Defanged lion

"Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). "But don't worry, he is defanged," we immediately add-which is a good way to defang the power of the verse.

Oh, I know what is meant: "Christ … disarmed the powers and authorities [and] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (Colossians 2:15). And "The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). But Satan is well pleased to have us neutralize the punch of Peter's words with our own oft-repeated midrash.

"My dear Wormwood, I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. Of course this has not always been so." (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters).

Unless, of course, you don't really believe that the devil conducts such councils and hatches such "schemes" as the one described above. But then you have Ephesians 6:10 to deal with: "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."

Only those who have not been awakened to Satan's existence, and so felt his ire, can think him a paper tiger. Only those who have not done business with him personally and fought back with God's armor can glibly call him "defanged."