Satan's Schemes: Polarizing the Household of Faith

In the preface to his work The Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards notes that the devil uses times of revival as a time of sowing great discord among the brethren. The context, of course, is the importance of (and danger of not) distinguishing what are true marks of Christianity. Yet his words do give us light on how every weed of discord takes root and grows within a church, and therefore how we ought to take precautions to preserve the familial tie with the utmost charity. He says,

The devil scatters the flock of Christ, and sets them one against another, and that with great heart of spirit, under a notion of zeal for God; and religion, by degrees, degenerates into vain jangling; and during the strife, Satan leads both parties far out of the right way, driving each to great extremes, one on the right hand and the other on the left, according as he finds they are most inclined, or most easily moved and swayed, till the right path in the middle is almost wholly neglected. And in the midst of this confusion, the devil has great opportunity to advance his own interest, and make it strong in ways innumerable, and get the government of all into his own hands and work his own will.