The Other Side Of Spiritual Warfare
There is much discussion in sermons and books on the subject of spiritual warfare. When the phrase is used the first things that come to mind are the devil and demons sneaking around doing bad things to us, or maybe motivating non-Christians to mistreat us, or maybe even orchestrating tragic circumstances. While all these may be a huge part of spiritual warfare there are two other sides of the spiritual warfare cube that are not talked about much, but we must understand if we’re going to persevere and win the battles we will most certainly face as we do God’s work.
The first “Other Side” I want to address is the side where “Christians” are used by the enemy. Christians that are well-meaning, but very misguided.
We don’t hear to often about this, but the reality is that Christians can oppose us. Fellow Christians can be the tool of the enemy against us. We see this exemplified in the book of Acts where the circumcised brothers (Christians) were coming against the Apostle Paul and his ministry to the uncircumcised brothers (Christians).
Not only did they not like that Paul was reaching out to them with the Gospel, but once that ministry was accepted and approved, the circumcised believers had the expectation that these new uncircumcised believers would get circumcised and when Paul taught against it, these circumcised believers got all nasty with Paul.
We see Paul teaching us in 2Timothy (in Vs 10 & 14 we see that Paul is writing about Christians) 22Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. 24And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
Note Vs 26 “the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”
Paul tells Timothy that there will be Christians (the elect) who will quarrel with and oppose him and he tells Timothy that these people are in the devils trap and are the devils captive to do his (the devil’s) will.
Fellow Christians, influenced by satan, fueled by pride, selfishness, worldliness, fear, prejudice, and so on can become quarrelsome, argumentative, and even oppose (resist) us and the work the Lord has us doing.
We may find ourselves at odds with a dear brother or sister in the Lord. We may find them saying and doing the most unbelievable things to us. They may speak evil, they may try to divide, and even purposefully hurt (emotionally or physically or financially).
We’re taught that we are to love these people, bless (not curse), forgive, gently instruct, and pray for these people to come to their senses and escape satan’s trap.
I can tell you from personal experience this is a very painful aspect of spiritual warfare; people who say “Love ya, brother!” turning around and being nasty or just abandoning the relationship.
We must be ready for this and ready to respond in a Christ-like manner.
Now, the second “other side” of spiritual warfare (perhaps as painful or more painful than the first), the side of Me.
That’s right! If a Christian can become influenced by satan and fueled by pride, selfish ambition, worldliness, fear, prejudice, and so on to the point of becoming quarrelsome, argumentative, and even resistant (opposing) to other Christians, then I, as a Christian, could be one of these. I could step into satan’s trap.
We hate to hear it, but the truth is that if we’re not humbly submitted to Jesus and His way of doing things and regularly checking ourselves we can get off coarse and start making decisions that put us at odds with God and other Christians doing Gods work. It’s this case where the old saying is true, “I’m my own worst enemy.”
The sad thing is, this side of spiritual warfare is the least understood and accepted. We like to be able to blame the devil for all that’s going, or non-Christians, or even other Christians, or at the least God, but not me. Surely I’m not my problem. Surely it’s not my attitude, words, or actions that are the cause of my problems. Surely I’ve not opened the door for the enemy to come in and work havoc.
It’s the hardest thing in the world to take personal responsibility and acknowledge that by our choices we’ve partnered/cooperated with the devil, we’ve taken his side and worked his work and yet, this is exactly what is happening in so many Christian’s lives.
The answer to this particular problem is simple to state, but hard to apply… Repent (change! Turn away from the wrong and back to the Jesus way, Confess your sin and ask forgiveness and accept forgiveness), Restore (work toward doing it the right way. This may include going to others and working at undoing what you’ve done and fix what got broke), Submit yourself wholly to God, and then resist the devil and he will flee!
These are two sides we don’t hear much about, but if we’re going to succeed in spiritual warfare we must understand all the players and all the battlefronts, and the first battlefront of spiritual warfare is our own heart (but that is another message).
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/950155/the_other_side_of_spiritual_warfare.html
The first “Other Side” I want to address is the side where “Christians” are used by the enemy. Christians that are well-meaning, but very misguided.
We don’t hear to often about this, but the reality is that Christians can oppose us. Fellow Christians can be the tool of the enemy against us. We see this exemplified in the book of Acts where the circumcised brothers (Christians) were coming against the Apostle Paul and his ministry to the uncircumcised brothers (Christians).
Not only did they not like that Paul was reaching out to them with the Gospel, but once that ministry was accepted and approved, the circumcised believers had the expectation that these new uncircumcised believers would get circumcised and when Paul taught against it, these circumcised believers got all nasty with Paul.
We see Paul teaching us in 2Timothy (in Vs 10 & 14 we see that Paul is writing about Christians) 22Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. 24And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
Note Vs 26 “the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”
Paul tells Timothy that there will be Christians (the elect) who will quarrel with and oppose him and he tells Timothy that these people are in the devils trap and are the devils captive to do his (the devil’s) will.
Fellow Christians, influenced by satan, fueled by pride, selfishness, worldliness, fear, prejudice, and so on can become quarrelsome, argumentative, and even oppose (resist) us and the work the Lord has us doing.
We may find ourselves at odds with a dear brother or sister in the Lord. We may find them saying and doing the most unbelievable things to us. They may speak evil, they may try to divide, and even purposefully hurt (emotionally or physically or financially).
We’re taught that we are to love these people, bless (not curse), forgive, gently instruct, and pray for these people to come to their senses and escape satan’s trap.
I can tell you from personal experience this is a very painful aspect of spiritual warfare; people who say “Love ya, brother!” turning around and being nasty or just abandoning the relationship.
We must be ready for this and ready to respond in a Christ-like manner.
Now, the second “other side” of spiritual warfare (perhaps as painful or more painful than the first), the side of Me.
That’s right! If a Christian can become influenced by satan and fueled by pride, selfish ambition, worldliness, fear, prejudice, and so on to the point of becoming quarrelsome, argumentative, and even resistant (opposing) to other Christians, then I, as a Christian, could be one of these. I could step into satan’s trap.
We hate to hear it, but the truth is that if we’re not humbly submitted to Jesus and His way of doing things and regularly checking ourselves we can get off coarse and start making decisions that put us at odds with God and other Christians doing Gods work. It’s this case where the old saying is true, “I’m my own worst enemy.”
The sad thing is, this side of spiritual warfare is the least understood and accepted. We like to be able to blame the devil for all that’s going, or non-Christians, or even other Christians, or at the least God, but not me. Surely I’m not my problem. Surely it’s not my attitude, words, or actions that are the cause of my problems. Surely I’ve not opened the door for the enemy to come in and work havoc.
It’s the hardest thing in the world to take personal responsibility and acknowledge that by our choices we’ve partnered/cooperated with the devil, we’ve taken his side and worked his work and yet, this is exactly what is happening in so many Christian’s lives.
The answer to this particular problem is simple to state, but hard to apply… Repent (change! Turn away from the wrong and back to the Jesus way, Confess your sin and ask forgiveness and accept forgiveness), Restore (work toward doing it the right way. This may include going to others and working at undoing what you’ve done and fix what got broke), Submit yourself wholly to God, and then resist the devil and he will flee!
These are two sides we don’t hear much about, but if we’re going to succeed in spiritual warfare we must understand all the players and all the battlefronts, and the first battlefront of spiritual warfare is our own heart (but that is another message).
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/950155/the_other_side_of_spiritual_warfare.html
Labels: battle, christians, devil, humility, Jesus, prayer, repent, satan, spiritual warfare
posted by Pastor Mike @ 1:24 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home