Luke 22:1-6
...Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.
They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.
Actually, there's a good reason why Satan was able to enter the heart of Judas. Although he followed Jesus all the time, he didn't really identify with what Jesus did and said. In fact, he might have been hoping that Jesus would become a political liberator, but what Jesus did and said was pretty far away from his expectation. Judas was deeply disappointed, and therefore he decided to just sell Jesus out so that he would at least gain some profit. On the other hand, Judas was not a honest man to begin with, because the Bible says that he often stole money from the money bag for himself. That's why Satan was able to enter his heart, because he had left plenty of room for Satan to come in. 1 Peters 5:8 says: "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
This passage doesn't say that the devil will devour everyone, but he will look for someone to devour. So, there are actually two types of followers of Jesus - the type of can be devoured, and the type that cannot be. Judas was obviously one who could be devoured, therefore Satan entered him heart! When you understand this truth, you won't feel that Judas was wronged; because of him, it was possible for Jesus to be nailed tothe cross. The key issue is that Jesus could have been nailed to the cross through hundreds of other ways and Judas didn't have to do what he had done; it was totally because he often left room for Satan. Therefore, Judas needed to be responsible for his own spiritual life, and thus accept the consequence for the path he had chosen.
Are you a believer who can be devoured? A believer doesn't become weak and stumble just in a day or two. Lot in the Old Testament, for example, didn't decide to move to Sodom overnight; he was heading to the plain of Jordan River, but he moved slowly and kept sitting at the gate of Sodom, and eventually became the elder at the city of sin. When we see what happened to Lot - his wife because a pillar of salt and his daughters committed incest with him - we realize that he needed to take responsibility for these sins. May God give us a watchful heart to defend against all the plots of the devil by faith!
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