"The Weapons of Our Warfare" September 25 Readings: Isaiah 60-61, 2 Corinthians 10, Psalm 107:36–43, Proverbs 23:26–28

Today's Readings - Isaiah 60-61, 2 Corinthians 10, Psalm 107:36–43, Proverbs 23:26–28

Devotional 

I find the story of Simon Peter drawing a sword to protect Jesus one of the great ironies of the Bible. Has anyone ever been that clueless? Perhaps his heart was in the right place, but nothing else was working! God was sending his Son to the cross to pay for our sins and Peter stood up in the flesh too stop it! Had he succeeded, he would have sealed his own eternal fate.

But the core of Peter's problem that day was simple. He was laboring under the mistaken impression that Jesus was unarmed. He had no sword, no spear, so he was helpless. But nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus was fighting with the most powerful weapon in this world - the life-transforming love of God.

Paul took up a similar theme in 2 Corinthians 10. Peter looked silly because he tried to fight a spiritual battle with fleshly weapons. He assumed that Jesus was unarmed because he lacked those fleshly weapons. But he had to learn the lesson that Paul would later teach, a lesson he learned based on the life of Jesus.

The weapons of our warfare are spiritual.

Look at 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 to see what it says. 

For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.   2 Corinthians 10:3-6

Frankly, I’m not sure that we in the Christian world understand this.  I forget it way too often.  We have weapons, but they are not the weapons of the flesh.  Anger.  Vitriol.  Scheming.  Political organization. Gossip.  Slander.  These are the weapons people in the world use to accomplish that which they desire.  But those are not our weapons.  We have different weapons – better weapons – weapons that actually accomplish mighty and powerful works.

I would like to point out three things about these weapons.

1)  Our Weapons are Not Worldly

We do not fight with the weapons of the world.  Power politics won’t get the job done.  Legalism is pointless.  Trying to follow the rules of religion in the power of the flesh is futile.  And we don’t do battle with anger and condemnation.  These fleshly weapons have no power.  They seem effective but they accomplish nothing of eternal significance.

2) Our Weapons are Spiritual and Powerful

When we use the weapons of God, we fight with “divine power.” Did you get that?  When I use God’s weapons, I fight Satan with God’s power.  Wouldn’t that wipe the smirk off the devil’s face?  We are so used to doing much and accomplishing little.  We jump in with a great splash but we are seeing little real spiritual transformation.  Could it be that we are using the wrong weapons, fighting with the force of the flesh instead of the power of the Spirit.

3)  Our Warfare focuses on the Mind

Satan works to spread lies and deceive us into defeat.  God speaks truth to our spirits and casts down the strongholds of Satan’s lies.   It is not religion that will change us, nor our good works.  We cannot try our hardest and succeed.  Victory comes when the Word of God casts down the lies of Satan in our minds and we begin to walk in the victory of God.

Our Weapons

Paul makes it clear what kind of weapons we have.

 ”By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; ⁷ by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.” 2 Corinthians 6:6-7

The purity that is produced in us by the Spirit, the knowledge that banishes Satan’s lies, the spiritual fruit of patience and kindness which replaces anger and vengeance, the truth of God applied to our lives – these are the weapons of warfare that the Spirit of Christ gives us that have real power to make a real difference.

May we stop fighting the right battles with the wrong weapons.

Think and Pray

Do you wage your spiritual battles with the weapons of the Spirit or with fleshly weapons.
Read Galatians 5:19-23, which contrasts the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. We fight our battles with love and joy and peace, not with the works of the flesh!