The Schemes of Satan

“And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” 
1 Timothy 3:7

A snare is a trap normally used to catch an unwary wild animal, but each of the five times the word (Greek = pagis) is used in the New Testament, it refers to devices used by the great deceiver, Satan, to trap unwary human beings.

There is, first of all, the snare of worldly involvement. “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth” (Luke 21:34-35).

There is the snare of rejecting God’s Word, both the written Word and the living Word. When Israel repudiated Christ, God said, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block and a retribution to them” (Rom. 11:9, quoting Psalm 69:22). The desire for riches can be a snare. “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction” (1 Tim. 6:9).

Satan has many other “schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11). By which he seeks “an advantage of us.” Not even “pastors,” or other full-time Christian ministers are immune, for our text is a warning to prospective pastors against the “snare of the devil.”

It is the responsibility of every true “servant of the Lord” to be “kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition...and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Tim. 2:24-26).

We must both avoid Satan’s snares ourselves and seek to deliver those who have been thus ensnared.