What Does It Mean to “Hand This Man Over to Satan,” As Paul Commands? How Does This Relate to Spiritual Warfare?
Spiritual Warfare Made Simple, Bonus Chapter
This post is a bonus chapter, dealing with a matter that came up during the publishing of all of these blog posts. If this is the first post you reading, and you want to catch up, you can delve into the three key principles of spiritual warfare as we discussed in the first few chapters:
God is sovereign.
You have dominion.
The devil lies.
these three principles can help you make sense of pretty much anything relating to spiritual warfare. Including one of the most bizarre passages in the New Testament:
“Deliver this man to Satan”
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian Church, he deals with many situations of deliberate sin. One such situation involves a kind of egregious immorality the demonstrates the demanding question has no concern for God, his laws, or the good of the people around him.
And in this situation, Paul pronounces a shocking sentence for this man:
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5:1-5 ESV).
At first blush, this passage sounds terrifying. Church members are handing other church members over to Satan? What on earth is going on?
But as we explore this, the three key principles from this book shine out.
First, let’s explore dominion.
In this passage, why are they handing someone over to Satan? For discipline. This person has been rebellious and not submissive to church discipline. The last resort in this case is for the church to hand these people over to Satan.
Note that this is not punishment. They are not handing this man over to be destroyed.
Rather, the purpose is redemption: “that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.”
This respects the question: why do they have to hand it over to Satan to be redeemed?
The answer is dominion.
This man is in control of his life. He has dominion. He cannot be forced to do something he doesn’t want to do.
This is why it is necessary to hand them over to Satan. Let the devil wreak havoc on his life, so that he can realize the choices he has made is leading to his own self-imposed destruction. Perhaps, when he sees this, he will use his dominion to turn and repent.
This is akin to letting an alcoholic hit rock-bottom. Families of an alcoholic may readily recall how pointless it can be to plead with an alcoholic to change until they have hit rock bottom. Many times, the alcoholic will not realize how bad the situation is until they hit rock bottom. They need to see everything collapsing around them before they realize things really are bad, and they need to do the hard work to change.
This is why the church has someone over to Satan.
Let the devil wreak havoc on their lives, so that they will see the destructive path they have chosen — and perhaps turn around and be saved.
In this, we see the sovereignty of God. God is not afraid of the devil. God is not competing with the devil.
Rather, God uses the devil as a tool. God can use the devil’s attacks as a wakeup call to save people from their own sin. This is the function that Paul’s thorns in the flesh served. These “messengers from Satan,” as Paul calls them, broke through his self-destructive pride, and were a key part of Paul repenting.
Everything meant for evil, God can turn around and use for good. This includes the devil.
God can use the devil’s desire to attack us as a way to turn us from our sin. God can use the devil to lead us to rock-bottom, so we can realize the destructive path we are on, turn around, and be saved.
Finally, this passage illustrates that the devil is not some cosmic tyrant. The church doesn’t need to live in fear of the devil.
Rather, the church is in dominion over the devil. The church is not afraid of the devil. The church hands rebellious members over to the devil, in much the same way that a judge hands a convicted criminal over to the bailiff to be delivered to jail.
The devil lies, trying to make himself seem more powerful than he is. The devil lies, trying to make us think he is some cosmic, terrifying force that we need to cower before.
But we have no need to fear the devil. He can’t touch us, unless we give ourselves over to sin.
And even then, the purpose of him attacking us is to turn us from our sin.
The devil doesn’t know he is serving God in this way. The devil lies to himself, as well as everyone else. The devil thinks he is rebelling against God.
But God is sovereign. God is such a master strategist that the devil’s own rebellion ends up serving God‘s purposes.
This post discusses principles in my book Spiritual Warfare Made Simple. Grab your copy of the ebook or paperback here!
Great stuff here!!