Acts 13:10, commentary and pictures

Paul confronted the sorcerer at Paphos when he tried with false reports and crafty deceptions to turn the influential Sergius Paulus from the faith after he had called for gospel instruction. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he exposed the man as full of deceit and harmful craftiness, serving the devil and acting under Satan's control as an agent against the gospel. The stroke of temporary blindness that followed broke the power of his deceptive arts, called him to repentance, proved the apostles' work was of God, and helped bring the deputy to belief. The same words unmask Satan himself as the archdeceiver and enemy of Christ and all righteousness, who blinds minds, works by guileful theories and insinuations, and perverts the Lord's right ways through misrepresentation, ridicule, accusation and opposition even while loyalty to God is claimed. Faithful workers need not yield to that hindering power, but can receive strength from above and must be converted daily, yield to God's control, and keep the mind trained on the sound truths of the Word.

Encounter at Paphos

At Paphos Elymas the sorcerer sought to turn Sergius Paulus away from the faith after the deputy, a man of repute and influence, had sent for Barnabas and Saul to be instructed in the truth. To destroy their influence over him Elymas opposed them with false reports and specious deceptions, and thereby greatly hindered their work. His resistance was a work of Satan against the gospel, met by Paul's Spirit-filled rebuke for distorting the Lord's right ways.

The rebuke names him as full of all subtlety and mischief, a child of the devil and an enemy of all righteousness. That means full of deceit, wrongdoing and harmful craftiness, subtle and deceitful in character. It exposes deliberate opposition to what is right and a bent purpose to distort the Lord's right ways and turn people from them.

Paul spoke filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Calling Elymas a child of the devil exposed him as serving the devil, acting under Satan's control as Satan's agent against the gospel and perverter of the truth.

The word was followed by temporary blindness upon Elymas. His confusion rendered his deceptive arts powerless against the teaching of Christ. The judgment was a divine warning meant to lead him to repentance and to seek God's pardon. It also proved that the apostles' miracles came from God and not from sleight of hand or trickery, and seeing it the deputy was convinced and believed the gospel.

The episode reveals how the fallen foe ever works in a special manner to keep persons of influence from embracing the truth of God and serving the cause. Satan was present by his servant to thwart the purpose of God and prevent an influential man who could be of great service from embracing the faith of Christ. It parallels the magicians in Pharaoh's court withstanding Moses and Aaron. Evil powers thus work through people to hinder the gospel, especially when influential listeners may be converted, but faithful workers can receive power from above to withstand such influence.

Elymas belonged to the class who welcomed satanic influence for the sake of obtaining supernatural power and possessed the spirit of divination. He therefore had no conflict with the demons. In this he was an exception to the great suffering usually seen in those possessed with devils.

Satan the Archenemy Exposed

The phrase enemy of all righteousness names Satan himself, the devil and archdeceiver, the enemy of Christ and of all righteousness, full of all subtlety and mischief. He puts forth every effort to keep away from people the light that would unmask his deceptions and unveil his arts. Those under his deceptive influence may follow their worst impulses while believing God is leading them, and their claimed independence becomes a bondage that keeps them from recognizing whom they serve.

He works by craftiness upon human minds, and his deceptive influences are received as if coming from heaven, ensnaring many souls before they are seen to be from the enemy and not from God. Deception still steals in unawares just as it stole into the heavenly courts, where he desired the place occupied by Christ and sought to take the place of God, adroitly undermining confidence in God's government by suggestions left to develop until angels received and spread them as their own theories and as the opinions of many. The warning to beware of allowing him to enter sounds down to the present time, for today he still captivates human beings by deceptive theories and insinuations received as from heaven. Even those once used as the Lord's instrumentalities, if they take themselves out of His hands and think themselves capable of managing the work and gathering glory to themselves, are no longer led by His Spirit but by another spirit, for Satan steps in and changes leaders, and then comes the crookedness and subtlety of the serpent's guile. Distinguishing the genuine from the spurious is therefore a perplexity, because the guile steals in unawares.

He has designs against God's purpose for the United States to remain free for all people to worship according to conscience. Through his working he will bring in enterprises that lead men to forget that there is a God, and worldliness and covetousness, which is idolatry, will prevail till God's law in all its bearings shall be made void. He comes upon the ground when God's people meet, working through ministers who come armed and equipped to leaven the camp with the same spirit of opposition prominent at Minneapolis, so that faithful daily preaching can hardly make an impression. Opposition to Christ and righteousness is his work, and he moves upon minds persisting in ambitious designs, but God will counter that work and will not continue to appear to support them.

As the enemy of righteousness he draws young people into pleasures designed to separate their affections from Jesus Christ. He stands ready to do his wicked part in hindering preparation for the higher life in the home, seeking to bring parents and children under his control in order to shut them out from the future immortal life, so worldly business must not be allowed to take the place of that preparation. He is the wicked one working in opposition to the Spirit of God, taking possession of those unconverted and untransformed in spirit and temper and working upon defects of disposition to make them his agents to cut away peace and joy and comfort from family life, kill love from the heart, and destroy usefulness and life. He seeks to destroy godly influence in the home and in the church and among unbelievers, including by an unwise remarriage that ruins the respect children would otherwise have for a parent and creates contempt in their hearts through lack of good judgment. He controls children when parents neglect the patient work of forming their characters after the divine Pattern.

He works with great power to lead men to indulge appetite, gratify inclination, and spend days in heedless folly, presenting attractions in selfish enjoyment and indulgence of sensual passions. Whoever is overcome by appetite and intemperance places himself on Satan's ground, where Satan tempts and annoys him and can finally control him at pleasure. Licentiousness and intemperate indulgence ruin the physical constitution, debase the moral powers, and sap the energies of mind and body. He discourages a person from taking a stand for truth, urging delay for fear of regret, loss of friends' approval, or failure in worldly business. As the devil and enemy of all righteousness he blinds and deceives minds, and only such dreadful blinding explains not knowing that true testimony laying open one's true condition is correct. No time is to be spent glorifying him who seeks to take possession of the mind and lead into sin; each person must be converted daily, have God's Spirit resting upon them and yield life to His control, strive for mastery over all foolishness, and strengthen the soul by training the mind to dwell upon the sound truths of the Word, so as to have strength to act as a Christian and not dishonor God.

Perversion Inside God's Work

To pervert the right ways of the Lord is to oppose God's servants by sacrilegious misrepresentation, caricature, mimicry, accusation, opposition and ridicule while claiming to be loyal to God. It includes misrepresenting God's character, justifying going to law with brethren in the church, and silence that justifies such ridiculing shares the guilt. Those who do this act out the spirit that developed in rebellion in heaven and show themselves loyal to the enemy of righteousness rather than to the God of truth, making themselves enemies of all righteousness. This sacrilegious misrepresentation offends God, and if not repented of will exclude its actors from the society of the redeemed in the heavenly courts.

The verse rebukes false theories and a low standard and requires a higher moral standard to be upraised and maintained in printing establishments, in every sanitarium, and in every line of work. Those in Washington and everywhere must seek the Lord most earnestly and humble their hearts before God, so the Holy Spirit as Refiner and Purifier will refine, enlighten, sanctify, cleanse and purify from dross. That humbling brings a decided change, a decided reformation, and the conversion of the entire church, after which the message of warning goes forth as a burning lamp into the highways and byways. The verse's language about the enemy's subtle, flattering, insinuating suggestions and devices applies to influences that would lead those entrusted with God's work to betray its interests and turn from God's right ways. Those who guard sacred responsibilities must resist such deception rather than let it betray the interests of God's cause.

Repeated attempts to bring all medical institutions under one organization's control originate in the deceptive power of the enemy of all righteousness and are not inspired by the Lord. Such efforts to centralize control at Battle Creek are to be decidedly opposed in every conference and church, for the medical missionary work is God's work and is not to be controlled by men. The warning against opposing righteousness and distorting the Lord's ways applies to a church member whose fault-finding, accusatory spirit and divisive conduct hinder the church and misrepresent the truth. It also warns that undisciplined children may grow into opponents of order and God's authority. Being led by a leader opposed to all righteousness is evidenced by refusing to work unless personally benefited and grasping for wages and advantage, and such yielding proves a person is not fit to build up the work in any place. Work that builds up the Lord's cause displeases the enemy of righteousness, while tearing down opposes it, so opposition to righteousness and the Lord's work identifies with that enemy.

Faithful Response Required

Evil influences work through human agents to obstruct the proclamation of the gospel, and this resistance intensifies when a listener of influence is on the point of conversion. The rebuke to Elymas exposes this pattern, for he sought to turn Sergius Paulus away from the faith by distorting the Lord's right ways, and he is unmasked as serving Satan and standing against righteousness. Yet faithful workers of the gospel are not left defenseless, for power from above is given to withstand such opposing influence.

The enemy of all righteousness seeks to take possession of the mind in order to lead into sin, and no time is to be spent in glorifying him. Safety lies in daily conversion, in having the Spirit of God resting upon the life, and in yielding the whole life to His control. Each person must strive individually for mastery over all foolishness and strengthen the soul by training the mind to dwell upon the sound, sensible truths of the Word of God. In this way strength is gained to act as a Christian and to avoid dishonoring God before the world.