Spiritual Warfare

Daily, we're fighting against something, whether we realize it or not. If we're going to school, we're fighting ignorance. If we're working, we're fighting poverty. If we're hanging out with friends, we're fighting loneliness. Life is a constant struggle against evil, regardless of our consciousness of that fact. To even LIVE at all is to upset the evil one, as nothing makes him happier than death and destruction (John 10:10).

So Christians who think they can follow God without encountering daily spiritual warfare are simply wrong. We can't coast along and avoid the enemy's attacks, because no matter how weak your faith is, or how nonexistent, he will always try to make it worse. Nothing will ever be "bad enough" for him, just like we can never be "good enough" for God without His grace. So we need to face facts - life is a battle, whether you choose to fight with God or not. You can go through the battle asleep, or you can go through it awake and actively build God's Kingdom here on earth.

It's that activity that I want us to remember. Constantly living FOR GOD, not just abstaining from doing things for Satan. "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder." (James 2:19) Abstaining from "bad" sins is not what our faith is ultimately about; a lot of non-Christians can do that quite easily. At judgment, God will not say, "Well done, my good and faithful teetotaler" or "Well done, my good and faithful virgin." He will be more concerned about whether we loved to fight evil and advance His Cause here on earth, whether His Cross was our all-consuming passion. Going back to education, if you simply abstain from taking books away from little children, you can't say you're fighting ignorance. You have to actually be teaching them. Saying, "Well, at least I don't steal their Speak n Spells!" doesn't mean anything.

When you read the Armor of God in Ephesians 6, think about it this way. No one suits up with armor as heavy as the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, etc., just so they can walk nonchalantly across the battlefield, whistling all the way and not paying attention to the arrows clanging off of them. (Whew, right? Wriggled my way through another day of life!) You don't suit up unless you're going to be firing some arrows yourself. Otherwise, you're completely useless.

If we're not actively fighting evil daily, we are not Christ's disciples. Jesus did not save us just so we could walk across the battlefield and not get hit, he gave us that armor so that we can join him in his daily struggle against a very real enemy. The fact is, there is no such thing as walking across the battlefield and not getting hit, and your pretending won't make it true. Just try it. Get your nice house, your nice family, your 401(k); go to your all-white middle-class church, ignore the poor and the depressed around you, and just see if you can avoid spiritual attacks.

We shouldn't be cowering, waiting for the enemy to come get us. We should be actively seeking darkness and turning it into light. Jesus didn't leave his mark by hanging out with the holy people and avoiding the world; He confronted darkness with the Father's light and the darkness FLED. And that same power lives in us.