War and Peace

A great paradox as we live the life of faith in Jesus Christ is that of the existence of both war and peace. Because we have been forgiven and delivered from our past sinful lives we have peace with God and within ourselves. We have a wonderful sense of security and well-being in the knowledge of God’s love for us.

On the other hand, we are told that we have an enemy that would stop at nothing to destroy that peaceful relationship with God. He is very good at what he does, for he has been at it for quite a long time. He is sometimes called the devil or satan. The title devil comes from a Greek word that means slanderer, while satan is from a Hebrew word meaning opposer or adversary. Why our Lord permits this enemy to exist is known only to Him. It could be that we need the challenge for our spiritual growth. What ever the reason the fact remains, we have a powerful and cunning enemy.

As recipients of God’s love and grace we are given certain responsibilities to both protect ourselves and continue to bless and glorify our heavenly Father. We are warned by the apostles in their New Testament writings of the dangers our enemy presents and how to face them. The battle we face is commonly known as “spiritual warfare.”

In one sense we are already overcomers because the victory has already been won on our behalf by Christ. However, simple observation of Biblical history, church history, and present experience reveals that many sincere believers, whose salvation is secure in Christ, have fallen in their testimony for Christ.

My question for us all is, are we satisfied to have an eternal destiny in heaven secured, but uncaring for the testimony we have for Him now in this life? Do we not love Him such that we care enough to bring glory and honor to Him in this life? Should not our love for Him also extend to the rest of humanity, where many desperately need to see His love demonstrated by our living witness?

Here we come to the plan and purpose of our enemy.  It is to hinder the plan and purpose God has for us.

God’s plan from the beginning was for us to bear His image, to take responsibility for His creation and to be fruitful and to multiply, thereby increasing His glory in the earth. We do this by loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and by loving our neighbor as ourselves.

The simplest, most basic description of the enemy’s goal is to prevent us from loving God and one another.  He has several methods, but this will always be his goal. When we fail in love, we fall short of bringing God the glory he desires, and fail to live in full victory.

One of his very successful tricks is to convince us that if we have few bad habits, attend church regularly, and perform the correct rituals, we are doing just great. Then we might give little attention to the condition of our hearts. We can secretly harbor bitterness, jealousy, resentfulness, and even hate, without realizing that the devil has had his way with us!

Jesus exposed this trick when He distilled all of God’s laws into one principle: love. Love is the litmus test for true spirituality.

So even if the devil appeals to our human weaknesses, and tempts us to lust after things that harm us and others, the end result is the loss of love. Can a person who is obsessed with power, money, possessions have time to truly love God with all of his or her heart? Can a person who lusts after another’s spouse have truly loving thoughts for them and their families? Can someone who steals from  or murders another be living in love? How about the one who ridicules another individual because of their shape, size or skin color?

If we look around, it is not difficult to find confessing believers in Christ who have become distracted from the love of God in Christ, and have chased after things that bring not glory but shame to the name of Jesus.

So we are here to answer the higher call of God in Christ! We not only wan[...]