You Can Fight Satan and Win! - Avoid Materialism and Love for the World

Satan is "the ruler of this world," and he controls it.  (John 12:31; 1 John 5:19) Many of the things this world promotes goes against Bible/God's standards. Of course, not everything in the world is evil. However, we can be sure that Satan will use his world to take advantage of our desires and try to try to cause us to sin. Or he will try to get us to love the world and neglect our worship of Jehovah. -Read 1 John 2:15, 16. 

Some early Christians loved the world. For example. Paul wrote:  "Demas has forsaken me because he loved the present system of things." (2 Timothy 4:10)  The Bible does not say exactly what part of this world Demas loved, which caused him to abandon Paul. It could be that Demas began to love material things more than his service to Jehovah. If that was true, Demas lost the opportunity  to have exciting privileges  in God's service.  Was it worth it? No. Demas could have remained Paul's  helper.  The world could never offer him anything better than Jehovah could! -Proverbs 10:22. 

The same can happen to us today. As Christians, it is normal to want to provide for ourselves and for our family.  (1 Timothy 5:8)  Jehovah wants us to enjoy life.  We know that because he gave Adam and Eve a beautiful paradise to live in.  (Genesis 2:9)  But Satan can take advantage of our desires using  "the deceptive power of riches."  (Matthew 13:22)  Many think that money and material things will make them happy or successful. If we think this way, it can cause us to lose  the most valuable thing we have, our friendship with Jehovah. Jesus warned;  "No one can  slave for two masters; for either he will hate the one and love other, or he will stick to the one and despise the other. You cannot slave for God and for man."  (Matthew 6:24)   If we slave only for material things, we have stopped serving Jehovah.  That is exactly what Satan wants us to do.  May we never let money or the things  it can buy become more important  than our friendship with Jehovah. To fight Satan and win, we must have the right attitude toward material things. -Read 1 Timothy 6:6-10.

Next time:  You Can Fight Satan and Win! - RESIST SEXUAL IMMORALITY

From the jw.org publication