Know thy enemy...

When I was practicing martial arts, my instructor handed me a piece of paper with a quote on it. I believe the quote was Sun Tsu from The Art of War. The quote says something like this :

Know yourself and your enemy, in one hundred battles you never will be in peril. If you know yourself but not your enemy, you have a 50 percent chance of success. If you know neither yourself or your enemy, then you will never win.

Most Christians know themselves. God tells us who we are. We are His. Do we really know our enemy though? The Bible doesn't describe Satan's character. The Bible says he's a deceiver, and he's evil, but other than that, it doesn't really say much about him. The good thing is, we really don't need to be told what he's like.

We know that he is a deciever, which makes him a liar. If God is truth, then Satan's character is opposite of God. Using that logic, we know that Satan's character is EXACTLY opposite of God's. In order to know our enemy more, we need to get to know God. The more we know about God, the more we know about the enemy.

C.S. Lewis once said (and I paraphrase) The greatest trick Satan ever pulled off was convincing the world he didn't exist.  If people don't know Satan, then how can he be victorious?

Jesus won our victory at Calvary. His blood redeemed us from the enemy's grasp. The Holy Spirit gives us the wisdom to know the enemy, and The Word gives us what we need to know in order to know what our enemy is like. In order to know our enemy, we need to know Our God.