This War We Fight

A lot of Christians today like to talk about “spiritual warfare.” Up until fairly recently I always thought spiritual warfare was this demons versus angels thing that happened on some plane of existence that I couldn’t see, and therefore didn’t really need to worry about that much. But spiritual warfare is real, and it does affect us.


After sorting through several very wordy definitions on the internet, I decided that spiritual warfare is most easily defined as the constant battle raging between the forces of good (God, His angels, and His human followers) and evil (Satan and his minions). In a way, it’s like a giant game of chess played across the vast board of time. God makes a move, and Satan makes a quick countermove. Back and forth, back and forth. Personally, I like to think of human beings as the pawns on that giant chess board. When you begin a game of chess, pawns really aren’t good for much. They can only move one direction, forward, and only one space at a time. Occasionally you can use them to take out an opponent’s piece, but it doesn’t happen very often. But, as every good chess player knows, it is possible to transform a pawn into something extremely useful. If you can somehow manage to sneak a pawn behind enemy lines to the very back of the board, then you can “promote” that pawn to any piece you choose. That seemingly-useless pawn suddenly becomes a rook, a knight, a bishop, or a queen. Not only that, but the new piece is behind enemy lines. Suddenly the pawn has transformed into a vital asset. In my opinion, this is a bit like what happens when we become Christians. Suddenly we have a place in this battle, and God is able to use us to do great things. Not to say that He couldn’t use us before, because He can do anything. But any chess player knows it’s far easier to play with a board full of rooks, knights, and bishops than with a row of pawns. (I am a huge fan of chess, and could probably write an entire book on chess analogies. But for the sake of your sanities, I’ll spare you. :)

So when we get saved, we become soldiers for Christ. The difference between this and a regular war, however, is that we fight a war that we can’t always see. At least, not with our physical eyes. In 2 Kings 6:14-17, Elisha’s servant is actually allowed to see the angels protecting him and his master with his own eyes. It’s a pretty cool scene. Sometimes we, like Elisha’s servant, are allowed to actually see these battles going on. Sometimes we can sense it in a way that is almost like seeing it with our spiritual eyes. These encounters are often on one hand terrifying, but on the other hand they often leave us in awe of our God and His power. I’ve had a few of these experiences myself and would love to share them, but I won’t go in to them now for the sake of time. But if you’re curious, or want to share a story of your own, let me know.

So how exactly do we fight this war? In 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 Paul says this: “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.” During a church camp I was at a few years ago, the speaker said a stronghold is any place in our life that the Devil has a hold on. But Paul says our weapons are strong enough to demolish (not just put an end to, but actually demolish) the Devil’s hold on those places. Pretty cool. But first we have to understand our weapons and how to use them. Check out Ephesians 6:10-17 and then I’ll see if I can break this down for you guys.

Okay. So. The first thing you have to do when you fight a war is you have to know your enemy. In verse 12 Paul tells us that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood”. In other words, we aren’t fighting against an opponent that is always visible. We aren’t really fighting people that we can go after with guns. Instead, we are fighting against something much higher: “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Wow. That’s a pretty tough order. If we’re going to fight against authorities and against spiritual forces, we’re going to need something a little stronger than a machine gun. Thankfully, that’s exactly what we have. (Something stronger, I mean. Not the machine gun. Sorry guys.) Paul tells us in verse 13 to “Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” He then spends verses 14-17 describing this “spiritual armor” that God has given us. Paul takes each piece of armor and attaches it to a particular noun, such as peace or truth. Why does he choose this particular examples and these particular nouns? I’m going to try and break this list down into something that we can: 1) understand and 2) use.

First up on Paul’s list is the “belt of truth.” Now, at first glance, a belt doesn’t exactly sound like something you would take to war. But let me remind you that Paul was writing this in Bible times. There were no jeans in T-shirts. Most people wore robes and togas. (“This is not a dress. This is a tunic. It was the height of fashion 3,000 years ago, I assure you.” -Kah Mun Rah, Night at the Museum 2) That’s all fine and good, except it’s kind of hard to do pretty much anything when you’re wearing a long piece of cloth that looks like a dress. (“Were you not listening? I just told Mr. Capone here that this is not a dress. It is, in fact, a tunic. Very big difference.” -Kah Mun Rah) So people wore belts to keep all of that loose material together and out of the way, enabling them to go about their daily lives. But what’s the significance of a belt of truth? Check out John 8:31-32. Interesting connection, huh? As Christians, we have the truth. So instead of always searching for it like the rest of the world, we’re free to do the things we need to do. For a soldier in Paul’s day, a belt was central to his armor for another reason: it kept his sword close by. This way, whenever he needed it, he could simply reach down and draw it out. Just like how the belt held the soldier’s armor together, truth does the same for our faith. If the crucifixion or the resurrection or the Bible were not true, then Christianity falls apart. Truth is what holds it all together.

Next Paul talks about a “breastplate of righteousness.” Anyone who has seen a movie like Gladiator or Spartacus knows what a breastplate is: a piece of tough, shaped metal designed to protect a soldier’s vital organs. As Christians, we are covered by Christ’s righteousness, and this protects us from the fires of Hell. Psalm 89:14 says “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.” Imagine a Roman soldier going into battle without his breastplate. No matter how good he is with his sword, and no matter how big his shield is, his chances of being hit in a vital organ (and therefore his chances of dying) have just gone up considerably. Not to mention he would look like an idiot. The breastplate is more or less the “foundation” of the soldier’s armor, just as a Psalmist says righteousness is the foundation of God’s throne. And like a soldier without his breastplate, if we are without the righteousness of Christ, no amount of good deeds are going to save us.

Verse 15 of Ephesians 6 talks about having our feet “fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” What’s the big deal of having our feet ready? In the time of the Romans, not everyone had shoes. In fact, most of the so-called “Barbarians” that the Romans often fought probably wouldn’t have worn shoes in battle. The Romans, on the other hand, always wore sandals. Why? Battlegrounds often tended to be dangerous places covered in sharp rocks, arrowheads, broken pottery, fallen spears, and other dangerous things that could shred the feet of anyone who was not properly prepared. With their sandals on, the Romans didn’t have to worry about that. Their feet were well protected. They could therefore move much faster on the battlefield than their bare-footed opponents who had to be careful where they stepped. But why did Paul choose to associate shoes with the gospel of peace? I believe the answer to that question lies in Romans 1:16. The Romans were not ashamed of their sandals. On the contrary, they used it to their advantage! We should do the same.

Up next is the “shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” At first glance, that statement doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. What does a shield have to do with extinguishing flaming arrows? When I was at a church camp a few years ago I heard a speaker give an explanation that just might have been what Paul had in mind. He said that back in the days when soldiers had wooden shields, they would drench their shields in water before going into battle. Then, when the battle began, both sides would shoot a volley of flaming arrows at each other. Once that was done they would move forward for hand-to-hand combat. The objective of firing all those flaming arrows was this. If your arrow managed to hit an enemy soldier, that was fine. But your real goal was to hit his shield and burn it up. It was much easier to kill a man who no longer had a shield. But if he had gotten his shield wet enough, the fire would have no effect. Our life is like that. Satan is continually throwing things at us in the hopes of “burning up our faith,” so to speak. It’s our job to “soak our shields,” or in other words, to be sure that our faith is strong enough to withstand attack. Faith is a pretty incredible thing. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus tells us that even faith as small as a mustard seed can to incredible things. Have you ever actually seen a mustard seed? They’re typically only about 3mm in diameter. That’s TINY! And yet Jesus says that a faith that small can move entire mountains. And if a faith that small can do such crazy things, think about what an entire shield of faith could do. It would be able to withstand anything.

The next item on Paul’s list is the “helmet of salvation.” Anyone who has ever ridden a bicycle knows what the purpose of a helmet is: to protect our heads. More specifically, it protects our brain. Likewise, the knowledge of our salvation should protect our minds from Satan’s lies, such as loss of salvation, not being good enough, etc. Psalm 62:2 says, “He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” It seems to me that is the Psalmist puts salvation in the same list as rocks and fortresses, then this salvation should be a pretty strong thing. So a helmet made of it would be practically impossible to get through. Unless, of course, we let something through. Just something to think about.

Lastly Paul mentions “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” The author of Hebrews uses a similar illustration in Hebrews 4:12. To really understand this verse, we have to first understand the significance of a double-edged sword. Look at a kitchen knife. There’s only one sharp edge. That means you can only cut one way. Now, in the kitchen this makes perfect sense. You wouldn’t want to cut through both the carrot and your finger. (Reminds me of high school cafeteria horror stories about finding a finger inside of a burger.) But if a soldier is in battle and his sword only has one sharp edge, then he can only cut in one direction. This makes it incredibly easy to attack him from the other side, because he will have a hard time striking back. So instead soldiers used double-edged swords which allowed them to cut in both directions. If the sword we have is sharper than any double-edged sword, then it must be a pretty incredible weapon. And if it can do all the things that Hebrews 4:12 says it can, then it sounds to me like we have a pretty incredible weapon.

Throughout the years, people looking at Paul’s list have noticed two important things. First, the sword is the only offensive weapon in the entire list. Everything else is defensive. This means that the Word of God is not just a weapon, it’s the weapon. And that means we have to learn how to use it. A soldier going into battle isn’t just going to pick up a sword and go. He’s going to spend months and even years beforehand learning how to use the weapon. We should do the same. We need to be constantly in the Word. We need to study it, learn it, know it inside out. Only then can we use it effectively. When the Devil came and tempted Jesus in Luke 4, Jesus quoted scripture to defend himself. Obviously it works.

But people have also noticed another important thing about this passage. In the whole list, there is nothing protecting the back of the soldier. I think this tells us two things. First, there is no provision for retreat. When we become Christians and join the fight, we’re in it to the end. There is no backing down. At the same time, I think it also means that God is looking out for us. He has our backs. And that’s a pretty cool thought.

In Ephesians 6:18 Paul goes on to talk about prayer, but there’s just so much that can be said there that I figured it should get a study all its own. But in the meantime keep praying. Pray for each other, and for me, that we’ll all stay strong in the midst of this warfare. And if anyone has any prayer requests, please let me know so that I can be praying for you.

Being a person who likes music, I found a few songs about spiritual warfare. One of my favorite bands is Pillar. Their song “Frontline” talks about the concept of being in a war. “Echelon”, another of their songs, also uses lots of imagery dealing with battles.

Okay, so now that we understand our armor and our weapon, it’s time to get to work learning how to use them. Stay in the Word. Be in constant communication with God. Spend time with other Christians, getting to know them and building strong relationships. These will be your strongest assets in our battle. It’s not going to be an easy fight. You will be knocked down more times that you can count, and be hurt beyond imagining. There will be days you won’t even see the point in fighting anymore. But I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret here. See, this is the only battle in history where the outcome is 100% certain. God will win, and there is absolutely nothing Satan can do to stop Him. Nothing. Because in reality, God has already won. He’s the one holding all the cards here. And there is nothing Satan can do to stop Him. One of Michael’s W. Smith’s early songs, “End of the Book” talks about being in a war and knowing we will win. Remember that on the hard days. We’re fighting on the winning side. And as bad as things may look now, we’ll come out on top in the end. And that’s a pretty cool thought. :)