No Napping in War

“By the meekness and gentleness of Chris, 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. 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 Corinthians 10:1-5

Paul jumps right in. Some of the Corinthians were making the claim that Paul liked to criticize them as soon as he left them – that he could be bold in his letters in a way that he couldn’t when he was with them. He begs that he may not have to challenge anyone for living in the world. He’s saying that even though we are in this world, we don’t have the same purpose as the world does.

You see, it’s not about us. It’s about God and His glory, and Paul of course recognized that. He says we do not wage war like the world does. I think it’s crazy how quickly we can lose sight of the battle we are waging here on this earth.

I remember when I was in fifth grade and played soccer on my school's team. I was all ready to play. I had my uniform on, I was standing on the sideline, just waiting for my number to be called. But somewhere during the first few minutes of the game I stopped paying attention. Out of nowhere this soccer ball flies in and hits me in the face. Pretty rude awakening. The impact burst several blood vessels near my cheek bone and raised a nasty bump in record time.

It shouldn't have happened. I was on the field to play in a soccer game but somehow I forgot what was going on right in front of me. Had I only been paying attention, I would have avoided the embarrassment of taking my fifth grade school pictures looking like Mike Tyson.

I wasn’t prepared for the battle. Picture with me, if you will, a battle scene from the movie Braveheart. Now imagine all of those men fighting for their lives in brutal warfare. Now imagine one of them sitting down in the middle of it all to take a nap. Ridiculous, right? That doesn't happen in war. So why do we assume it's ok to fight our spiritual battles this way? As Paul said, you and I must be ready to 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.

The enemy will not be napping or daydreaming today.

This weekend we will learn all about how distractions can lead to some pretty big problems. Check out Genesis 3 for our continuing lesson about Adam and Eve. See you this weekend! - Ginger

*Photo from Flickr