2 Corinthians 10.3-5
I find some of Paul's letters a little challenging to understand. I'm sure that I've missed some subtle things going on in places. But even apart from that, there is the problem of trying to understand a conversation when all you can hear is what one person is saying. So many questions would be cleared away if only we had just a little more information, if we had something that the Corinthians wrote or said to Paul. There are all these problems - and more - in what Paul writes in our text. But there is one thing that stands out pretty clearly for anyone to see. Paul is talking about war. It really is hard to miss. He talks about weapons, destroying strongholds and taking captives. And it's all under the banner of waging war. Whatever else might be going on in the text, whatever subtleties we might be missing, this much is clear. Paul is talking about war. Now, some might say, 'Such language seems a bit much. But I suppose that hyperbole is a legitimate literary device. I know that it's sometimes good to overstate things to make your point.' I'm going to have to differ with this opinion. I think that Paul is doing anything but overstating the situation. The language of warfare is exactly what's needed here, and I'd like to tell you why.
Consider the Old Testament. When you read through the historical sections what do you find? It seems that every other page has some battle or other. If it's not David fighting Goliath, it's Saul fighting the Philistines or Joshua invading Canaan. And that's just a short list of possibilities. I'm going to guess that when people read these accounts, one common assumption goes something like this. 'Oh well, I guess they're just into fighting a lot. It was a violent age.' And then they find a nice gentle Psalm to cuddle up to. But is that why God wrote about these wars? Was it just about being historically accurate? I don't think so. From another of Paul's letters: 'For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.' That 'whatever' includes the wars. They were included to instruct us and to give us hope. There is something more than geo‑political intrigue going on in these Old Testament battles. To see this, we need to look at something from Genesis.
Genesis 3.15 may well be the most important verse in all the Bible. I say that because it explains everything else that has happened. Listen. 'The Lord God said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."' This is a prophecy without the use of a prophet. God, Himself, defines all of the history that follows from that point on as a conflict, a war, between two groups: the children of the woman versus the children of the serpent. This is the war between Jesus and those with Him, and Satan and those with him. And this prophecy states that at the end of it all Jesus will defeat Satan, crush his head, in fact, though at a cost. Satan will bruise His heal. The prophesy finds its climax at the cross.
In a recent sermon I told you that the Church in the Old Testament was immature, a minor. As a result, God spoke to her as to a child. So much of what He did and talked about was physical and material. And that included her wars. The reality of this conflict between Jesus and Satan was pictured in the wars of Israel. The people of God, the children of the woman, fought against the nations, the children of the serpent. And it's that theme of the war between these two groups that explains David and Goliath, Saul and the Philistines, Joshua and Canaan. The most important perspective on the history of the world is not its political history but the history of this warfare between Jesus and Satan, and how it plays out in the different arenas of this world, whether we're talking about ancient Israel, the Roman empire, Attila the Hun, World War II or Al Qaeda and modern Iraq.
Today, with the advent of Jesus, the Church has achieved adulthood. Today, we're past children's Bible story books. Today, we don't fight this war against the children of the serpent by using swords or guns or missiles. But that doesn't mean that the warfare is somehow easier or that Satan is now more tame. Remember that the wars of Israel are only dim pictures of the reality. The war against Satan continues and more violently than ever. So, Jesus talks about coming to defeat the strong man in order to take his armor and plunder his house. Paul exhorts the Church to take the whole armor of God. And in Revelation, John pictures Jesus as a warrior on a white charger leading His armies into battle. And we have the words of our text. No, Paul was not using hyperbole to make a point. His words need to be taken at face value. He was talking about reality. He was talking about war.
Let's move on to the next point. To be sure, Paul does not use swords and shields to advance the kingdom. But he does use weapons, and they are so much more powerful than swords and shields and bullets and bombs. 'For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.' This war is not waged with weapons that are earthbound. These are actually quite useless for the kind of battle we face. The weapons used in this war come from Jesus, and, therefore, they really are quite something. Paul is talking about things like prayer, the Word, the sacraments. He's referring to qualities like meekness, humility, sacrificial love. To some, these things look weak. Some actually mock them as useless. But these weapons aren't weak. Oh no, they are quite potent because they are infused with the power of the Spirit. These weapons have power to destroy - not just damage but destroy. They may look feeble and slight, but Satan knows their power, and he fears them. That's why he works so hard to deceive the Church, offering attractive - and worthless - alternatives, so that she doesn't use these powerful weapons. The Church has been given the weapons that will win this war, weapons that have the power of God.
Now, for Paul's third thought. And let's get at it by a question. What is the point of the war? What does victory look like? Failure to correctly answer such questions will result in people being quite busy but accomplishing nothing. Paul is not fooled. He knows what the war is about and what victory looks like. 'We ... take every thought captive to obey Christ...' The war is about the Lordship of Jesus. V ictory arrives when He plants His banner over the last vanquished outpost of the serpent's followers. Victory comes when the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. Victory is defined as the complete obedience of every person to Jesus. The plan is clear. The goal is well-defined. And there is no need for an exit strategy. When the fighting stops, all the territory will belong to Jesus. There will be no enemies left.
So, Paul's three points: He is fighting a war. He uses weapons that are filled with the power of God. And the goal of the war is Jesus' complete and utter victory over all the forces of evil.
Now, for an important question. Why have I told you these things? Why is this sermon important? The answer is not complicated. This notion of war defines your life. It defines your goals, your purpose and the means that you are to use to achieve those goals and fulfill that purpose. This war defines success. That won't make a lot of sense unless you remember that every person alive at this moment has either sided with Jesus or with Satan. The children of the woman or the the children of the serpent. There is no third alternative. There are, on the one side, those who have made their allegiance obvious. You have people like Justin Martyr who earned his last name or John Calvin who labored to teach the Gospel or the saints in China who are suffering even as I speak to you. On the other side, there are likewise those whose allegiance is obvious. Nero, Idi Amin and all those people who set their hearts on a relatively comfortable life. You are in Jesus' army. You were included when you became part of His Church. You are involved in a war, a violent war. Each side is committed to its goals and will pursue them at whatever cost. And each side is armed. The goal for us is for all flesh to bow before Jesus as Lord of heaven and earth. This defines how you live. This is what discipleship is about. We are the reality that Joshua and Israel only pictured as they conquered the Promised Land. We will see fortified walls crumble and armies routed, just as Joshua and Israel did. And when the Church falters in being faithful, we will also taste defeat, just as Joshua and Israel did. But there will be more victories once we repent. Everything about that time was focused on the conquest. Everything about this time is focused on the conquest. That was the picture. This is the reality. That's why I have told you these things.
Now, another question. What's at stake here? There are lots of ways to answer that. Let me answer it this way.
Eldon was an older gentleman. I did not have the chance to get to know him much, but he seemed the quiet, gentle type. He came to my door one day to share his faith with me. We had a very pleasant conversation. I remember how his face showed a growing interest when I talked about the grace of Jesus, and how He saves quite apart from our doings. That's when the other person with Eldon, his trainer, said that it was time to move on to the next door. Eldon and this other man were from the local kingdom hall. They were Jehovah's Witnesses. I never saw Eldon again, but from time to time I prayed for him. I could see that the thought of salvation by grace was new and very attractive to him. This happened so long ago that I'm pretty sure that Eldon is now dead. And unless the Spirit nurtured that little seed of truth, he is now in hell.
When I met Michelle, she must have been somewhere around twenty. She was kind of cute and seemed shy in that innocent way. Linda had brought her home one night. She told me that Michelle was a prostitute. As I chatted briefly with her, I thought about what she must have suffered at the hands of different men in her short life. We had invited her to stay the night with our family, but she declined. That was the only time I ever saw her. I suspect that if that little taste of mercy in my home did not result in her being drawn to Jesus, then she is no longer cute nor shy, and that many more men have done much more evil to her.
Peanut's real name is Mark, but everyone called him by that nickname. One day his father accused him of stealing one of his tools, a pair of pliers. Peanut said that he didn't do it. As a result, Peanut was kicked out of his house with only the clothes on his back. He was fourteen. I don't remember how we met him. He was one of the kids that roamed the small town that we were living in. He stayed with us for a couple of years. He was a nice kid. Street smart, but still a nice kid. Linda got close to him. But then, he left. I may have been because he was finally able to drop out of school. We saw him a couple of years later at the local mall. He had a girlfriend and a baby.
Sue made it up the corporate ladder and was able to make lots of money. She really was quite successful. But she was never happy. She slept around a bit. Got married. Got divorced. She quit her job, realizing that money can't buy happiness, and moved to another part of the country. She married again. She is stable, but she still isn't happy.
Nothing of what I've just told you is made up. These are all people whom I have known and spoken to. And there are lots more like them. And this is what the war is about. The war is about all the people out there, all the children of the serpent, most of whom are unwittingly so, who are so utterly lost. Jesus leads His Church and conquers so that He might rescue some from the hell that they live in now and the one they are headed toward. That's why Paul fought, becoming all things to all people that he might save some. And that's why we need to fight also.
I find some of Paul's letters a little challenging to understand. I'm sure that I've missed some subtle things going on in places. But even apart from that, there is the problem of trying to understand a conversation when all you can hear is what one person is saying. So many questions would be cleared away if only we had just a little more information, if we had something that the Corinthians wrote or said to Paul. There are all these problems - and more - in what Paul writes in our text. But there is one thing that stands out pretty clearly for anyone to see. Paul is talking about war. It really is hard to miss. He talks about weapons, destroying strongholds and taking captives. And it's all under the banner of waging war. Whatever else might be going on in the text, whatever subtleties we might be missing, this much is clear. Paul is talking about war. Now, some might say, 'Such language seems a bit much. But I suppose that hyperbole is a legitimate literary device. I know that it's sometimes good to overstate things to make your point.' I'm going to have to differ with this opinion. I think that Paul is doing anything but overstating the situation. The language of warfare is exactly what's needed here, and I'd like to tell you why.
Consider the Old Testament. When you read through the historical sections what do you find? It seems that every other page has some battle or other. If it's not David fighting Goliath, it's Saul fighting the Philistines or Joshua invading Canaan. And that's just a short list of possibilities. I'm going to guess that when people read these accounts, one common assumption goes something like this. 'Oh well, I guess they're just into fighting a lot. It was a violent age.' And then they find a nice gentle Psalm to cuddle up to. But is that why God wrote about these wars? Was it just about being historically accurate? I don't think so. From another of Paul's letters: 'For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.' That 'whatever' includes the wars. They were included to instruct us and to give us hope. There is something more than geo‑political intrigue going on in these Old Testament battles. To see this, we need to look at something from Genesis.
Genesis 3.15 may well be the most important verse in all the Bible. I say that because it explains everything else that has happened. Listen. 'The Lord God said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."' This is a prophecy without the use of a prophet. God, Himself, defines all of the history that follows from that point on as a conflict, a war, between two groups: the children of the woman versus the children of the serpent. This is the war between Jesus and those with Him, and Satan and those with him. And this prophecy states that at the end of it all Jesus will defeat Satan, crush his head, in fact, though at a cost. Satan will bruise His heal. The prophesy finds its climax at the cross.
In a recent sermon I told you that the Church in the Old Testament was immature, a minor. As a result, God spoke to her as to a child. So much of what He did and talked about was physical and material. And that included her wars. The reality of this conflict between Jesus and Satan was pictured in the wars of Israel. The people of God, the children of the woman, fought against the nations, the children of the serpent. And it's that theme of the war between these two groups that explains David and Goliath, Saul and the Philistines, Joshua and Canaan. The most important perspective on the history of the world is not its political history but the history of this warfare between Jesus and Satan, and how it plays out in the different arenas of this world, whether we're talking about ancient Israel, the Roman empire, Attila the Hun, World War II or Al Qaeda and modern Iraq.
Today, with the advent of Jesus, the Church has achieved adulthood. Today, we're past children's Bible story books. Today, we don't fight this war against the children of the serpent by using swords or guns or missiles. But that doesn't mean that the warfare is somehow easier or that Satan is now more tame. Remember that the wars of Israel are only dim pictures of the reality. The war against Satan continues and more violently than ever. So, Jesus talks about coming to defeat the strong man in order to take his armor and plunder his house. Paul exhorts the Church to take the whole armor of God. And in Revelation, John pictures Jesus as a warrior on a white charger leading His armies into battle. And we have the words of our text. No, Paul was not using hyperbole to make a point. His words need to be taken at face value. He was talking about reality. He was talking about war.
Let's move on to the next point. To be sure, Paul does not use swords and shields to advance the kingdom. But he does use weapons, and they are so much more powerful than swords and shields and bullets and bombs. 'For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.' This war is not waged with weapons that are earthbound. These are actually quite useless for the kind of battle we face. The weapons used in this war come from Jesus, and, therefore, they really are quite something. Paul is talking about things like prayer, the Word, the sacraments. He's referring to qualities like meekness, humility, sacrificial love. To some, these things look weak. Some actually mock them as useless. But these weapons aren't weak. Oh no, they are quite potent because they are infused with the power of the Spirit. These weapons have power to destroy - not just damage but destroy. They may look feeble and slight, but Satan knows their power, and he fears them. That's why he works so hard to deceive the Church, offering attractive - and worthless - alternatives, so that she doesn't use these powerful weapons. The Church has been given the weapons that will win this war, weapons that have the power of God.
Now, for Paul's third thought. And let's get at it by a question. What is the point of the war? What does victory look like? Failure to correctly answer such questions will result in people being quite busy but accomplishing nothing. Paul is not fooled. He knows what the war is about and what victory looks like. 'We ... take every thought captive to obey Christ...' The war is about the Lordship of Jesus. V ictory arrives when He plants His banner over the last vanquished outpost of the serpent's followers. Victory comes when the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. Victory is defined as the complete obedience of every person to Jesus. The plan is clear. The goal is well-defined. And there is no need for an exit strategy. When the fighting stops, all the territory will belong to Jesus. There will be no enemies left.
So, Paul's three points: He is fighting a war. He uses weapons that are filled with the power of God. And the goal of the war is Jesus' complete and utter victory over all the forces of evil.
Now, for an important question. Why have I told you these things? Why is this sermon important? The answer is not complicated. This notion of war defines your life. It defines your goals, your purpose and the means that you are to use to achieve those goals and fulfill that purpose. This war defines success. That won't make a lot of sense unless you remember that every person alive at this moment has either sided with Jesus or with Satan. The children of the woman or the the children of the serpent. There is no third alternative. There are, on the one side, those who have made their allegiance obvious. You have people like Justin Martyr who earned his last name or John Calvin who labored to teach the Gospel or the saints in China who are suffering even as I speak to you. On the other side, there are likewise those whose allegiance is obvious. Nero, Idi Amin and all those people who set their hearts on a relatively comfortable life. You are in Jesus' army. You were included when you became part of His Church. You are involved in a war, a violent war. Each side is committed to its goals and will pursue them at whatever cost. And each side is armed. The goal for us is for all flesh to bow before Jesus as Lord of heaven and earth. This defines how you live. This is what discipleship is about. We are the reality that Joshua and Israel only pictured as they conquered the Promised Land. We will see fortified walls crumble and armies routed, just as Joshua and Israel did. And when the Church falters in being faithful, we will also taste defeat, just as Joshua and Israel did. But there will be more victories once we repent. Everything about that time was focused on the conquest. Everything about this time is focused on the conquest. That was the picture. This is the reality. That's why I have told you these things.
Now, another question. What's at stake here? There are lots of ways to answer that. Let me answer it this way.
Eldon was an older gentleman. I did not have the chance to get to know him much, but he seemed the quiet, gentle type. He came to my door one day to share his faith with me. We had a very pleasant conversation. I remember how his face showed a growing interest when I talked about the grace of Jesus, and how He saves quite apart from our doings. That's when the other person with Eldon, his trainer, said that it was time to move on to the next door. Eldon and this other man were from the local kingdom hall. They were Jehovah's Witnesses. I never saw Eldon again, but from time to time I prayed for him. I could see that the thought of salvation by grace was new and very attractive to him. This happened so long ago that I'm pretty sure that Eldon is now dead. And unless the Spirit nurtured that little seed of truth, he is now in hell.
When I met Michelle, she must have been somewhere around twenty. She was kind of cute and seemed shy in that innocent way. Linda had brought her home one night. She told me that Michelle was a prostitute. As I chatted briefly with her, I thought about what she must have suffered at the hands of different men in her short life. We had invited her to stay the night with our family, but she declined. That was the only time I ever saw her. I suspect that if that little taste of mercy in my home did not result in her being drawn to Jesus, then she is no longer cute nor shy, and that many more men have done much more evil to her.
Peanut's real name is Mark, but everyone called him by that nickname. One day his father accused him of stealing one of his tools, a pair of pliers. Peanut said that he didn't do it. As a result, Peanut was kicked out of his house with only the clothes on his back. He was fourteen. I don't remember how we met him. He was one of the kids that roamed the small town that we were living in. He stayed with us for a couple of years. He was a nice kid. Street smart, but still a nice kid. Linda got close to him. But then, he left. I may have been because he was finally able to drop out of school. We saw him a couple of years later at the local mall. He had a girlfriend and a baby.
Sue made it up the corporate ladder and was able to make lots of money. She really was quite successful. But she was never happy. She slept around a bit. Got married. Got divorced. She quit her job, realizing that money can't buy happiness, and moved to another part of the country. She married again. She is stable, but she still isn't happy.
Nothing of what I've just told you is made up. These are all people whom I have known and spoken to. And there are lots more like them. And this is what the war is about. The war is about all the people out there, all the children of the serpent, most of whom are unwittingly so, who are so utterly lost. Jesus leads His Church and conquers so that He might rescue some from the hell that they live in now and the one they are headed toward. That's why Paul fought, becoming all things to all people that he might save some. And that's why we need to fight also.
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