3 Signs Satan Is Trying to Use Someone for Evil in Your Life

2 Corinthians 11:14-15

Here are 3 signs Satan is trying to use someone in your life to pull you away from God.

1. If Someone Is Pulling You Away from God By Manipulating You Into Serving Their Selfish Desires, This Is a Sign Satan Is Using This Person for Evil in Your Life

It’s not very common for someone who claims to be a Christian to all of a sudden turn from God and become a worshipper of Satan as they join a cult. However, what is very common is that someone who was serving God starts idolizing a relationship and starts serving another human.

To Satan, this is just as good. He doesn’t ultimately care if you become a Satanist, a hedonist, or just someone who is idolizing there significant other. What he ultimately cares about is that you just don’t worship the one true God through Jesus Christ. And because it is far easier to turn people away from Christ by using other humans, this is the tactic Satan will use more often than not. Notice what Romans 16:17-20 states:

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

These divisive people are not just causing divisions, but they use smooth talk and flattery to trick people into serving their own selfish appetites. Notice that Paul points out Satan in this equation because although he is hard to see in moments like these, when someone is trying to pull you away from Christ so you will serve them instead, you can be sure Satan is also involved in this attack.

2. If Your Relationship with God Was Better Before You Met This Person, This Is a Sign Satan Is Trying to Use This Person for Evil in Your Life

Proverbs 13:20 states, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” 1 Corinthians 15:33 also says, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’” Satan knows these truths as well and seeks to use them against God’s people.

Notice the warning Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived.” I believe Paul said that before the truth about “Bad company ruins good morals” because in our pride we like to believe this does not apply to us. We think that we will not be pulled down by others and that we can resist temptation. We want the best of both worlds. We want to serve Christ and have relationships with whoever we want. But Paul tells us not to think like that. We are deceiving ourselves if we think that people living in sin will not pull us into sin as well if we let them into our hearts.

I believe Paul also warned us not to be deceived because Satan will try to mask the people he wants to use for evil in our lives with external religious coverings. But we must not pay attention to someone’s religious practices of going to church, praying before meals, or listening to Christian music. If their behavior is sinful, Satan is simply using these types of things as camouflage. For as 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 teaches us:

And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”

3. If This Person Is Encouraging You to Abuse the Gospel, This Is a Sign Satan Is Using This Person for Evil in Your Life

We can abuse the gospel in many different ways, but essentially there are two major errors people make. One, they twist the theology of the gospel and truth of the gospel into something that is not biblical. The second error is that people misapply the truth of the gospel and use it as a license to sin. Paul discusses this error at length in Romans 6. 

So if someone is trying to teach you things that they have created in their own mind about God rather than what is true biblically, this is what Satan wants. What is often more common, however, is that Satan will use someone to tempt you into sin who then claims that God’s grace covers these sins anyways so it is okay to keep sinning. Notice the warning we are given in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 which states:

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”