Friday, December 20, 2013

The weapons of our warfare

"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.  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." -2 Cor. 10

Living in a fallen world creates real challenges for a Christian.  Without realizing it we begin to deal with problems on the world's terms, in the way the world does.  And yet, although we live in this world we are given a completely different battle plan than the world around us employs.  

The weapons of our warfare is love.  We are not called to fight, to argue, to attack, to accuse....but rather we are called to battle the world with completely different weapons, the weapons Jesus employed- love and grace. 

It's so counter-intuitive, it's so foreign to our sense of justice, but God has called us to a higher battle, a divine and eternal struggle that is only won through love.  But, to be honest, I really never considered love to be a weapon.  It's always seemed to the world, and to me if I'm honest, to be the weapon of the weak.

The strong fight, argue, scream, attack, accuse.....but we are called to a different kind of warfare...a warfare of divine invention.  A warfare that is so counter-intuitive that our flesh rebels at the invitation, but here it is,

Mat. 22:35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus describes this in more detail in Luke 6:27-38, but don't read that unless you really want to go further in your walk with God.  Jesus' words in Luke will change everything about how you live your life, about how you deal with the world, and to be honest.....most of us don't want to walk this path. It's a narrow road and few travel it, but for those who do it's life changing, it's life changing for those around us as well!

How will we live in a world that is angry with God, angry with us, mad that God says there is only one way to come to him, only one savior?  How will we live in this kind of world?  

We will only do it well when we walk in love.

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