A reflection on the ‘Angel of Light’.

¹⁴ And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵ It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. I Corinthians 11:14-15

This is how the “enemy” of our souls often masks himself; he clothes himself in familiar garb; he appears safe and stable; he appeals to our emotions; he enters in  as a Trojan Horse, once we’ve been drawn in we realize it is already too late. The enemy of our souls will penetrate into our houses, our families, our souls through any means necessary; he will situate a context, the vocabulary, and the categories through which we can rationalize ourselves into the lap of his luxury. He will use the name of Christ (like these super-Apostles Paul is accusing in the context of our passage) as the situation through which he enters into a relationship with the unwitting soul; only in the end, as the serpent, to bite us with the venom of destruction. He will appear as the Lamb; he will appear as our next door neighbor; he is our friend and boyfriend/girlfriend—he will come clothed as all of these things with his final intent of alluring us away from our true love (Christ), and into his clutches (just ask Solomon and his many ‘foreign’ wives). The Angel of Light is relentless in his tact, unwieldy in his approach, subtle in his ways; only in the end to rise up in all of his pompous jest, and declare himself as our Lord—and he has done so right under our noses.

He is really the ‘Angel of Death’. The only way we can distinguish him from the Son of God’s love, at points, is to be humble and prudent enough to listen to others outside of our circumstance who can see past the Angel of Light’s alluring ways. If we our insensitive to the wisdom of other saints we will only end up like that sorry soul who went down destruction lane (read his account in Proverbs 7).