you well enough to notice if you started losing ground, and when did you last let them ask?

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

James 4:7, ESV