Spiritual Warfare

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not speaking is to speak. Not to act is to act.” The book of 1 Samuel shows an example of how bullies operate. The King of the Ammonites, Nabash, attacked Jabesh-Gilead, part of Israel. The men responded, “Make a treaty with us, and we will be subject to you.” (1 Sam 11:1).

This was an astonishing thing for the people of Jabesh to say. No doubt they hoped this would avoid violence, but they were doing more than offering to make friends with the enemy. They were appeasing the enemy. They were shocked by his Nabash’s reply: “I will make a treaty with you only on the condition that I gouge out the right eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on all Israel” (1 Sam 11:2).

Like Nabash, the enemy we fight wants to bring disgrace on the followers of Christ. He will do it in any way possible. He uses fear and intimidation. He uses temptation and the lure of sin, but ultimately he wants to gouge out our spiritual eyes and bring disgrace. To appease such an enemy is the ultimate disgrace. Make a treaty with the Devil or accept his conditions. You will lose: giving in to sexual temptation will take away your sexual purity, giving in to addiction will take away your self-control, giving in to porn will take away your normal sexual desires, giving in to the world’s truth will rob you of God’s truth, giving in to the pursuit of self-happiness will give unhappiness, giving in to sin whenever and wherever will give you shame.

Saul, God’s appointed leader, became angry when he heard of this threat. He raised an army

and defeated the enemy. As Christians, we are involved in a spiritual war, and our enemy is Satan.

The Christian life has this in common with Saul’s conflict: the enemy is real, and he is an evil enemy. He is an enemy hostile to God, God’s purposes, and God’s people. The enemy has an army of weapons of unbelief, godlessness, pride, ignorance, and sin. Living the Christian life and proclaiming the gospel is a war against this enemy and his forces. Our weapons must be the weapons of righteousness because no other weapons are effective. But do not think that this war can be painless.

This is a war against the truth—the truth of His Word. This is a war against Christ and his gospel.

This is a war against the family—the marriage of a man and woman. This is a war for our children—this enemy is coming after them. The battle for many of us is waged right in our homes: Is your marriage worth fighting for? Are your children worth fighting for?