Today’s offering is entitled ‘Fight like a Christian’ or ‘War like a Christian’. If one is going to speak of such things, it seems appropriate to speak about this at The Salvation Army with soldiers and officers and others associated with the Army present.
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The Salvation Army has long recognized that our war is not a battle of flesh and blood but a battle with powers and principalities (Ephesians 6:12) and this is a key thought influencing our passage in 2 Corinthians 10 today. At the Army when we become soldiers, full members of The Salvation Army we sign a covenant with God; keeping with our military theme, do you know what that covenant is called? – The Articles of War: Soldier's Covenant.
Our text in 2 Corinthians 10:2 says that, because we are Christians we do not live by the standards of this world. The word 'world' here refers to 'society’. Our Articles of War talks about a number of ways that our standards – not as Christians but as Salvation Soldiers – are different from those of the world. On Sunday I handed out pieces of paper with Salvation Army standards written on them to various people in the corps to read. Everyone who wears epaulets has agreed to these standards:
- I will be responsive to the Holy Spirit’s work and obedient to His leading in my life, growing in grace through worship, prayer, service and the reading of the Bible.
- I will make the values of the Kingdom of God and not the values of the world the standard for my life.
- I will uphold Christian integrity in every area of my life, allowing nothing in thought, word or deed that is unworthy, unclean, untrue, profane, dishonest or immoral.
- I will maintain Christian ideals in all my relationships with others: my family and neighbours, my colleagues and fellow Salvationists, those to whom and for whom I am responsible, and the wider community.
- I will uphold the sanctity of marriage and of family life.
- I will be a faithful steward of my time and gifts, my money and possessions, my body, my mind and my spirit, knowing that I am accountable to God.
- I will abstain from alcoholic drink, tobacco, the non-medical use of addictive drugs, gambling, pornography, the occult, and all else that could enslave the body or spirit.
- I will be faithful to the purposes for which God raised up The Salvation Army, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, endeavouring to win others to Him, and in His name caring for the needy and the disadvantaged.
- I will be actively involved, as I am able, in the life, work, worship and witness of the corps, giving as large a proportion of my income as possible to support its ministries and the worldwide work of the Army.
- I will be true to the principles and practices of The Salvation Army, loyal to its leaders, and I will show the spirit of Salvationism whether in times of popularity or persecution.
The items on this list are all very good things but I need to be clear: these items aren’t conditions of salvation and they aren’t even things that necessarily every Christian will do – though some of them are, like “sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, endeavouring to win others to Him, and in His name caring for the needy and the disadvantaged” and “making the values of the Kingdom of God and not the values of the world the standard for my life” But they are things that demarcate those of us who are soldiers from others.
Back to 2 Corinthians 10 where the Apostle Paul is speaking about what makes Christian Soldiers different from other soldiers. The Apostle Paul says, as recorded in Verse 4, that as followers of Christ we do not fight with the weapons of this world. We do not fight according to human standards. In the Greek it says though we live in the flesh, we do not fight in the flesh.[1] As Christians, we do not fight the way the armies of this world fight.
In Paul's day Rome was far and away the regional super power; Might was right. They won a lot of wars through their military might. As that was the case with Rome around the Mediterranean basin in the first century, it is exponentially more so these days with the USA. The US militarily is currently occupying about 150 countries in the world according to CNN.[2] To put that into perspective: there are just over 190 countries in the United Nations. That means that the US occupies about 80% of the countries in our world today. Their military is regularly engaged in wars and other military actions around the globe. With military might in the 1st century and the 21st century wars were and are commonly fought.
In both the 1st and 21st centuries an invader would usually first lay siege to a place it was about to attack, to soften it up. In today's world we usually refer to that action as placing ‘economic sanctions’ on a country. The idea is to make life so bad for the country with people starving to death or suffering other terrible results that some people will rebel against their own people just to survive. In the ancient world sometimes powerful countries would prevent less powerful countries from having advanced weapons. The Philistines – long before the Romans, as recorded in our Bible - are noted as not letting the Israelites have iron weapons (1 Samuel 13) so that the Philistines could invade them at will and Israel could not resist. In our world today we know that the US claims a right to decide who can and cannot be a nuclear power and we remember that before the US invaded Iraq they sent in weapons inspectors to make sure that Iraq could not fight back. Both in the 21st and the 1st Centuries, the next step in war, after sieges and the sanctions, is for countries to wage war from a distance. In ancient times they would use catapults and arrows, in later times canon (the British were experts in using the canon on their ships), and now powerful countries use aeroplanes so that they can kill as many people (combatants and civilians alike) with little risk to their armed forces. And then after all that, if we still need to, we send in the troops. That is how wars were and are fought.
The Bible says that, as Christians, we fight differently to affect change. Again our battle is not against flesh and blood. We Christians aren’t fighting against other people. Our goal isn’t to kill someone; quite the opposite. The enemy has trapped some people and it is our goal to set them free. In Christian vernacular, we want them to be ‘saved’. The enemy has trapped many people in many different cages. Some people are trapped in addiction, some people are trapped by hate, some people (I read more and more it about everyday) are trapped by strange sexuality – pornography, congruent or serial adultery, grooming; abuse, poverty; some people are trapped by deception; some people are trapped by selfishness. Many people in our day and age are trapped in rage and unforgiveness. The Bible says, Galatians 5:19-21 that some people are trapped by sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. There are many thoughts like these that can take people captive.
Our text today, 2 Corinthians 10:5, encourages us that we can stand up to all of these siege engines, platforms, and obstacles that are raised against the knowledge of God and we can take every one of these thoughts captive.[3] This is important. When people do all of these ‘bad things’ we listed and more, we need to remember that they are not the originators of these events so much as the victims of these thoughts. As we serve in God’s Army we help people who are imprisoned by the devil to NOT be crushed. We fight instead to see people freed from the power of darkness. And once we are freed from all of that bad stuff: addiction, jealousy, rage, etc., those thoughts themselves can then become the punished captives. The people can be free. Verse 8 says we are to build each other up. This is important.
Our war here, our daily battles and struggles aren’t against people who disagree with us or even people who torment us or make our life miserable. Our war is with the thoughts and the actions that the devil, the principalities and powers are using to enslave the people.[4] Our goal isn’t to hate and destroy people but to love and liberate them. And as such our weapons aren’t guns, canons, aeroplanes, and nuclear weapons; they aren’t lies, slander, and hate; our weapons are – and this is neat because the word for weapons in our text today ‘hopla’ is the same word translated ‘amour’ in the famous Ephesians 6 passage about the amour of God.[5] Our amour, our weapons for taking each thought captive and freeing ourselves and others are as Paul encourages us in Ephesians 6:14-17, to:
Stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
And as we stand strong holding the weapons of God, wearing the amour of God, Jesus will defeat the enemy; indeed he has defeated the enemy and Galatians 5 tells us what our lives can be like as the enemy’s thoughts are taken prisoner and we are freed from captivity. Galatians 5:22-23 says we can live in the power of the Spirit and “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, perseverance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” This is all ours to experience.
This, my friends, is what we are fighting for. As we accept Jesus Christ as our General, our President, our Lord, and our King; we can not only experience all the freedom of love, joy, peace, perseverance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in our own lives but also - as we fight to share the Gospel with others - we can help free them from the thoughts that keep them trapped and we can point others to Jesus who can give them that very same freedom not only here and now but also forever, even unto eternal life. God loves you and he wants you to receive that liberation today.
If you are still struggling as a captive to thoughts of hate, envy, and bitterness; actions of addiction, rage, and giving up, and more; I would invite you today - if you haven't already - to give your life to the Lord Jesus and then I invite us all to ask the Lord Jesus to free us from these thoughts today so that indeed we can all experience that freedom in Christ Jesus.
Let us pray.
Benediction from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 23-24: Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it...
[1] Simon J. Kistemaker, 2 Corinthians, NTC (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic: 2007), 334 and J. Paul Sampley, The Second Letter to the Corinthians (NIB X: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 2000), 136.
[2] CNN: U.S. military personnel by country (April 2012) https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/04/us/table.military.troops/
[3] Cf. Simon J. Kistemaker, 2 Corinthians, NTC (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic: 2007), 336 about the allusion to siege engines here.
[4] Cf. Murray J. Harris, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Corinthians/Exposition of 2 Corinthians/III. Paul's Vindication of His Apostolic Authority (2 Cor 10:1-13:13)/A. The Exercise of Apostolic Rights and Authority (10:1-11:15)/1. The potency of apostolic authority (10:1-11), Book Version: 4.0.2
[5] J. Paul Sampley, The Second Letter to the Corinthians (NIB X: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 2000), 138.
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