There is an interesting quirk in Christian theology that is easily missed. The average man on the street, even the average believer in the pew, has a view of Satan and temptation that doesn't quite take in the whole picture. Let's poke at it a bit and see if we can get a more nuanced understanding.
The flannel board theology we were all taught is simple: The devil is bad. The devil wants people to go to hell. Sin makes people go to hell. Therefore the devil wants people to sin. I'm going to argue that this view is ... incomplete.
How do people go to heaven? The pop religion answer believed by the average unbeliever — and, sadly, by many who attend church — is that people who do lots of bad things go to hell, but if you do mostly good or more good than bad, you'll go to heaven.
Now, what is the real gospel version of that?
The bad news before the good news of the gospel is that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). James tells us someone who keeps all the law but one is a "lawbreaker" (James 2:10-11). So it's not people who do lots of bad things who go to hell. Someone who commits one sin who goes there. Of course, no one has only committed one sin; we all sin continually. We may not murder and steal, but we're prideful, selfish, and covetous, and that's on a good day. On bad days we lust, we lash out in anger at innocent people, we lie. And that's not touching sexual sin, blasphemous speech, or the fact that most people actually have stolen at some point.
If the devil wants people to go to hell, and sin makes people go to hell, his job is done.
Now the good news: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (Rom 3:23-24). Sin makes people go to hell, but in Christ there is forgiveness of sin. Through Christ was can be reconciled to God and delivered from hell.
So the devil's work is less about tempting the average person to sin and more about keeping them from Jesus.
"But our 'enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour' (1Pet 5:8), right? Why does he do that?"
That passage was written to believers. The enemy does want believers to sin. He wants us to live fruitless lives, to be ineffective for the kingdom, silently telling people the gospel isn't true.
But unbelievers? They're already bound for hell. He wants them to feel confident they don't need Jesus. He's quite happy for them to live "good" lives, relative to the Christians they know, because that makes them less likely to receive the gospel.
Why do some atheists seem to live "better" (read, nicer) lives than so many Christians? Shouldn't the devil be tempting them to sin? No. The devil has them exactly where he wants them and doesn't want to ruin a good thing. The same goes for followers of false religions.
I'm not saying unbelievers don't sin. Our flesh tempts us to sin every day. The heart of the lost is rebellion against God. But supernatural forces don't need to tempt the lost to spectacular sin. They're happy if they do and happy if they don't.
A lost person who is confident in his self-righteousness is a beautiful sight to the devil. And it makes it that much easier for sinful believers, unconverted church members, and cultural Christians to make the gospel look false.
"Why does the devil want me to be bad?" If you're a believer, it's because what you do is more important than what you say. We can't have bad days. We have to live like Jesus because the world is watching.
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