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  1^th October 2025

SundayReflection

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'John Piper'

    "founder and teacher of Desiring God.org"

The God of Peace Will Soon Crush Satan Under Your Feet

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17  I urge you, my friends: watch out for those who cause divisions and upset people's faith and go against the teaching which you have received. Keep away from them! 18  For those who do such things are not serving Christ our Lord, but their own appetites. By their fine words and flattering speech they deceive innocent people. 19  Everyone has heard of your loyalty to the gospel, and for this reason I am happy about you. I want you to be wise about what is good, but innocent in what is evil. 20   20 And God, our source of peace, will soon crush Satan under your feet.

.... Romans 16:17-20

Up till now in the book of Romans, Paul has never mentioned the devil
(except indirectly in passing in Romans 8:38 where he said that neither "angels nor rulers" can separate us from the love of God in Christ).

Those who think of all struggles in terms of conflicts with the devil to be fought in face-to-face combat must wonder how Paul could write fifteen chapters about salvation and Christian living and not mention the Satan.

Paul's silence till now does not mean that Satan is insignificant, or that he can be trifled with.
But it does mean that we deal with Satan mainly indirectly rather than keeping him in our mind and going toe to toe.
But now, finally, near the end, Paul does mention Satan in Romans 16:20.
And that's the main thing I want to talk about.
Paul has one sentence to say about Satan in sixteen chapters.
Verse 20: The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet"
That's all. He get's one mention.
And the mention is: He's doomed. You will crush him under your feet.

Now before we talk about that, let's see how that fits into the flow of Paul's thought.
In verse 18, Paul said we should watch out for people who depart from the apostle's doctrine and try to take others with them.
Avoid them, Paul says.

Verse 19 gives the reasons for this vigilance:
Because the false teachers are not always easy to spot with their smooth talk and their words of blessing.

The greater your reputation for obedience, the more damage can be done if you get sucked into false teaching.
So be vigilant. You have a great responsibility.

"I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil."
He got this way of talking from Jesus.
Jesus had said, "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves"
(Matthew 10:16).

Sheep in the midst of wolves.
That makes an interesting link with the context in Romans.
Here Paul is warning against wolves in sheep's clothing - people departing from the doctrine who talk like sheep and bless like sheep but "do not serve our Lord Christ."

They are wolves ready to devour the naïve.
When it comes to wisdom - the discerning of false teaching and destructive behaviours - don't be naïve.
Be wise; be mature.
But when it comes to evil - erroneous destructive doctrines and appetite-worship that goes with them - be innocent.
Be like a child in the sense that you don't even make a beginning in evil.
J. B. Phillips paraphrases Romans 16:19, "I want to see you experts in good, and not even beginners in evil."

So, let's be that way.
Finally, we come then to verse 20 and the point seems to be this:
Do not be tricked or lured into any evil - false teaching or bondage to appetite - because the great head of evil, Satan, is going to be crushed.

Be warned not to get involved with the works of Satan, because "lo, his doom is sure."
And be encouraged to press on in your battle against all that is false and destructive because the Father of all lies and destruction will be destroyed.

I take verse 20a to be a broad, general, glorious promise about the triumph of the church over the Satan.
The troubles he describes are of an ongoing kind.
We will have to be vigilant for false teachers till the last day.
I don't think it's a reference to a current event but to the last great events of history when Satan is finally crushed and put in the pit (Revelation 20:2-3) and in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10).

It's a warning not to be friends with evil because evil will loose.
And it's an encouragement to stay vigilant against the false teaching because the fountain of all error will one day be destroyed.

This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request

John Piper
is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning:
Education in Serious Joy.

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