Three Enemies: The World, the Flesh, and the Devil

True witness often means embracing sacrifice and offering our own suffering for the salvation of others

We’ve been calling evangelization a battle, and it is. When you step out to evangelize, you’re not just starting a project, you’re stepping onto a battlefield.

Evangelization is a direct assault against Satan’s kingdom of lies, sin, and death. And he doesn’t sit quietly when his territory is threatened. So, what kind of a soldier are you? How prepared are you for battle? Answering this question means not just training yourself for the fight—it means knowing your enemy.

Taking its cue from Scripture, the Church teaches that every Christian faces three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul tells the early Christian converts that they “once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (2:2-3).

He uses the word following three times to describe the things that once kept the Christian separated from God—once for the world, once for the devil, and once for the passions of the flesh. To the extent that each of us is still following the world, or the devil, or the passions of the flesh, we are not following Christ.

The world is the culture that resists God’s truth and that offers us false treasures: money, power, fame, and the like.

The flesh is our own fallen tendencies and weaknesses, the human inclination to prefer comfort and pleasure to sacrifice and holiness.

The devil is the real, personal enemy who seeks to destroy souls by drawing us away from light and peace to be caught up in darkness and pride.

These are our foes; and, if we wish to bring Christ to others, we must overcome them.

Victory belongs to Christ. But if we want to be his soldiers, we have to fight. We have to overcome those things that keep us from Christ, and the only way to do this is by the armor and weapons he provides.

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