Terms of Victory
"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."
Ephesians 6:11
The phrase 'spiritual warfare' has become such a cliche expression in churches, that it is hard to see how it continues to mean the same thing it originally intended (or anything at all for that matter). So often teachings on 'spiritual warfare' only give us the perspective of how a successful commander leads his troops into battle.
There are important truths to know about how God leads His troops into battle, (how our adversary is not flesh and blood, how our God is not vulnerable to the enemy in any way, etc.), but clearly the shoes of our commander-in-chief are not the ones we called to fill. Although we are not God, spiritual warfare writings often speak to us as though the task of highest importance were to have the top-level view of the battlefield.
We forget how the Bible speaks to us: not as an army in masse, but as soldiers in God's army.
"...so that you can take your stand..."
It is important to note that believers are not called to fight against all the forces of darkness. We are not commandos called to bring down the entire army of the enemy. That task can only be completed by God. Paul instead tells the individual troops, "you can take your stand".
If the entire army of the devil is united against a single believer -if this is what that believer must stand against- God will give that believer all the stength he or she needs to put on their full armor and oppose the enemy and all his forces.
A soldier does not need to understand all things, but he does need to understand the terms of victory. He is not called to bring the enemy to an unconditional surrender. He is not called to bring the enemy to an epic, world-historical finish. The soldier of Christ is commanded to be victorious with regard to his own self.
"... your stand against the devil's schemes."
It is important to realize what our enemy is after. He is not trying to tear down church buildings (although that may be happening in parts of the world like China), and he is not trying to tear down the governments where Christians live (although the people may be quite capable of doing that on their own). Our enemy is trying to take down individual soldiers. Just as we are called to stand aginst the devil's schemes, the devil has called his forces with their fiery arrows to stand against us.
We are the battlefield.
This is what makes the cost of defeat so peculiar. When the devil secures a victory against someone, the world may continue spinning, the nations may go on their way, but the person himself is defeated, and the defeat is supremely personal.
Just as the cost of defeat is very personal, so too the victory is a tremendously personal victory. The day is coming when all the battles shall be over and the soldiers shall present themselves to their commander.
On that day it will not matter that the battles have come to an amicable conclusion, or that collateral damage was avoided, etc. What will matter is how well the soldiers succeeded in standing, and Paul makes it clear that God has fully empowered us with the ability to stand.
Therefore we ought to stand, and we should do it in the full armor he has entrusted us with. It will not matter how well we understood the battlefield, or how well we took someone else's stand, or how finally the defeat against the enemy was concluded. Our orders are to take up the full armor of God in standing firm against the forces of the devil.
Picture from here.
Ephesians 6:11
The phrase 'spiritual warfare' has become such a cliche expression in churches, that it is hard to see how it continues to mean the same thing it originally intended (or anything at all for that matter). So often teachings on 'spiritual warfare' only give us the perspective of how a successful commander leads his troops into battle.
There are important truths to know about how God leads His troops into battle, (how our adversary is not flesh and blood, how our God is not vulnerable to the enemy in any way, etc.), but clearly the shoes of our commander-in-chief are not the ones we called to fill. Although we are not God, spiritual warfare writings often speak to us as though the task of highest importance were to have the top-level view of the battlefield.
We forget how the Bible speaks to us: not as an army in masse, but as soldiers in God's army.
"...so that you can take your stand..."
It is important to note that believers are not called to fight against all the forces of darkness. We are not commandos called to bring down the entire army of the enemy. That task can only be completed by God. Paul instead tells the individual troops, "you can take your stand".
If the entire army of the devil is united against a single believer -if this is what that believer must stand against- God will give that believer all the stength he or she needs to put on their full armor and oppose the enemy and all his forces.
A soldier does not need to understand all things, but he does need to understand the terms of victory. He is not called to bring the enemy to an unconditional surrender. He is not called to bring the enemy to an epic, world-historical finish. The soldier of Christ is commanded to be victorious with regard to his own self.
"... your stand against the devil's schemes."
It is important to realize what our enemy is after. He is not trying to tear down church buildings (although that may be happening in parts of the world like China), and he is not trying to tear down the governments where Christians live (although the people may be quite capable of doing that on their own). Our enemy is trying to take down individual soldiers. Just as we are called to stand aginst the devil's schemes, the devil has called his forces with their fiery arrows to stand against us.
We are the battlefield.
This is what makes the cost of defeat so peculiar. When the devil secures a victory against someone, the world may continue spinning, the nations may go on their way, but the person himself is defeated, and the defeat is supremely personal.
Just as the cost of defeat is very personal, so too the victory is a tremendously personal victory. The day is coming when all the battles shall be over and the soldiers shall present themselves to their commander.
On that day it will not matter that the battles have come to an amicable conclusion, or that collateral damage was avoided, etc. What will matter is how well the soldiers succeeded in standing, and Paul makes it clear that God has fully empowered us with the ability to stand.
Therefore we ought to stand, and we should do it in the full armor he has entrusted us with. It will not matter how well we understood the battlefield, or how well we took someone else's stand, or how finally the defeat against the enemy was concluded. Our orders are to take up the full armor of God in standing firm against the forces of the devil.
Picture from here.
4 Comments:
Hi BB,
"We are the battlefield." This is very wise and something I wish we Christians would remember when we are about to split a church or a friendship over doctrine and our differing understandings of it. I wish we'd remember this when gossip about a troubled brother or sister starts to fly or the pastor is about to be broiled along with Sunday dinner. I wish we'd remember this when we get upset over politics and the secular direction our country seems to be headed. I wish we'd remember this before we set about fixing another spiritually. I hope I remember this and I'm going to start repeating to myself right now, "The battlefield is in me and my stand is against my own sin. That is enough for me and God does not desire that I take up any other battle."
Thank you, BB.
Pam
Hi JoyIndestructible,
Some convicting words there. I tend to be very critical of my pastors, and broiling them has become something of a Sunday thing for me.
I liked this part: "The battlefield is in me and my stand is against my own sin."
It seems like such a simple and easy thing to do, but it requires all we have.
Hi Burning Bush,
It's interesting that you interpreted the verse on an individualistic level. With Paul addressing an entire congregation with his letter, do you think on some level it was related to all of the Christians in the town as a social movement? Not that i'm trying to discount using the Bible as a mirror to evaluate individual struggles!
I agree with your main point. This verse is not an excuse for a pastor to bring out all of these strategic and military command metaphors, as is so often the case. How a Christian stands against temptation of immoral habits, tendencies, and external influences is vitally important, and I imagine it was as important for the early Christians as for us today.
In your recent posts/comics I think it's clear that you've been thinking about a person's natural instinct to do something amazing and make his mark on the world, exceeding all expectations and rising above his peers through excellence. The thought of being "normal" sends shivers up alot of people's spines, and unfortunately the motivation for excellence is too often selfish. I like that you tied that overarching theme into this verse.
Hi Tim,
Sounds like you've been following my posts fairly closely. Calvin noted that our interest in angels often becomes so academic, so speculative, that we have no understanding of our lives or what we must do personally.
I think that we as believers must realize that we're not in this alone, but we must receive and hear our duty as it is given to us as if it were given to us alone. We do have a duty to love and encourage others, but we must understand that as far as this is our duty personally, we should take the utmost care to see to it that we are individually obeying the command.
There is a temptation to portray the historical aspects of Christianity in terms of a social movement, but I think this is far from what true Christianity is. In John's gospel, he emphasized that when a person becomes a "child of God" it is not a matter of 'natural descent' or 'human decision' or 'a husband's will'. It is something spontaneous where a person comes to understand his or her own personal relationship with God and God only. This is how they are born again.
I don't think there is anything wrong per se in wanting to be noted by history -there were a lot of great people who did. I have trouble envisioning Jesus being motivated by the prospect of his face on the cover of Newsweek someday. In a lot of ways the Greek immortality is the most delayed of meaning and the most deceptive.
I would be interested in knowing a little about how you understand the word 'social'. I suppose it could refer to simply more than one person, but sometimes the word can mean something along the lines of a 'Public', which seems more or less like an amorphous illusion.
Post a Comment
<< Home