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We Will Live all our Lives as Soldiers on a Spiritual Battlefield! Wouldn’t you agree it’s Time to Determine who it is We’re Supposed to be Fighting?

The Bible clearly explains what the spiritual war is all about but too many well-intentioned people seem to ignore the Bible’s instructions. I have written more on this in the three-part series, “To The Soldiers in the Spiritual War.”

Speaking specifically of religion, one can observe religious factions fighting and demeaning other religious factions all over the world. Additionally, religious factions are fighting against non-religious factions who are promoting lifestyles and philosophies of life that stand in opposition to their own.

While true Christianity, is not a religion but a relationship, it too is often found guilty of vigorously fighting other groups as though they were the enemy of righteousness.

Deadly battles between secular groups of all sizes have been a fact of life from the beginning and can be expected to continue until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In view of all this world-wide conflict at so many levels, I think Christians should be able to agree on the identity of the enemy!

The Bible Identifies the True Enemy

In Ephesians 6:10 it is written:

¹² For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Please let that sink in, it should be clear from that statement, that all of this fighting going on against flesh and blood is a part of the Satanic deception and is totally contrary to Biblical teachings!

The more mankind fights mankind the more we are aiding the cause of Satanic confusion and deception! While it is Biblically true that mankind is now divided into two distinct species, the spiritually alive and the spiritually dead; it is the responsibility of the spiritually alive to see the spiritually dead as victims of Satan, not the enemy! The true enemy is unseen by mankind but has a profound impact on what is happening in the world we can see.

For the sake of convenience, I’ll refer to the spiritually alive as the saved, and the spiritually dead as the lost. What is the situation with the lost, how did they get there and what can they do to get out?

All it took for them to get there was to be born of two human parents; a situation that describes all of us excluding the Lord Jesus Christ and Adam. God has provided a way for them to get out, and it is the only way, and that is to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and experience the new birth by the power of God, the Holy Spirit!

The only difference between the saved and the lost is the new birth by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and is available to all who will receive him as their Savior. The lost are not the enemy of the saved; they are the fields, white unto harvest!

Thinking on Christian Love

John 3:16 is well known to most Christians:

“¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

The Bible uses a form of the root word, “ἀγαπάω” which describes a love as something you do, not something you feel. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 this word for love is defined:

“⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

The original King James translation translated the word as charity which may be a clearer translation of the thought. This is not emotional love, it is a charitable attitude in action!

Interestingly this is the same word used by Jesus in Matthew 22:39:

“And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Briefly considering self-love; if you’re like me, you don’t even like some of the things you have done but you’re willing to try and put those things behind you, move on with your life and try and do better the next time. We’re inclined to have a charitable and forgiving attitude where we’re concerned.

The Lord tells us to have that same attitude toward others! When others do something wrong, and they will, they’re just like you and me, cut them some slack, give them another chance to get it right, OK? I think this sums up the idea of loving others as yourself.

Next time we’ll take a look at our God-given responsibilities.