Today’s Corinthian passage will
always have a special place in my heart for a very sentimental reason: When I was
active in church as a teenager, I distinctly remember this passage was on one of my
beloved t-shirts. On the back it had the passage below a drawing of a knight on
horseback, gleaming sword in his hand, riding up a crooked path up to a castle
where a demonic giant was waiting. It was a great reminder when I was a kid of
the reality of spiritual warfare.
We’re surrounded by a silent war. This
isn’t like World War Two, when everyone was mobilized, the war was on the front
pages every day and you could hardly escape noticing it even if you wanted to,
and which was blessedly short. No, this is a lot more similar to the Cold War, a long-term
struggle between two superpowers who rarely come into open conflict, but who
usually worked behind the scenes and mostly through proxies. Think of the spy
networks who worked silently in the background. If they did their jobs right,
you never thought about them, but they were constantly there. The intelligence
organizations which helped keep us safe—and which still do—are rarely in the
headlines, and then mostly when someone screws up.
But even if most people rarely
thought about our struggle during the Cold War in their daily lives, it still
affected them, mostly in ways they wouldn’t normally notice. And it’s the same
principle in the war discussed in today’s passage. But there are huge
differences which we need to note. Let’s take a look at what we can glean:
·
The stakes are much higher than in any war fought by
men against men.
Granted, the stakes were pretty high during World War Two and the Cold War, but
they’re nothing compared to this. Men’s souls are at stake. God is robbed of
glory due him while people wallow in sin and Christians are disobedient (which
is Paul’s main concern here). Every merely human war only has temporal
consequences. This is of eternal significance.
·
The weapons are very different. Men use guns,
bombs, chemical weapons, human intelligence and resources, whatever we can come
up with by our own means. Or in the current culture war in America, a lot of
battles are fought in the legal/political arena: Passing laws, going into
court, winning elections, etc. In the really important battles, we don’t use
those: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.” What are
the weapons we use? Prayer. The Word of God. The Good News of Christ. Personal
holiness. Accountability towards each other.
·
The Enemy is very different. Please take a
long hard look at the Ephesians verse. Read it again. Let it sink in.
Ultimately the church has only one enemy. The hardcore atheist who goes on a
lecture tour--on how stupid and harmful Christianity is—is not my enemy. Nor is
the homosexual activist who proclaims how wonderful his lifestyle is, and how
his “marriage” is just as legitimate as mine. Nor—as much as I abhor abortion—is
an abortionist doctor who kills babies who are 10 minutes short of being born. Those people are not my enemies. My
Enemy is a spirit who’s been in rebellion against my Lord since near the
beginning of time. This in no way relieves anyone of any responsibility for the
choices they make. But judging them is not my job, and fighting them on the
battlefield of whatever sin they’re indulging in or promoting at the moment is
not productive.
·
The battlefield is on a different plane. This is
related to points # 2 and 3 above. Notice what effect our weapons have: “We
demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the
knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to
Christ.” We fight against Satan in the realm of thoughts, ideas, philosophies, and
worldviews. We use every biblically legitimate means to share the Good News
with the lost, making it as appealing as we can. We carefully clear away people’s
misunderstandings about the Bible (a prime purpose of this blog). When someone
promotes falsehood, we call them on it. And of course the entire process must must must be saturated with prayer.
There is, however, one major
parallel I see between World War Two and this one. The French, thinking they
were about to fight the last war all over again, beefed up the Maginot Line, “a series of
fortifications, obstacles, and weapons installations” along the French-German
border. The French invested tons of money and resources on the Maginot, and the
Germans. . .went around it and invaded with relative impunity. The French were
fighting on the wrong border using outmoded thinking, and getting flanked by
the Germans cost them their country.
As Christians get more and more
frustrated with losses in the culture war—on issues like homosexuality,
abortion, freedom of religion, etc.—it’s tempting to resort to “the weapons of
the world.” I’m not a pacifist, so I believe that guns and physical weapons
have their place in the world. And I'm not saying that Christians shouldn't be involved in the "culture wars." But in the real battle--the battle for peoples’
minds and peoples’ souls--we have to be fighting the right enemy, using the
right weapons, on the right battlefield, and following the strategy of our
Commander. And when/if we do, we can’t lose.
And here’s a song from Twila Paris
which I think is incredibly apropos: "Rescue The Prisoner."
Father God, I for one am reporting for duty.
Wherever you send me, whatever my orders are, the answer is “Yes sir.” What’s
my mission today?
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