What Are You Fighting For?

Doesn’t take much to see that we live in a fallen world full of sin and evil.  Just about every day is a confirmation to me of the doctrine of the total depravity of man without Jesus.  The notion that “we’re all basically good people,” is one that makes my head feel like it’s going to explode and is contradicted every day in the world around us. 

We live in a culture that is unprincipled and embraces sin and evil.  Unfortunately, many churches and Christians today are more concerned about mirroring the culture than they are about fighting for righteousness and holiness of their own hearts and minds and the hearts and minds of lost people. 

In today’s reading from 2 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul has some very strong words for his friends in the Church at Corinth that want to walk with one foot in the world and one foot in the faith (v.2).  It’s a call to fight for the truth of God in an unprincipled and fallen world.  In v.5, Paul says “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.”  Dem’s fightin’ words!

What are you fighting for?  And perhaps more importantly, how are you fighting? 

In Jesus Christ, we have been given incredible power through The Holy Spirit!  Paul says that we don’t fight like the world fights, but that in Christ through the Holy Spirit we have divine power that demolishes strongholds! 

Some Christians get really fired up when they read stuff like this, and rightfully so.  We are at war with a fallen world.  Even in America, under the current Presidential Administration and its policies, Christian liberty and freedom are under attack.  We live in a culture in which it’s becoming a crime to live with and express Christian principles publicly.  These are definitely times in which Christians must fight, and be willing to sacrifice, for what is right and what is holy. 

But before you’re ready to go out and fight against these powers and strongholds of darkness, ask yourself if you’re fighting first against the strongholds of darkness in your own life.  Do you make arguments and live according to pretenses which are in conflict with the Word of God?  “Sure, sure, sure,” you say.  “I don’t drink.  Don’t do drugs.  Don’t beat my kids.  Go to church every week.  I’m good.”  Really?  Do you live with the fruit of the Spirit in your life – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control?  Do you pursue holiness and righteousness and becoming like Jesus?  Are you desperate for Jesus, and for God’s plan in your life, or are you desperate for what you want and your plan for your life, even though it might be in conflict with what you know to be true in God’s Word?

Anybody can sit back and lament and complain about the fallen-ness and darkness of our culture.  But the person who is passionately pursuing Christ knows that our first battle is against the darkness and sin in our own lives.  Are we fighting for holiness and purity in our own lives first?  If not, what are we fighting for?  Chances are, we’re fighting against Jesus for the throne of our hearts. 

So how does Jesus conquer the strongholds and darkness in our lives?  Through His truth and through His love.  When we read the Word of God and believe the truth in it, it leads us to repentance.  And repentance is possible because of the love of Jesus expressed in his life, death and resurrection. 

These are our tools in the battle against the darkness and stronghold in our culture and world.  We share the truth of God’s Word uncompromisingly and without apology, but we do it in love and with grace.  When we see strongholds at work around us, our first step is to love the people that are bound by those strongholds.  Loving somebody isn’t just a feeling – it means that we enter into their lives and walk alongside of them because we care about them and desire to see God bring them to repentance and eternal life, and not punishment.  This is the Jesus way of fighting for the hearts and minds of people, and it must be our way as Christians. 

If you can’t stand the thought of hanging out with people that are self-destructing and caught up in evil, then you’re not like Jesus.  And if you’re not like Jesus, you’re not fighting like Jesus.  Loving another person with no strings attached paves the way for us to share the truth with them.  When Jesus told people to repent, they repented because they saw and experienced the perfect love that he had for them and believed that truth that they needed to be forgiven for their sins. 

The greatest weapon that we have is our love.  This is why Paul says, “We do not wage war as the world does.”  The world fights out of malice and anger and arrogance and slander and deceit.  Christians fight to change the culture by changing individual lives with love, humility and the truth of the Word of God.

What are you fighting for today?  And how are you fighting?  Are you fighting in your own life to become like Jesus?  Are you fighting for the hearts and minds of the people in your life who don’t yet know Jesus?  Or are you too busy fighting God for the throne of your heart, and settling for the lies of our culture?