Why does the devil want people to sin? What does he "gain" from this?
Does sinning make the devil stronger against God? I don’t understand the motivation of the devil. What if there were more people who died with sin than who repented? Could the devil just create its own “world” with sinners and live the way he wants to live? Going against God would be so tiresome. :-)
Mark 1:13
KJV - 13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.
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Tim Maas
Ever since his rebellion against God (because of his desire to replace God as the supreme power in the universe) and his consequent expulsion from heaven, the devil has been at enmity with God, and will continue to be so until the close of the age. He has also succeeded in infecting all of humanity with his sin and rebellion, causing them to be in a lost state from birth. God's desire is that all should be saved. He will not override human free will to accomplish this, but He has made salvation available and possible through the willing sacrificial death of His own Son. Satan's goal is to keep humans from making that free-will choice by whatever means he can (such as lies, persuasion, and temptations or distractions of the world and the flesh). In my opinion, his motivation is not that he wants to have "company" (as it were) in his rebellion (because he has no concern for anything outside himself), but just because he opposes whatever God wills or intends. Even though God has already assured his ultimate defeat, he persists because of the same pride that caused his original rebellion to begin with.
Nils Jansma
Why does the Devil want people to sin? What does he “gain” from this? This is a difficult question to answer directly. All the Bible tells us is that the Devil was apparently very ambitious. Being ambitious isn’t a sin, but how your ambition manifests itself may be sinful. We are not told why the Devil chose to challenge God’s authority. It certainly was not a matter of power. The Devil knows that God is all-powerful and could eliminate the Devil anytime He wanted to. After all, God was his father and gave him life in the first place. So, there must be more to it than just a rebellion against God’s authority. Thus the question, What does he [the Devil hope to] gain from this? For an ambitious high-ranking Archangel to rebel, there must have been an achievable incentive. It may be that, just as God placed an important restriction on Adam and Eve to test their obedience, a similar restriction may have been placed on all the heavenly host. The Devil must have believed that he could use God’s own logic against Him and force a concession that would somehow be of great benefit to him and his followers. My speculation is that the Devil challenged God’s methods in creating humans and dealing with them. Using Job as an example, it is probably safe to say that the issue of “free will” is involved. (Job 1:8-12) Based upon God’s past dealings with the Devil, the challenge about a person freely serving God became an issue that included more than just the Devil. It must have been known to all the heavenly host and apparently it looked legitimate to 33% of them, if that is how to interpret Revelation 12:4. Since the Devil challenged Job’s motives, it must be that he is also challenging the motives of us and all “our brethren” as well. (Revelation 12:10) He wants us to sin to help prove to God that he was right all along. If he succeeds, apparently all his ambitions to be “like the most High” will be achieved. So, if this assessment is correct, we still wonder what the Biblical basis is for determining the winner of the contest between the Devil and God. In Job’s case, Job’s steadfastness proved the Devil wrong. In our case, it should be obvious that the Devil has not turned everyone from serving God and so has he lost already? Apparently not because he is more active now then ever. I believe it is a numbers game. God has apparently agreed that a certain number of humans will be like Job and prove the Devil wrong. We do not know what that number is, but when it is achieved, it is all over for Satan. (Romans 11:25) That, in my opinion, is the reason the Devil is so desperate at this time. Peter says he is so desperate he can be likened to a roaring lion seeking to devour a many as possible. (1 Peter 5:8) That is also the answer to our question about what the Devil hopes to gain by making men and women sin. In other words, the Devil is fighting for his life right now as we speak. That is a pretty strong incentive don’t you agree.
Michael Morgan
Maybe my answer will be a bit simplistic, but I believe it is dead on. First, satan can not usurp God in any way. Next, I don’t find anywhere in the Word where satan actually asks or calls any to worship him. Satan’s sin and rebellion is presuming equality with God; the ability to question God. At its core foundation, sin.....all sin, regardless of the name put or it, is rebellion against God's perfect plan and design. We don’t even have to “sin” per se for satan to be served when even saved Christians allow themselves to be deceived and/or distracted from serving God, and receiving the blessing which is embraced when we love others in service to our Lord. Here is my final point. Satan could care less about people serving or worshipping him; he simply does NOT want us serving God. Satan doesn’t keep count of the numbers who have not chosen Jesus. This is to me the most evil and detestable aspect of satan’s pride and arrogance. We could almost argue or comprehend two factions battling for power, but satan knows he has already lost, just waiting for the end. Again, in his insidiousness, satan’s “gain or desire” is not so much a gain of followers, it is the fact or his perception of people NOT finding God. The joke, as always, is upon satan, as the written Word of God states it clearly John 6:35-40. Christ will never lose any whom God has given Him. I pray this helps, as I am sure other responses have. God bless.
Al Mark
Satan had become proud and arrogant and wanted praise which belonged only to God (Isa 14:13-14). He opposes God's purposes (Matt 16:23), but cannot destroy God, so he seeks to destroy and corrupt man, who is made in God's image (Gen 1:27). By marring the greatest creation of God, he thinks he strikes at God. God allows this, and even uses it to bring greater glory to Himself. There will be many stories of people who were in the depths of depravity and thought themselves doomed forever, but were brought to the saving knowledge of God. God's plans transcend our ability to comprehend or predict them.
John DiMura
Well you could look at it this way. Satan is a Liar and the father of lies as our Lord put it. The ultimate liar believes his own lies. It’s too late for the devil. He is deluded. His goal is to take as many souls as he can. Misery loves company. The reality is that he and everyone else will be alone in their misery only hearing weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth
Doreen Lovell
Satan or the Devil is the personal dimension of that which opposes God's purpose in this world. He was an angel of light, perfect in his original form but because of pride he rebelled against God, which resulted in his fall. He was the agent of temptation for Adam and Eve and the people of today. He is the adversary of God's people and seeks to lead them into sin because of his hatred for God, God's action of throwing him down and preparing a place of damnation for him. Satan's power was not taken from him when he was cast down, thus he has the power to tempt, lead men into all areas of sin and use them as his agents of destruction, confusion and chaos. By the time the New Testament was written, God had led the authors into a clear doctrine of Satan. This recognizes the reality of evil outside and beyond the scope of human will. Thus sin (evil) cannot be identified with the direct will of God. Hell was created for the devil to be at the end of time but man would gain eternal life in the kingdom of Messiah Yeshua. Satan the devil hates God for being cast down and is now at war with God and will do everything and anything to ensure that man accompanies him to hell and God does not have the victory. Yeshua's victory over the devil therefore, was to ensure that countless numbers of God's people would be delivered from the dominion of darkness and transferred into Yeshua' kingdom. The devil is a created, rebellious and tempting evil power active in the universe, but his powerful existence does not exclude a person from responsibility. The devil and the demonic forces cannot dominate or possess us except by our own consent. Believers will not be tempted beyond the power of resistance. The power of the devil is limited and he acts within the limits set by divine sovereignty.
Petie Van De Werken
When God created everything He took care to create a perfect place for mankind. This is clear from the Genesis account. Then God created man in His image or to His likeness and commanded him to rule over everything that He created which we can also gather from the Genesis (1:28) account. However Satan, who himself was created by God as the most beautiful angel in heaven, rebelled against God and tried to exalt himself above God (Isaiah 14:11-17) and was cast down from heaven. His insatiable thirst for power could not be quenched and the only way he could rule was to trick Adam, in whom the authority over God's creation was seeded, into relinquishing his power and authority to Satan by disobeying God's law and bowing to Satan's request (inadvertently siding with Satan) to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the moment Adam disobeyed God, Satan became the ruler of this world (John 16:11 & Ephesians 6:12). The only way that he can keep dominion over creation is by keeping mankind in the bondage of sin. Should all mankind (offspring of Adam) denounce sin the power and authority that Satan holds over creation, which was meant for Adam to rule over, would cease to exist. For this purpose Jesus Christ (the second Adam/Son of God 1 Corinthians 15:45) came into this world to destroy the dominion of Satan (1 John 3:8). Satan's dominion over creation will end when he and his followers (people who and do not acknowledge God's supreme authority, repent and accept Christs' sacrifice/payment for their sin trough His death and resurrection) are removed from creation in the day of judgement when they will be banished to the pool of fire (hell) and Christ will reign forever. In summary, even though he has been defeated by Christ at Calvary, Satan is clinging to his dominion over creation as long as possible and really doesn't care how many human lives are lost in the process (1 Peter 5:8).
Alan Rees
Firstly the devil is not a creator, he is the destroyer. The devil is jealous of man; he wanted to rule in Heaven. God made the world for man to rule. The devil wanted to be like God, and God made man in his own image, so the devil will always hate man, attack man and try to destroy man. He will not even be the king of hell, so be wary of the devil.
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