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January 19, 2026

The Devil’s Blueprint: A Thought Experiment

by Jason Neill

Scripture reading: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Would you be willing to do a thought experiment with me? It goes something like this: imagine you are the Devil. Again, this is a thought experiment, so just play along. You’re the Devil and it’s your objective to deter people from hearing and believing the truth, especially the truth pertaining to believing in Jesus alone for eternal life. How would you go about achieving your goal?

We saw a glimpse of this in last week’s parable where Jesus explained, “The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts” (Matthew 13:19, NLT).

If you want to explore this perspective further, you owe it to yourself to read The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. Without ruining it for you, the book is a creative work of imagination in which a senior devil writes to a younger devil on how to stump human beings, spiritually speaking. It makes for a fascinating read! In fact, we can learn a lot by trying to imagine what our spiritual enemy might throw at us to distract or derail our spiritual journey.

The parable for this week provides another excellent example of this type of maneuvering. It is known as the parable of the wheat and weeds or tares, depending on your Bible translation. Since this is one of the parables Jesus explained himself, I’ll post the symbols and what they represent below:

  • The farmer is the Son of Man; a favorite title Jesus used for himself (Matthew 13:37).
  • The field is the world (Matthew 13:38).
  • The good seed represents the people of the Kingdom (i.e., those who have believed in Jesus alone for eternal life) (Matthew 13:38).
  • The weeds/tares are the people who belong to the evil one (i.e., unbelievers) (Matthew 13:38).
  • The enemy who plants the weeds/tares among the wheat is the Devil (Matthew 13:39).
  • The harvest is the end of the world (Matthew 13:39).
  • The harvesters are the angels (Matthew 13:39).

To “cut to the chase,” Jesus is teaching that between his first and second coming, the devil will sow unbelievers among believers, although they may not be easily distinguished. The intent of the Devil in this parable, and his favorite strategy, is deception. He sends his emissaries out into the world to deceive others, which takes us back to our original thought experiment: How does the Devil do this?

I think he does this primarily by attempting to confuse the clarity of the good news concerning eternal life. Think about it, if you sought to keep as many people as possible out of Heaven, what would you tell them? Personally, I would confuse the simple message of faith alone in Jesus alone for eternal life.

Historically, we see this very thing throughout the New Testament among those who sought to either add works to the free message of eternal life or corrupt the message by distorting it altogether. Let me provide you with four biblical examples:

  1. In Galatia, there was a group that infiltrated the churches claiming that if they wanted to be Christians, they must follow the Mosaic law (see Galatians). This group sought to corrupt the pure message of grace.
  2. In Ephesus, Paul warns the believers there that after his departure, “wolves” would enter the church seeking to derail them spiritually (see Acts 20).
  3. In the book of Jude, the author points out how he originally meant to write about salvation, but because false teaching was a threat, he wrote concerning the common faith passed down from the apostles (see Jude 3).
  4. Lastly, in Corinth, a group of dissenters sought to discredit Paul. They wanted to distract the believers from what Paul had taught the church (see 2 Corinthians 10-13).

This same strategy happens today. There are groups who identify as Christian but do not hold to orthodox doctrine. They say they believe in Jesus, but when they start describing the Jesus they believe in, it is a very different Jesus from the Bible.

It turns out that Jesus was right. Between his first and second coming, our spiritual enemy, the Devil, seeks to distort the clear teaching of the faith alone in Christ alone message. Our job is to discern and test all things by considering scripture. Let this week’s parable be a reminder to you to sharpen your discernment skills.