The Christian’s Three Enemies: The World, the Devil, and the Flesh

Before you became a Christian, you floated downstream with the other dead fish. But now, God has put His life within you, and you will find yourself swimming against a threefold current: the world, the devil, and the flesh. Let’s look at these three resistant enemies.

Our first enemy is the world, which refers to the sinful, rebellious, world system. The world loves the darkness and hates the light (John 3:20), and is governed by the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2). The Bible says the Christian has escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. “Lust” is unlawful desire, and is the life’s blood of the world—whether it be lust for sexual sin, for power, for money, for material things. Lust is a monster that will never be gratified, so don’t feed it. It will grow bigger and bigger until it weighs heavy upon your back, and will be the death of you (James 1:15).

There is nothing wrong with sex, power, money, or material things, but when desire for these becomes predominant, it becomes idolatry (Col. 3:5). We are told, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him”; whoever is “a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (1 John 2:15; James 4:4).

The second enemy is the devil, who is the “god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4). He was your spiritual father before you joined the family of God (John 8:44; Eph. 2:2). Jesus called the devil a thief who came to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).

The way to overcome him and his demons is to make sure you are outfitted with the spiritual armor of God (Eph. 6:10–20). Become intimately familiar with it. Sleep in it. Never take it off. Bind the sword to your hand so you never lose its grip. The reason for this brings us to the third enemy.

The third enemy is what the Bible calls the “flesh.” This is your sinful nature. The domain for the battle is your mind.

“If we know that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good, and that He will bring every work to judgment, we will live accordingly.”

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If you have a mind to, you will be attracted to the world and all its sin. The mind is the control panel for the eyes and the ears, the center of your appetites. All sin begins in the “heart” (Prov. 4:23; Matt. 15:19). We think of sin before we commit it. James 1:15 warns that lust brings forth sin, and sin when it’s conceived brings forth death. Every day of life, we have a choice. To sin or not to sin—that is the question. The answer is the fear of God. If you don’t fear God, you will sin to your sinful heart’s delight.

Did you know that God kills people? He killed a man for what he did sexually (Gen. 38:9,10), killed another man for being greedy (Luke 12:15–21), and killed a husband and wife for telling one lie (Acts 5:1–10). Knowledge of God’s goodness—His righteous judgments against evil—should put the fear of God in us and help us to not indulge in sin.

If we know that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good, and that He will bring every work to judgment, we will live accordingly. Such weighty thoughts are valuable, for “by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil” (Prov. 16:6).

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