Jesus tells everyone who does not love him that the devil is their father. With this he showed the Jews the truth about themselves, even though they claimed to know God. The legalists were far from God. The Evil One was their parent.
The devil causes turmoil wherever he goes. His aim is to bring the downfall of God’s creation. He looks out for the weak points in every person, and tempts by trickery to dominate, and drive him to commit sins. Than he runs to God’s throne, accusing the fallen one, to justify the punishment of the judge on the wretch, so ugly is deception!
Jesus declared Satan to be the sum total of wicked lusts, which have deprived him of good will. He became slave to self, hating everyone. In the same spirit lived all the enemies of Christ, destroying others and themselves driven by their lusts. All who live apart from the Lord are bent on evil which Satan incites in them.
What are Satan’s lusts? Jesus tells us that he was a murderer from the start; that is because he loathes God’s image in man. He also separated himself from God, the life-giver. In him eternal death took place. He was the dominion of death. His aim is to exterminate all living beings.
The cause of this ferocity is deceit. The devil duped the original pair by lying to Adam and Eve towards unbelief and the transgressing of God’s command. He also fooled himself, while heading the angelic host, imagining himself to be greater, more beautiful and stronger than God.
This self-deception is the essence of Satan, who did not realize the limits of his ambitions, and fell abysmally. Christ is the opposite of this. He is meek and lowly. Sadly, man prefers delusion and boasting rather than Christ’s humility, and his self-denial. So the deceiver mobilizes an army of liars, from whose mouths emerge lies, like serpents poisoning lives. There is no confidence shown by one to the other.
A lady said to her mother, "All are liars; they flatter one another with smiles. Everyone honors himself, pupils cheat in exams, traders deceive. Even at home deception occurs between the spouses. No one trusts the other, yet each one considers himself to be the only upright person."
Satan’s incitements are lies! Often these lies have some half-truths. Satan makes every lie sound right. He is the deceiver and father of lies.