If you hang around with Christians long enough, you will hear them talk a lot about Satan. They talk about how Satan is plotting to destroy them, how Satan is causing their tempting thoughts, how Satan is causing all kinds of problems in their lives to try to ruin them, etc. Satan has kind of become a catch-all for every woe and temptation Christians experience. However, this is not really consistent with how the Bible describes him. It would be better to properly understand him.

Yes, Satan is a conscious being, most likely a fallen angel who was jealous of God. Yes, he is pure evil. Yes, he was involved in trying to kill Jesus and destroy the early church. However, he is nowhere near as powerful as most Christians make him out to be.

In Job 1:6, Satan tells God he has come from “going to and forth on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” This illustrates a really important point about Satan: he is not omnipresent. He is not everywhere all at once.

He is also not omniscient: he doesn’t know everything that’s happening. He certainly doesn’t know everyone’s thoughts. He can only be in one place at once, and he only has access to what he can see at one point in time (or what other demons can tell him).

Satan is extremely dangerous because he is attempting to coordinate opposition to God and bring about the destruction of His people. But he is nowhere near as powerful or knowledgeable as God, which is how most Christians describe him.

1 Peter 5:8 says Satan “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” In other words, he is opportunistic, looking for a chance to do damage when it arises. He was able to possess Judas (Luke 22:3; John 13:27) because Satan was monitoring Jesus and His apostles closely and knew Judas to be a thief and a liar. That doesn’t mean he knew every evil thought of every Jew in Judea at the same time.

Note that Satan is shown to have widespread power in Mark 4:15 and 1 Corinthians 7:5, but this most likely refers to Satan’s extended power through his demonic minions, who are distributed widely and are close to most Christians and can act on Satan’s behalf (or call him in). This is similar to Acts 26:18, where the reference to Satan is not so much his individual power alone but his entire effort and what he represents.

It is particularly important to note that amongst the many times Paul and the apostles discuss combatting sin and the flesh, Satan is rarely mentioned (1 Corinthians 7:5 is a partial exception, only because an unwise practice in marriage allows Satan to drive a wedge between spouses). Why? James 1:14-15: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Note that James says we are enticed by our own desires, not Satan. Our desires, the sinful passions of the flesh (Romans 7:5), are our primary stumbling block, and no demon need be involved to make that happen. Satan can introduce or enhance temptation in certain situations, but most of the time, it just comes from within us.

James 4:1-3 shows that sinful desires cause not just individual sin but also strife amongst Christians. James 4:7 asserts that refocusing on God and submitting to His instructions will allow Christians to send the devil fleeing in situations like these.

Externally, plenty of bad things happen without Satan causing them. Creation is in the “bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21), which means bad things will happen as part of life. Certainly Satan can cause bad things, as in Job’s case, but he doesn’t cause every bit of suffering or struggle in our lives.

All this is why Satan is barely mentioned in the Old Testament and not even that much in the New Testament. He can only act where God allows him (Job 1:12; Job 2:6), and when a Christian is crucifying his own flesh (Galatians 5:24) and following God as closely as possible, Satan doesn’t have much foothold to affect him.

Realistically, the only time we need to worry about Satan affecting those following God’s commandments consistently is when God is allowing persecution of the church to further His ministry aims. Nonetheless, at such times Satan is still only working according to what God permits according to His will.