Of Mice and Men

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”  Ephesians 6: 11 – 13

The text speaks of the “wiles of the devil.” That means the subtle tricky ways he entices us to do wrong, as well as to sin. To gain some insight we need to look no further than to one of the most secret intelligence forces of the cold war, the East German Stasi. They made an acrostic for the four things they used to recruit people who would defect and become undercover spies for them against American forces. It was M-I-C-E. How do you catch a mouse? You set a well bated trap. There bate was:

        Money

        Ideology

        Compromise

        Ego

Money was thought to be a significant factor. They believed they could entice anyone to defect if offered three or four time their annual salary.

What price tag do you put on the sale of your character? People still abandon ther allegiance to the Lord in their hunger for money.    

Put a “NOT FOR SALE” sign in the yard of your will.

Ideology is a dark hole into which some fall. It comes in a variety of flavors: humanism, pluralism, secularism, pantheism, and materialism.

Many who become a Christian at a young age study Scripture as a child, but as they mature they are distracted and then begin to study the thoughts on one of those isms. Their childhood study fades in light of one of them and they defect.

Compromise is a slow and subtle slide away from Jesus. It is here those recruiting counter intelligent agents use sex and blackmail to induce people to forsake their allegiance to Jesus.

Ego plays a large part. If a person feels underappreciated, unrecognized, or underpaid they seek approval.

As a Revolutionary War General Benedict Arnold, realizing the strategic importance of securing New York, mustered a group of men and headed toward Fort Ticonderoga where he won an impressive victory. He suffered two wounds during the war. However, he felt unappreciated and not promoted. Thus, he became a candidate for betrayal and sold out the Patriot cause. For the same reason of ego some default on Jesus.

“….may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”  (I Kings 8: 61)