Hello, thank you for joining me today for Give Him 15, the title of our post, Give Satan No Advantage.

Our ignorance of Satan and his tactics, as well as how to deal with them, is sometimes costly.

Second Corinthians 211 tells us in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan,

for we are not ignorant of his schemes. The context is forgiveness. Harboring unforgiveness allows Satan

to take advantage of us. But a general principle is also revealed in this verse.

Let's take a deeper look.

The word ignorant, don't be ignorant of Satan's schemes.

The word ignorant is the Greek word agnoeo.

It means without knowledge or understanding of. Our English word

agnostic is derived from it. Technically, an agnostic is not a person who is unsure if he or she

believes in God, although we use the word this way. Actually, an agnostic is simply a person without

knowledge or understanding of any given subject. We also get the word ignore from the same root.

In this verse, we are encouraged not to ignore or be an agnostic without understanding where Satan's actions are concerned.

Schemes, don't be ignorant of his schemes, is the Greek word noema.

It literally means thoughts or a product of the mind.

The verse is essentially saying, don't be without understanding of the way Satan thinks.

Noeema is also used for plans, schemes, as it isn't in our text, plots, devices, because these things are products of our mind and thoughts. For greater insight, let's insert all of these definitions into the verse.

Don't be without understanding of the way your enemy thinks and operates of his plans, plots,

schemes, and devices. By the way, there's more than just a warning or admonition here.

There's also a hidden promise. If God tells us not to be ignorant of Satan's schemes,

he's obviously willing to alert us to them. And now the word advantage. The verse then reveals to us the results of being unaware of Satan's

schemes. He'll take advantage of us. That word is pleionecteo, a compound word meaning literally

...