The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Romans 16:10-27 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. ¹¹ Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord. ¹² Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord. Greet Persis the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord. ¹³ Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine. ¹⁴ Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brethren with them. ¹⁵ Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.¹⁶ Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

¹⁷ Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. ¹⁸ For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. ¹⁹ For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. ²⁰ The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

²¹ Timothy my fellow worker greets you, and so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.

²² I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord.

²³ Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer greets you, and Quartus, the brother. ²⁴ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

²⁵ Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, ²⁶ but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; ²⁷ to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.

In the closing of his letter to the church at Rome Paul says:  Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.   There are many people who have a difficult time with the idea that while God is a God of peace, He is not a pacifist. God is called the Lord of Hosts or Yahweh Sabaoth 261 times in scripture. It is a name used frequently; more often than other names for God. We’ve seen recently that David was called a man after God’s heart. David was both a great worshipper of God and a great warrior for God. Those who believe that God would have us be pacifists rightly point to the life and the teaching of Christ; that He did not defend Himself; that He taught that we should turn the other cheek when some one strikes us and that we should bless and pray for our enemies. In Matthew 6:51-54 we see the account of Jesus arrest:   Behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.  Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?”   Those legions of angels are not retired. Just as they fought for the Israelites against their earthly enemies, they still fight and battle for us against spiritual enemies. We need to know Jesus, the eternal Christ. Revelation 1:8 says:  “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”  In Revelation 19:11-16 it says:  I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it iscalled Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”   Jesus came as an innocent baby. He lived as a loving, compassionate man, fully submitted to the Father’s will. When Jesus returns, with the legions of angels, He will no longer passively submit to His enemies, according to the will of the Father. He will strike them down.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.  We need to keep in mind what Paul says in Ephesians 6:10-17:  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and havingput on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  We are not to be pacifists, but our battles are not against other people. In the text Paul says:  I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.  We are not to battle with these. We are to keep and eye on them and turn away from them.  Our battle is with the force or forces behind the dissensions and hinderances. Our battle is against the one they are enslaved to. We and the legions of heavenly host battle Satan and the spiritual forces of darkness. Our society and our culture have fallen and are falling into deeper darkness because too many Christians have become passive regarding the true battle we face. In the end we know that God and Christ will be victorious. The outcome is already determined. Still the battle for the soul of our nation and its people; the battle to see the kingdom of God established on earth, must be fought each day. In Romans 12:18 Paul said:  If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. But, we should never be at peace with sin, evil and darkness. With those we should be heavenly warriors for the kingdom of God on earth.   

Paul closes saying:  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.   Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past,  but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;  to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.   Amen.