I Love satan.

Seriously!?

Grace has a wonderful ability to detonate all your perceptions about right and wrong. This will be the largest blast you’ve possibly ever experienced in your divine walk and the fallout will create a debris field you’ve heretofore never envisioned possible.

If you’ve been around any teaching on Jesus for any period of time you’ve come across the passage where he tells his disciples that they need to love their enemies. When you’re first confronted by this passage the typical reaction is akin to, “He’s nuts! I can never love my enemy.” Then as you’re more and more provoked by these verses in the various gospels, your thoughts morph into, “Ok, Jesus is just trying to make a point. He doesn’t actually intend for me, or anyone, really to do this. Nice teaching tool.”

At some point, always when you least expect it, the magnitude of this verse hits you like a karate chop to the throat and you fall to the ground gasping for air, crying out for mercy as you succumb to the revelation that you are your own worst enemy, first and foremost. All the flopping around like a fish out of water will not stop the reality of this moment and you finally surrender yourself to the “word of the Lord.” Your life is now a season of full-on repentance.

(It is possible that many of you think that this is the blast previously mentioned. Consider this to be just the primer to the blast which follows.)

Would Jesus ever ask any of us to do something that he isn’t able to do or hasn’t already done himself? (Cue the Jeopardy theme song.)

All the millenniums of theological teaching we, as the body of Christ, have received regarding this matter, whether under the first guise of Catholicism or the recent pretext of Protestantism, how many times have we been indoctrinated that satan, or the devil, is the enemy of God/Jesus? It is a foundational teaching. So how is it possible that no one every connected the dots that Jesus loves satan, and if he does, we are supposed to also?

Doesn’t that feel like you just plowed a hammer into your thumb – twice in a row? Totally illogical, right? Not so fast you thumb sucker.

We’ve always been told that satan is the enemy of Jesus; he battles him in the wilderness and ultimately defeats him at the cross, then kicks his butt royally in hell when he leads the captives out. How did this happen? Was it a battle royal in a cage? Did Jesus get all Rambo and blow his way through the gate of hell raining fire and brimstone down on an unsuspecting foe? As much as we would like to think that this is the way all this went down, we have a truly hard time accepting the words of Jesus on the cross, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”

Love forgives. Grace insures it. Face it folks, there are many people in your life who it is damn hard to love, even a little bit. Grace covers this even if they are your enemies. Jesus never said, “love your enemies, except for…”

Now, I think it is about time to deal with this whole satan issue under the spotlight of grace. Again, all our teaching from the past has been that this satan character has been the personification of evil, the counter to all the goodness of God. Some of you might think that I’m about to claim that God has forgiven satan, and in some respects you are right. However, not as you perceive it to be.

To present this properly, let me define the term “satan” for what it truly means: Accuser. Take note how throughout this writing I have never used the term satan with an uppercase “S” in order to signify an ontological being. You may have perceived that I did, however, I intentionally have not. The reason is simple: There is not one – we’re all satan.

I know that probably didn’t sit well. Let me demonstrate. Answer this question: Are you truly living up to your fullest potential? Take your time to consider your response; this after all is a matter of reflection about your life and all that you’ve accomplished. It’s a helluva question, isn’t it, all things considered?

The odds are in my favor that you don’t think you’re living up to your potential. There can be any of a number of reasons to justify your response in this area, however, what you fail to perceive is how you have accused yourself of not living up to some standard that only you have constructed. Since only you know the standard, you accuse yourself habitually for failing to meet it. You are the satan, the accuser, your enemy.

“If you are the son of God…” is no different to you than it was to Jesus. It is only another means of asking if you’re truly living up to your potential.

Can you love the accusation you cast upon yourself? Most will say no, it’s not possible, forgetting that with God, all things are possible. You have been saved by grace, which is a gift from God; not by any works of man, but by the love of God for you. Your accusations are merely a yoke and a burden you’ve placed upon yourself to live up to an expectation, a self-imposed standard, a fabricated work of man – you – not of God, who is love.

“Forgive them Father, for they know not that they accuse themselves as their enemy. Forgive them Father, for they know not how to love themselves as you love them. Forgive them Father, for they know not that they are living up to their fullest potential being your sons and daughters. Forgive them Father, for not knowing how to love satan as I do.”

I dare you to pray that.