Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
4:10
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”
This quotation asserts mutually exclusive worship. “Worship the Lord your God” shows Satan the true object of worship.
The word “serve” carries the idea of religious service. “Serve” is just what Jesus was about to do in His public ministry. He committed Himself to exclusive service of the Lord God.
The word “only” brings out emphatically the mutually exclusive nature of worshiping “the Lord your God” and Him alone. Putting “him only” before the verb “shall you serve” shows the restrictedness of the proper object of worship. Jesus could not worship both Satan and God with some sort of compromise between the Lord God and the devil.
“You shall have no other gods before me.” Ex 20:3
“You shall have no other gods before me.” Dt 5:7
4:11
Then the devil left him,
The devil left Jesus after his failure to lure Jesus away from God’s purpose for Him as the Messiah. Luke says that the devil left Him for a period of time (4:13).
Satan does not tempt us every moment, but he comes in waves. He leaves after resistance with the Word of God.
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Jas 4:6-7
and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Angels came to minister to Jesus. Their ministry to Him was ongoing (Greek). Jesus was now ready to begin His ministry after His temptation.
PRINCIPLE:
Christianity is mutually exclusively true.
APPLICATION:
People believe that if it is religious, it is good. That is a deadly error. Satan’s ace trump in leading people astray is religion.
If God is absolute, all encompassing, all power, everywhere present, all knowing, and sovereign, He cannot tolerate any rivals. We live in a day in which people believe in pluralism and tolerate every form of religion. There is no religion that can claim certainty for them. However, if God spoke to us from eternity into time, then we can know for certain what we know.
The only way we can worship and serve the Lord God “only” is to exclude every other form of worship.
