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The important words in the text are of the same root — "Satan is very knowing, and always on the alert to get the better of us; but we are not without knowledge of his knowing ways." It was Paul's acquaintance with the wiles of the devil which made him anxious to see the restoration of the penitent sinner duly carried through.

I. A SCANDAL IN THE CHURCH GIVES THE DEVIL AN OPPORTUNITY. When a Christian falls into open sin it is a chance offered to the enemy which he is not slow to improve. He uses it to discredit the very name of Christ; to turn that which ought to be the symbol of the purest goodness into a synonym of hypocrisy. Christ has committed His honour to our keeping, and every lapse into vice gives Satan an advantage over Him.

II. THE DEVIL FINDS HIS GAIN IN THE INCOMPETENCE OF THE CHURCH TO DEAL WITH EVIL IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. It is a fine thing for him if he can drive the convicted sinner to despair, and if he can prompt those who know little of God's love to implacability. If the disciples of Him who received sinners look askance on the lapsed and chill their hope of restoration, there will be joy over it, not in heaven but in hell. And not only this, but the opposite is a device of the devil of which we ought not to be ignorant. There is hardly a sin which some one has not an interest in extenuating. Even the incestuous person had his defenders who gloried in what he had done as an assertion of Christian liberty. The devil takes advantage of Church scandals to bribe and debauch men's consciences; indulgent words are spoken, which are not the voice of Christ's awful mercy, but of a miserable self-pity, and could any one imagine what would suit the devil better than the absolutely unfeeling but extremely interesting gossip which resounds over every exposure of sin?

III. THE DEVIL FINDS HIS ADVANTAGE IN THE DISSENSIONS OF CHRISTIANS. What an opportunity he would have had in Corinth had strained relations continued between the apostle and the Church! What opportunities he has everywhere, when tempers are on edge, and every movement means friction, and every proposal rouses suspicion! The last prayer of Christ was that all His disciples might be one; to be one in Him is the final security against the devices of Satan. What a frightful commentary the history of the Church is on this prayer. It is giving ourselves away to the enemy, if we do not at all costs, "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

(J. Denney, B. D.)

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KJV: Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

WEB: that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.