Give the Devil His Due

and do not give the devil an opportunity. Ephesians 4:27  NASB

Opportunity – “Opportunity” isn’t quite what the Greek text implies.  Paul’s word is topos, i.e., place.  It’s a topographical term.  “Don’t give the devil any space.”  “In common usage this word means a. ‘territory,’ ‘land,’ ‘area,’ ‘locality,’ b. ‘district,’ ‘town,’ ‘dwelling place,’ and c. ‘place’ in a very general sense, as in such phrases as ‘in every place,’ ‘in the place in question,’ ‘no place’ (nowhere), ‘on the spot,’ and ‘out of place.’”^[1]  The translators have converted the term to circumstances rather than geography but Paul’s audience would probably have understood his vocabulary in terms of the many pagan temples in Ephesus.  They might have read this simply as, “Don’t spend any time in any of those locations.”  For us, of course, a geographical setting doesn’t fit our society, so Paul’s statement has been converted into situations.

Perhaps we need a brief examination of the term diábolos.  As you know, the idea of the devil changed substantially after the Babylonian Captivity.  In the Tanakh, “The śātān is basically the enemy (cf. 1 Sam. 29:4; Ps. 71:13), but specifically the legal accuser (Zech. 3:1) who is placed at the right hand of the accused (cf. Ps. 109:6). Ezek. 21:28–29; 29:16 express the same concept in another term (cf. 1 Kgs. 17:18). On the prophetic view the enemies that God raises up against Israel are also accusers on God’s behalf (cf. 1 Kgs. 11:14ff.).”^[2]  But after the Captivity, under rabbinic influence:

The few OT references undergo considerable development in pre-NT Judaism. The following points may be noted: a. Azazel and his hosts are subjugated to Satan; b. demons are autonomous; c. the main function of Satan is still that of prosecutor; and d. there is no fall of Satan from heaven. In the main, Satan aims to disrupt the relation between God and humanity, or Israel, by temptation (e.g., of Abraham or David), by accusation before God, and by interference in Israel’s history. Satan may be resisted by good decisions, human merit or suffering, external aid (Moses, Michael, or the angels), and even by God himself. Satan is not the lord of this world, and although he is sometimes linked with the evil impulse, this is not a force that enslaves us. In some works Satan does not occur at all, being replaced by, e.g., angelic witnesses or several satans. Since all these ideas are fluid, Satan can sometimes be depicted as an exalted angel expelled from heaven, linked with legends about demons and the evil impulse, and even related in Gnostic fashion to the material world, but these are deviations from the main tradition. In this context one should consider names like Sammael and Azazel.^[3]

Paul is a product of his rabbinic age.  In some sense, so are we; the Western Church having adopted this idea of the satanand expanded it considerably over the centuries.  Today we often think of the satan (the diábolos) as the personal embodiment of evil, a powerful demi-god whose sole purpose is to wreak havoc on believers.  But if we treated śātān as described in the Tanakh, we might understand Paul’s warning in terms of anything, person or circumstance, that offered the possibility of accusing God’s faithful of disobedience.  That covers a lot of ground.

Topical Index: opportunity, topos, place, diábolos, śātān, devil, Ephesians 4:27

^[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 1184). W.B. Eerdmans.

^[2] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 151). W.B. Eerdmans.

^[3] Ibid.