Not only is Christianity a new way of living but also it is a new way of fighting our battles. In his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul the apostle writes these words:
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4, KJV).
Carnal weapons refer to weapons of the flesh. Let me see; that includes rage, verbal abuse, fist fights, malicious slander, destroying someone’s property in retaliation, etc.
We all know how to fight with the arm of the flesh. That is our comfort zone. We have had lifelong practice fighting that way. But once we become a Christian, God wants us to abandon all weapons of the flesh.
Why? Because we are not fighting against flesh and blood. Our fight is against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12). In short, we are fighting against the devil and demonic forces.
Our Temptation to Resort to the Arm of the Flesh
We don’t get to choose how we fight against our adversary the devil. Rather, it is the nature of the adversary that determines how we fight. We cannot successfully fight a spiritual enemy with physical weapons. That is why the weapons of our warfare must not come from the flesh.
So, why do Christians use the old way of fighting at times? Because God’s way is the best way but it is not necessarily the fastest way to win the battle at hand. At times, it seems more expeditious to go “old school” on someone than to pray to God about the situation and walk by faith and obey the Word and wait on the Lord.
We can all find ourselves tempted to resort to fleshly means of fighting. It may be due to that person who knows how to and who takes pleasure in getting under our skin. Or financial pressure that urges us to act out of desperation. Or a dying ministry that lends itself to embracing some manipulative scheme to fill the pews.
But no matter what the circumstances are, we should resist fighting with the arm of the flesh at all costs. In Christ, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God. That means we fight by donning ourselves with the armor that comes from God. His armor includes faith, truth, peace, righteousness, obedience, prayer and the Holy Spirit.
Worldly means and fleshly means may bring temporal satisfaction. But nothing is as lasting and powerful as fighting our battles clothed with the armor of God.
Copyright © 2022 by Frank King. All rights reserved.