Just as the Bible bears witness to the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it also attests to an unholy trinity of the world, the flesh and the devil.
These two trios of spiritual realities set the stage for spiritual warfare. Isaac Watts in his hymn “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” poses the question, “Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease?” The answer is, of course, a resounding no. The Christian life faces the reality of spiritual warfare rather than a life of ease.
In 2 Timothy 2:3, the Bible declares that each believer “must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Following that declaration is the instruction, “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier” (v. 4).
Enemies without
As Christian soldiers, we face warfare on three fronts. One of those is what the Bible terms “the world.” This designation embraces all the temptations that war against the soul — temptations that arise from the standards and allurements of the world about us. The subtle message that comes at us suggests, “Why not? Everybody is doing it.”
Of course, we know that right and wrong are not determined by majority vote. The Bible is quite direct in admonishing, “Do not love the world or the things in the world” (1 John 2:15). In one sentence the Bible describes the tragedy that loving the world causes when it records, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10).
Enemies within
Not only is there the enemy around us, but there is the enemy within us. The Bible calls it the flesh or our fallen human nature. The biblical appeal reads, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Pet. 2:11). We know from experience as well as from Scripture that Christian conversion does not eradicate our sinful nature.
The Bible identifies for us quite a list of works of the flesh. That list includes “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like” (Gal. 5:19-21). The Bible’s indispensable instruction is “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).
In addition to the enemy within (the flesh) and the enemy without (the world), there is the invisible and subtle enemy (the devil), who incites the flesh and distorts the world, making it and its standards and activities quite alluring.
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