The Devil vs. God. We all know this story. We all know this battle; but what are the weapons involved? Arguably, the two most important are: hate and love.

If you’ve heard anything about God in your lifetime, then I would assume you’ve heard these phrases:

“Love thy neighbor.”

“Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”

“Love like Christ.”

…or any number of variations of the same concepts.

“Love” is one of, if not the, strongest of God’s weapons.

Assume this is true. With that being the case, then logically, “hate” would be the strongest of Satan’s weapons.

Don’t believe me? Let me explain.

We know these phrases about loving everyone else, but what about loving ourselves? Through our experiences, we develop this sense of self-hatred. “I’m not enough.” “I can’t.” “I’m not worth it.” “I’m not worthy.” …etc. This is a demon that Satan has perfected over generations. If you let that demon win, you let Satan win. If you hate yourself, you hate God.

Whoa whoa whoa… now you lost me.

Think about it. God made us in His image. We are all His creations, His children. The whole goal is to be like Him to be welcomed back with open arms by the King. If you consider yourself a Christian, and you don’t love yourself like Christ loves you; how do you expect to be able to love your neighbor, who’s struggling with who-knows-which demons, the way Christ loves them?

I highly encourage reading the whole chapter, but in case this is all the time you have right now, here’s a new saying to consider:

Matthew 7:3-5

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

Christ is love, that love starts with you.