Devil's Advocate?

In the course of a discussion, have you ever had someone tell you that they were just playing “devil’s advocate”? Perhaps you’ve even used the phrase yourself, but have you ever put much thought into what that phrase really means? Let me tell you why I bring this up.

This afternoon, my wife shared an exchange she had while witnessing to her cousin on Saturday and I was struck by the irony and wanted to share it here. My wife was explaining what the Bible means to her, and stated something along the lines that she believes everything in it is the inspired Word of God and that everything in it is true. Of course, that is crazy talk to the world so her cousin didn’t understand and began asking a lot of questions. That part isn’t the problem, as we should always be prepared to defend the Word of God but I was struck by the words her cousin used to preface her challenges by saying, “I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, but….”

I’m not sure that phrase has ever been used in a more appropriate context. In fact, I would imagine we have all probably used that phrase at one point or another without thinking about what it actually means. Words are powerful and they have meaning. As a believer, the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has incredible power and simply the hearing the name spoken makes my heart jump. Now why in the world would I want to advocate anything in the name of the enemy?

Let’s not get crazy and start a movement against devil’s food cake or anything, that’s not my point here…besides we all know that the devil doesn’t even like cake. ☺

-W.S.