36 Bible Verses About Satan (and what we can learn from them)

It has been said that in order to have victory over an enemy, you must know your enemy. In this post, we will attempt to know the enemy of our souls, Satan, by exploring the truths contained in the Bible about Him.

Yes, truths. Everything in the Bible is true, not just the good stuff. Aren’t you glad we serve a God who wants us to know the truth about everything, even the stuff that isn’t pleasant? Some fathers, in an effort to shield their children from evil or discomfort, will only share the nice stuff. But the children of these fathers grow up unprepared to face the not-so-nice stuff in the world.

God, on the other hand, wants us to be prepared for everything this world throws at us; and some of it won’t be nice, or fun, or even comfortable. For this reason, He has given us valuable insight into the character and schemes of the devil so we can recognize his attacks and know how to fight back.

But it’s not all bad news! Throughout these sometimes-hard-to-read scriptures and stories, there is running a thread of faith, hope, and redemption. So keep reading to see not only who Satan is and how he operates but also how God redeems those Satan attacks.

What Does the Bible Say About the Devil?

Because God wants us to know as much as we can about Satan and how he operates, He has graciously provided us with many Bible verses about Satan.

Some are about his character, some are about how he attacks, and some are actually messages of hope.

We can learn a lot from them, so let’s get started!

Who is Satan in the Bible?

When I look at all of the scriptures about the devil in the Bible, I see some pretty obvious repeated themes.

Satan is the Ruler of This World

“The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out.” John 12:31

“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4

“Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ‘I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,’ the devil said, ‘because they are mine to give to anyone I please.'” Luke 4:5

Ok, so it’s obvious from these verses about Satan that he is ruling the world, but what exactly does this mean? It means that the devil is always looking for opportunities to do “steal, kill, and destroy” in this world. He is using his schemes to control people and hold them in bondage to sin, like the next few verses demonstrate. In this way, he controls all people who haven’t given their lives to Jesus.

“Then Peter said, ‘Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself.'” Acts 5:3

“This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?” Luke 13:16

On a related note, let me just warn you that Christians are not exempt from being tempted. Heck, Jesus himself was tempted (but never gave in)! This is spiritual warfare, people! Our flesh is tempted and our joy is stolen by Satan and his cohorts, but our born-again spirits (and our warriors in the heavenly realms) are constantly fighting back!

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.” Matthew 4:1

“Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples.” Luke 22:3

Satan is Our Enemy

“‘The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.'” Matthew 13:39

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of “enemy” is “one that is antagonistic to another, especially one seeking to injure, overthrow, or confound an opponent.” Another definition is “something harmful or deadly.”

To put it all together, Satan is always trying to hurt or confuse us in an attempt to overthrow Jesus as Lord of our lives. If he can get us to no longer follow the Lord, he can use us to convince others to stray as well.

Characteristics of Satan

Characteristics are things by which we recognize something. By keeping these characteristics of the devil in mind, we can more easily spot Satan in the midst of his schemes.

Deceiver

To deceive someone means to convince someone to believe something that is false. Satan is super good at getting us to believe his lies. He knows just how to appeal to our flesh to get us to justify a belief, an action, or a sin that we know goes against God’s truths.

“And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result.” 1 Timothy 2:14

“But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” 2 Cor. 11:14

“This great dragon–the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world–was thrown down to the earth with all of his angels.” Revelation 12:9

“Then he said, ‘You son of the devil, full of every sort of deceit and fraud, and enemy of all that is good! Will you never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord?'” Acts 13:10

Liar

Another way Satan convinces us to stray from God is by telling us lies. Lying is similar to deceiving, but while deceiving is convincing us that something untrue is true, lying is simply not telling the truth.

He tells us that we aren’t lovable, that we are stupid, that we are a mistake, that we’re too far gone, that God doesn’t use people like us. He wants us to believe that God is unreachable, unloving, uncaring, too good for us, and so on. If he can convince us of any of these things, he can control us and use us to spread his lies to others.

“For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44

Thief

Satan is a taker. He wants to take everything good away from us. He wants us to be miserable and so focused on ourselves and our losses that we can’t focus on loving God or the people around us. He does this to us by stealing our joy, our peace, our self-confidence, even our very chance at salvation.

“‘The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved.'” Luke 8:12

“‘The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.'” John 10:10

Tempter

The devil knows what our weaknesses are. These are some of the details he gathers while he is out “patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.” (Job 1:7) So he knows exactly how to tempt us. He will put the opportunities to sin right there in front of our faces and then use his lies and deceit to get us to give in.

Satan knows our weaknesses and you can bet he will use them to his advantange. Do you know what your weaknesses are so you can cut him off at the pass? Click To Tweet

“It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.” John 13:2

“That is why, when I could bear it no longer, I sent Timothy to find out whether your faith was still strong. I was afraid that the tempter had gotten the best of you and that our work had become useless.” 1 Thessalonians 3:5

“Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel.” 1 Chronicles 21:1

Accuser

And when we do give in to the sin he tempted us with, he will remind us that we are sinners, heaping shame upon us in massive quantities. He’ll tell us that we’re not good enough, not strong enough, that we’re failures or frauds, and he’ll keep accusing us until we believe him or rebuke him.

Not only does he accuse us to our faces, he also accuses us to God Himself. Luckily, Jesus is there to defend us.

“Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. The accuser, Satan, was there at the angel’s right hand, making accusations against Jeshua.” Zechariah 3:1

“One day the members of the heavenly court came again to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them.” Job 2:1

“Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, ‘It has come at last–salvation and power and the Kingdom of God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth–the one who accuses them before our God day and night.” Revelation 12:10

Shrewd

A shrewd person is acutely aware of every detail of a situation and is very good at using his knowledge to manipulate a person or situation. This scripture means that Satan watches all of our comings and goings and dealings, looking for our weaknesses and slip-ups so he can use them against us and genrally doing whatever he can to keep us from doing the work of the Lord.

“‘Where have you come from?’ the Lord asked Satan. Satan answered the Lord, ‘I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.'” Job 2:2

“We wanted very much to come to you, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us.” 1 Thessalonians 2:18

Powerful

“This man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles.” 2 Tessalonians 2:9

Yikes! Does it concern anybody else that Satan is able to do signs and miracles similar to the ones Jesus and His apostles performed? I thought about leaving this one out. I mean, the rest is nerve-wracking enough. But it doesn’t do anybody any good to sugarcoat any of this. We need to thoroughly understand the situation if we are to be effective soldiers in the Lord’s army.

Sigh…If you’re coming out of this feeling overwhelmingly defeated, like I am, KEEP READING! It gets better, I promise.

Verses of Hope (despite the Devil)

So most of this post has been kinda dark. I mean, it’s all about the father of darkness, Satan.

But, BUT…

But God! Yes! The victory belongs to God and all who believe in Him and His Son, Jesus! Here are some Bible verses about Satan that show us that, ultimately, Satan’s reign as the ruler of this world will end, and we will be able to live without his constant attempts to draw us away from the true Lover of our souls.

{Btw, all emphasis is mine. I feel the need to really highlight the point that Satan will not win this war!}

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

“The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore…” Revelation 20:3a

“He seized the dragon—that old serpent, who is the devil, Satan—and bound him in chains for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:2

“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” Romans 16:20

“But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8

“Because God’s children are human beings–made of flesh and blood–the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.” Hebrews 2:14

Not only can we take heart in knowing that, in the end, Satan won’t bother us anymore, but we can also rest assured that even while we are here on this earth, he won’t bother us constantly. He is opportunistic. When he sees an opening, he attacks. But he will leave, especially if he sees we won’t be fooled by his tricks. Satan isn’t omnipresent like God is; if he is to fool one, he must leave another alone.

“When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.” Luke 4:13

Something really neat I discovered while researching Satan in the Bible is that even though he hates God, he often can’t help but play right into God’s hand. I just think that’s such a crazy twist! In the below scriptures you can see that sometimes God lets Satan have his way with us so that we can learn to be more righteous or to lean only on Him. So while Satan is having a good ol’ time breaking our spirits, he doesn’t even realize that he’s actually helping God!

“Then you must throw this man out and hand him over the Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.” 1 Corinthians 5:5

“Hymanaeus and Alexander are two examples. I threw them out and handed them over to Satan so they might learn not to blaspheme God.” 1 Timothy 1:20

“‘All right, you may test him,’ the Lord said to Satan.” Job 1:12

“‘Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat.'” Luke 22:31

Bible Verses About Satan Summary

So what are the take-home points from this post about the devil? Let’s see…

• Satan is the ruler of this world – that means we shouldn’t be surprised when people who don’t know Jesus don’t live by God’s word. Satan is ruling this world and the world is ruling in their hearts.
• Satan is our enemy – It’s important to remember that God love us and Satan doesn’t. God is a friend, Satan is a foe.
• Satan is deceitful – He will tells us whatever he needs to tell us in order to gain control over us, even if it isn’t the truth, even if it isn’t good for us.
• Satan is a liar – Just like he will deceive us to get us to do his bidding, he will also lie to us.
• Satan accuses us – Satan will use our mistakes and unfavorable worldly situations to make us believe that we have done something wrong to cause us to feel ashamed.
• Satan tempts us – Temptation to sin is always from the devil and never from God.
• Satan is a thief – Satan wants to steal everything good in your life; your joy, your peace, your happiness, your time, your money, your family. You name it; if it’s good he wants to destroy it. What’s more, he wants you to blame God for all the trouble his theivery causes.
• Satan is shrewd – Shrewd people are able to take in all relevant information and use it to get people to do what they want them to do. Satan is an expert manipulator, using even tiny details we don’t even know exist against us.
• Satan is powerful – Yes, he is. But he’s not as powerful as God! So there, Satan. 😛

But then there’s this…

• Jesus has overcome the world. Through Him, you can overcome the world, too!
• A day will come when Satan will not be able to rule the world anymore – Jesus will rule with peace and love!
• Jesus came to eliminate the power of death – So abundant life now and forever to all those who love Jesus!
• God will cause Satan to be “crushed under our feet” – That means we get to crush him!!!
• Satan’s attacks come and go – when God, who is omniscient and omnipresent, is fighting for you, Satan, who is not either of those things, will realize he has been defeated and leave.

I hope you have a better understanding of the devil’s character and schemes after this loooong post covering many Bible verses about Satan. I know I do! Now let’s get out there and kick some devil butt!

Catch ya’ later!

PS I’ll be writing another post soon about how to recognize Satan’s schemes and how to fight back, so be sure to follow Catching Courage on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest so you don’t miss it!

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