If this is a war, then there must be weapons. What are those weapons?
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3–5).
The world wages war with weapons that kill and destroy, whether they be clubs, arrows, swords, rifles, bombs, missiles, starvation, or chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. The history of warfare is filled with pillaging, looting, rape, torture, murder, and prostitution. Secular warfare is motivated by envy, covetousness, pride, glory, fear, vengeance, patriotism, anger, hatred, and defense of home. There are legitimate reasons for war (there was, after all, war in heaven), but most of the warfare in this world is simply carnal.
But the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. These are our weapons: the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1–5), the grace of God, the mercy of God, the blood of Christ (Rev. 12:11), the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12), the Holy Spirit (in divine power, 2 Peter 1:3; in conviction, John 16:7–11; in prayer, Ephesians 6:18; in preaching, Acts 8:4), the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23), humility (Eph. 4:2), the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17), terror (Lk. 21:26–27), and our testimony (Rev. 12:11). I will discuss each of these in a separate post in the upcoming weeks (alternating with posts on other subjects).
Our weapons are not carnal weapons. Our motives for taking up these weapons should be love for God and love for man (our neighbors, brothers, and enemies).
*Excerpted from Principles of War. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore.
