Destroy the works of the devil

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” ‭‭1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The word for “destroy” is “λύω,” the first verb you learn if you study classical Greek. In old textbooks it’s translated as “to loose,” as in to “untie an animal” or “unchain a prisoner” so they can go free. If you similarly unbind a sheaf of wheat, though, it falls apart; if you knock down the dam that holds water in a reservoir, you cause a flood; if you smash apart the bricks in a wall, you destroy the building.

It’s easy to see how the same word, as it was used in different contexts, came to have meanings that were both as positive as “liberate” and as negative as “destroy.” Reminding ourselves of that journey gives us a richer and broader range of images for what Christ is doing.

As CS Lewis’s points out, there is only one Creator. That means the devil cannot create anything: he can only obstruct, restrain and distort the good things God has created – like making your face unrecognisable by pulling a nylon stocking over it.

So sometimes undoing the evil in the world looks like smashing apart, knocking down or washing away; sometimes it looks like removing something that is limiting, unhelpful or harmful. But always it is releasing, restoring and revitalising what is good.