The Weapons of Our Warfare
2 Corinthians 10:3–6 NKJV
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
War and the threat of war is plaguing the world today. We remember that Jesus taught us that one of the signs of the end times is that there would be wars and rumors of war (Matthew 24:6). Are we approaching the end of the world, especially when one of the regions in war is in Israel? There have always been wars since the time of the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. So in a way, the wars and rumors of war is business as usual. But the increasing global aspect of war such as the two world wars and the terrible death and destruction brought by them does show to me that the end of this age is near. Nuclear weapons and the development of artificial intelligence (AI) seems to ensure that the outbreak of the next world war will be even more catastrophic. The people of the earth are shaking in fear.
We who believe in Jesus live among the nations which are going to be affected by this war. What do we do? Some believe we will be “raptured” before the outbreak of Armageddon if indeed this coming war is the one predicted in the Book of Revelation. Some put their hope in this great act of escapism. But we need to be reminded that many Christians have suffered greatly from the great wars we have already fought as well as intense periods of persecution. There is no guarantee that we will be exempted from the times of war we see around us. So, how do we fight the Christian warfare in the meantime.
There are several things we must consider. When fighting a war, it is vital to know who the enemy is. Is some enemy nation the true enemy? We have already seen numerous of one “Christian” nation going to war against another “Christian” nation. This means that Christians fighting alongside non-Christians need to kill the enemy, some of who are our “Christian” brothers. If another nation is truly the enemy, then Christians will have to do violence to other Christians. Is God pleased with this?
War seems like such insanity. We see our leaders as being totally crazy for getting us into such wars. But if one remembers that one has said that it is a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight? What seems crazy to us is profitable to these leaders who send others to fight for them. War is good for the economy, they say. But whose economy? How is the war widow profited by the war? How is the soldier who is permanently disabled profited. If one is an undertaker, war is profitable. But they would get our business anyway, sooner of later. War is good for the arms manufacturers and the bankers who finance such wars. It might also be seen as providing paychecks to those who work in arms factories. But for the vast majority of people, war is a liability. Why don’t these arms manufacturers instead make thongs which build up the infrastructure of the nation rather than making bombs which destroy infrastructure? Why can’t people be employed in factories which make things which are useful?
Are the elite of this world our enemies then? It would seem so at first glance. Much evil has been done. Conspiracies and conspiracy theories are everywhere. Some of these conspiracies are doubtless true, although I am not going to try to say which ones are or are not. Instead, I appeal to what the Bible says about the corruption of man and the universal aspect of sin. That is good enough for me. I do not need to spend all my time researching the evils and intrigues of the rich. It takes too much time away from the study of God’s Word. Let us also remind ourselves that the poor are also sinners and corrupt. The only difference is that the poor have less power and influence and corrupt less.
This brings us to who the real enemy is. The true enemy of the Christian is Satan. Satan does indeed use demons as well as human pawns to try to execute his plan which is to destroy all of creation. His purpose is demonstrated in Job 2:9 where Satan uses Job’s wife to tell Job to curse God and die. This is an incredibly foolish statement, and Job calls her out for this. We know it was Satan who thought that he could get Job to do this very thing. In a like manner, Satan would destroy us by getting us to curse God. We see Satan works on both ends. He accuses us before God. We see this in both the Book of Job as well as in the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers. Balaam was unable to curse Israel, so he told the king who had hired him that he would have to get Yahweh to curse Israel. This was done by inviting Israel to an immoral feast and to immoral acts. Satan always is happy to show our faults and infidelities before God in the hopes that God might curse us. Then he throws our sin in our face in the attempt to get us to give up on God.
The next thing we need to examine is what kind of weapons we need to fight this war. Human wars use manmade weapons such as swords, spears, and arrows in former times; planes, tanks, guns, and ships in the present; and new we can add drones and missiles. Obviously, old weapons are practically useless in fighting today’s wars. When it comes to the Christian, it says that manmade weapons are useless in fighting the spiritual war, as we are told that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood.
Human wars are also fought with other weapons such as economic weapons. These can include things such as sanctions. There are psychological weapons also (sysops). The purpose of this is to deceive or demoralize an enemy or to encourage citizens to fight for the cause of their nation. There are spies. there are many different ways to fight a war. Can the Christians use any of these weapons?
As far as economic weapons are concerned, they are not useful. The Christian feeds the poor, even those who oppose the Gospel. This is hardly a weapon. Rather, our generosity demonstrates the lovingkindness of God. The Christian uses this as an opportunity to demonstrate the Gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ in the hopes of reconciling our enemies to God. What kind of weapon is this? Yet, this is a weapon of our warfare. We also can not use deception, but rather, we speak the truth in love. I would also advise against using psychology to try to twist someone’s will. The Holy Spirit working in us is the means of achieving this goal, a war to reconcile enemies to God.
The good general picks the terrain and time that is most advantageous for his troops, It is better to attack or defend on the best terms. High ground often gives the advantage over the enemy. I suppose in this sense, we need to take the moral high ground. We can take the moral high ground even when we go out into the world to evangelize. At some point we need to go out to where the enemy is. This presents danger if we are not careful. If our mission is to reconcile people to God, we cannot stay in the castle. Jesus says that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church. This does not mean we hide in the sanctuary, behind the four walls of the church. If our warfare was defense, then why would Satan advance against us with gates? It is we who are to storm the gates of hell. We need to take the battle to the enemy, having put on the full armor of God. Jesus did not pray the Father in John 17 to take us out of the world, but rather to keep us in the world from the evil one.
One more thing about are warfare. The four walls of our churches do not protect us anyway from the world. Remember the context that this passage from 2 Corinthians is dealing with problems within the Corinthian church. Paul had to deal with many issues with this church. The enemy had infiltrated the church. There was false doctrines and teachers in the church which Paul had to deal with. There was disruptions to the unity of the church which caused confusion. This had to be dealt with. In fact, the enemy within the camp is even more dangerous that the enemy without. This does not mean there is not a threat from without, though. We read in Revelation 13:7:
Revelation 13:7 NKJV
It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.
We also read about the persecution of the church by governmental entities. There was Antipas, the faithful martyr. We read of those who had been beheaded for their testimony in the Book of Revelation. The theme of religious persecution for the faith occurs throughout the New Testament. We can read in the Book of Acts how the Apostles were persecuted. They were beaten and threatened by both Jewish and secular authorities. But there were als internal threats to the unity of the church in the Book of Acts also. We read of Ananias and Sapphira and of the dispute over the distribution to the Greek-speaking Jewish widows. We see the temptation in several of the churches of Revelation to compromise one’s faith. These we also must battle against. Many have felt the pain of being ostracized by their own earthly families because he has become a Christian. Truly, as Jesus noted, one’s enemies can come from one’s own household.
In summary, we live in a difficult world full of hate and war, There are those who exploit the divisions they have made to stir us up to their cause. We should think carefully about this. there might be a time, such as the invasion of one’s country, that it might be necessary to fight. But earthly wars are between nations. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian war. I do not want to say whether if you are called up to military service that you should go and fight. We are to be obedient to our rulers. But we are first to be subject to conscience and the will of God. In these cases, we need to obey God rather than man. There can be earthly consequences for such an action such as being jailed. Perhaps one could ask to serve in a non-combatant role such as a medic.
If we read history such as the American Civil War, we might come across the many revivals which broke out among the troops. Sometimes, soldiers from both sides came together during these times. So as tragic and useless this war was, God took this awful occasion to create good. And for these soldiers to hear the Word of God when every day they faced eternity on the battlefield, Christians were needed to tell them how to be saved and to comfort those who were dying of their wounds. In this context, there needed to have been Christians who were also soldiers. So God can make good these situations. But even if one serves as the soldier of a nation, the Christian’s first loyalty is to God.
I don’t know what we face in the future. But let us always be at ready to fight the good fight of faith and obtain the crown from Jesus. Let us like any soldier learn to accept discipline and to work together with our fellow soldiers as a unit with Christ as head. Let us have the courage to witness for Him.
