When you Go to War, Use the Right Weapons
For the past two weeks we have been examining a section of 2 Corinthian (chapters 8 and 9) in which the Apostle Paul addresses the issue of generous giving, especially to the poor. It’s related to the rest of the book in that the reason he’s having to address the subject is that certain leaders have come into the church after he founded it, undermined his authority, and caused the people to neglect the faith promises they had made a year earlier to the poor, persecuted Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.
Now in chapter 10 Paul decides it’s time to take these false teachers and antagonists on and expose them
for who they really are. No more Mr. Nice Guy. In the next two chapters he will be very confrontational, accusing them of preaching another Jesus and a different Gospel; he will even call them false apostles, deceitful workmen who are masquerading as apostles of Christ. Paul would never choose to be so blunt if the Gospel itself were not at stake. But it is. Look at the first verse of our chapter: “By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you–I, Paul, who am ‘timid” when face to face with you, but ‘bold’ when away! I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.”
Now it’s clear from these words that Paul has been accused by his detractors of being a coward. In fact, he quotes them directly in verse 10: “For some say, ‘His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.’ Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.” They had mistaken his meekness and gentleness for wimpiness. Christ was also misread the same way, but when the situation called or it, Jesus could be tough, as witnessed by the money-changers in the temple. The time has come for Paul to be tough as well.
What is it that brings him to this conclusion? It’s the recognition that some in the church are operating by the standards of this world. They have abandoned the standards of righteousness, holiness, godliness, and honesty, and in their place have adopted the standards the world uses. What standards? Well, he doesn’t list them, apparently assuming his readers know what he’s talking about. I am fairly sure Paul is speaking of such things as tolerance of sinful behavior, relativism, humanism, pride, self-absorption, materialism–the very things that seem to be of such high value in our own culture.
But don’t we have to function by the standards of the world, don’t we have to participate in our culture and society? We can’t isolate ourselves and adopt some other-worldly perspective and survive, can we? Here is Paul’s response, verse 3: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.” The clear implication is that …
There is a spiritual battle, a war, being waged for the hearts and minds of God’s people.
We hear a lot about spiritual warfare in some Christian circles today. There are books and seminars and special ministries that are dedicated to wrestling with Satan and his demons and promising victory over principalities and powers to the believer who incorporates certain principles or methodologies. Perhaps no passage of Scripture is quoted more often by those
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enamored with this kind of spiritual warfare than verses 3-5 of 2 Cor. 10:
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.
But I don’t think this passage is speaking about demon possession and occult activity and exorcisms–direct warfare with Satan and his demons. It’s not that I doubt that such spiritual warfare exists; I’m just saying this passage isn’t specifically about that. Rather it’s about the battle for the hearts and minds of God’s people. It’s about the battle of world-views that is raging in our culture. Certainly, Satan is active in this battle and he is behind some of the godless world-views, but I fear that when we focus on demon Satanism and demonism, we tend to miss the more obvious and common manifestations of spiritual warfare in our culture.
Everyone of you has heard about the rage and violence that has erupted all over the Muslim world for the past two weeks–instigated by some cartoons published in a Danish newspaper last August that pictured the prophet Mohammed. In one he is wearing a turban shaped like a bomb; in another he is telling the mullahs to quit sending suicide bombers to their death because they’re all out of virgins up in heaven (of course, this is a reference to the absurd and blasphemous Muslim teaching that suicide bombers are promised 72 virgins for their martyrdom). These cartoons are satirical and tasteless, as are most political cartoons these days, and we could debate
the appropriateness of printing them. But there is no doubt that they have pushed into bold relief the clash of civilizations that exists between the world of Islam and the free world. This, friends, is spiritual warfare–a battle of world-views.
But while this development is momentous on the international political scene, there are other world-view clashes that are probably even more important and relevant to us and our children. The clash between philosophical naturalism and intelligent design is more important. The clash between the culture of life and the culture of death (abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, etc.) is more important. The clash between inclusive and exclusive religious claims is more important (i.e. must we grant equal status to all spiritual views, or is Jesus the only Way?).
Paul has introduced the notion that there is a battle for the hearts and minds of God’s people, and immediately he moves to the question of how we are fighting that battle:
Many are fighting this battle using the weapons of the world. (3) “We do not wage
war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.” I do not see these words as a simple declarative statement, but rather as an exhortation: “we must not wage war as the world does; the weapons we use must not be the weapons of the world.” He wouldn’t even say this if it weren’t a fact that many are actually waging war with worldly weapons. Unfortunately, Paul doesn’t specifically delineate what these weapons are, so he must have it obvious to his readers. They knew what he was talking about, but do we?
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I want to suggest to you some of the key weapon systems the world uses and then ask the question, “Is the church ever inclined to borrow these?” One of those weapons the world uses to get its world view across and to silence its critics is intimidation and belligerence. I don’t know if you saw the speech Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gave at Georgetown University Law School last week. Many of these brilliant law students, the cream of the crop intellectually, stood up during his speech and turned their backs on him. Some wore hoods and held up signs of protest. Compared to the typical protests on elite campuses, however, this one was quite civil. More often conservative speaker are shouted down so they can’t even be heard. Come to think of it, the way radical students on the typical campus react to views they don’t like is quite similar to how the Muslim world reacted to those cartoons. Isn’t that curious?
But I’m more interested in the question, “Do professing Christians ever borrow intimidation and belligerence as tools of their trade?” What about the Phelps family protests, or Pat Robertson suggesting that the United States assassinate the President of Venezuela, or even some of the uglier abortion protests?
Legal action is another favorite weapon of the world. It seems sometimes that the first reaction to almost any problem is to pass a law. And if that doesn’t get the desired result, then sue, for the courts will often grant what the legislatures are too timid to give. The Economist says that “America has 281 lawyers for every 100,000 people, compared to Britain with 94, 33 in France and a mere 7 in Japan.”i This is because we have developed the frame of mind that virtually every moral, social, economic, and racial problem must have a legal solution.
And again I ask, “How often does the church seek redress in legislation or the courts?” Do we really think the answer to human addictions and twisted values is found in passing more laws–against pornography, gambling, abortion, drugs, you name it? There’s no question that just laws are essential to a civilized society, and legal redress is an important right, but friends, even a perfect set of laws is not going to eliminate crime or evil. Jesus urged His followers to be slow in going to court.
Boycotts are another weapon that is a favorite of the world. The gay rights lobby has used this very effectively to advance their agenda, threatening to use their considerable economic power to put any business out of business if they don’t offer full benefits irrespective of sexual orientation.
The church has watched this and seen how effective it is, and sure enough has adopted its own boycotts, like that of Disney World. Now frankly, I boycott a lot of stores, and restaurants, and TV channels; I simply don’t do business with those whose business practices or products I disagree with. You probably do the same. But that’s different from organizing public protests and trying to get the entire Christian community to put someone out of business. I ask you, “Is that something Jesus would do? Are these the weapons we see the Apostles using in the spiritual battle?”
Thursday morning there was an editorial in the Eagle, written by our own Jeff Syrios. It was a powerful and convicting statement, and I want to read part of it:
Get us evangelicals mad, and you’ll have hell to pay.
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Just tell your employees that “Merry Christians” is out and “Happy Holidays” is
in, and we’ll stop buying your stuff. Try airing a blasphemous television show about a
struggling priest named Daniel, and we’ll pressure you with a letter writing campaign. If
you really want a fight, take another liberal step toward that U. S. Supreme Court
nominee, and prepare for the full weight of our conservative ire.
As a political force, American evangelicals have come into their own. But… I am
increasingly concerned about the message we are sending and the effect we are having. Christians are called to influence the world. Believers are commissioned to
redeem culture as well as make disciples of all men. Jesus taught his followers to
practice their faith in the same way that salt is rubbed into meat…
But the means to the end cannot be devoid of virtue, and the Christian’s call to
cultural redemption does not allow for an all-out, ears-back… assault on culture’s
depravity. For with truth comes power, which, if not accompanied by grace, can manifest itself in arrogance and self-righteous judgment…
Christians must confront the moral decay in our culture…
But Christians must be cautious in handling the truth. While truth speaks of
power, it also shouts of grace.
Another weapon the world uses to sell its standards is marketing. Most of you watched the Super Bowl ads last Sunday even if you didn’t watch the game. Some were clever, some bizarre (I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat a Whopper again!), but all were designed to get you to buy something you wouldn’t otherwise buy. We are bombarded daily, hourly, with hundreds of marketing messages. Fortunately, this hasn’t entered the church. Good luck (as Calvin would say)! The fact is, some huge churches have been built almost entirely on Madison Avenue marketing techniques. I’m not suggesting that marketing and Christianity are mutually exclusive, but when marketing becomes our dominant weapon, something’s wrong.
And a final worldly weapon I will mention is charismatic leaders. With the advent of television and instantaneous communication and travel, the power of personality has become exponentially greater. There’s nothing wrong with having a charismatic personality (don’t we all wish we had one?), but when charisma becomes a substitute for substance and content, that’s a problem. And frankly, we see a great deal of this in the church today.
When I look across the Christian landscape today, I am personally troubled by many of the weapons I see being used by Christian organizations, churches, and church leaders. I am not questioning their motivation (I think most of these people are very sincere in their hearts and want to stand up for God and country), but I am questioning their wisdom. I am afraid too often they employ the weapons of the world in the spiritual battle and thus the cause of Christ can actually be hindered.
Paul says here in verse 4, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.” Well, then what weapons should we be using? Once again he doesn’t delineate those but assumes his readers know what he’s talking about. And if we think biblically it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out what those weapons are: