OUR SPIRITUAL WEAPONS -- Tomorrow:
"Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." (2 Cor 10:1-6)
Devotion 25 of 44
" . . . we do not war after the flesh."
Other versions read, "We do not war according to the flesh" (NKJV), "we do not wage war as the world does" (NIV), "we do not wage war according to human standards" (NRSV), "we are not carrying on a worldly war" (RSV), "we are not fighting after the way of the flesh" (BBE), "we do not battle according to the flesh" (NAB), "It is not by human methods that we do battle" (NJB), "we don't wage war with human plans and methods" (NLT), "But I don't use human plans and methods to win my battles" (LIVING), "we don't fight like people in this world" (IE), "it is no worldly warfare that we are waging" (WEYMOUTH), and "we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons" (AMPLIFIED).
While many of these versions are commentaries rather than translations, they do confirm that a lot is intended by the expression with which we are dealing. "The flesh," which is the natural part of man – the part traced back to Adam – is not the domain in which our spiritual arsenal is found. Nor, indeed, is it the arena in which our battles are fought. When we "fight the good fight of faith," we do not do so with the wisdom or resources of humanity. We really do not have contests to see who is the strongest. The weapons that are employed by those who believe, guarantee victory. There is no hope for those against whom they are used.
There is an enormous amount of contemporary religious activity that does not extend beyond the perimeter of nature – "the flesh." Religious resources are too often borrowed from the world, so that the world actually gains from professed Christianity, fattening its coffers with the proceeds gained from things bearing the names of "Jesus" and "Christians."
This is precisely the situation that is described with regard to "Babylon the Great," that Satanic fabrication of the church. The response of the world to appointed fall of Babylon is expressed in these words. "And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and SOULS OF MEN" (Rev 18:13). It is the latter category, "souls of men," that has enabled worldly profit in all of the other areas. Before the world can profit from Christians, it must first bring them under its care, and fill them with temporal interests.
The modern church has grown accustomed to being friends of the world, even though such a circumstance constitutes one to be "the enemy of God." As it is written, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4). Great segments of the professed church think nothing of training its leaders to deal with human deficiencies with the tools of psychiatry and sociology. It too often imagines that it can overcome strong ideas with mere oratory, scholarship, rules of human logic, or archeological arguments.
It all looks wise enough to some, but what is the origin of such notions? This kind of thinking does not represent "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2:16), "the mind of the Spirit" (Rom 8:2 7), or "the mind of the Lord" (Rom 11:34). Come now, those who have a penchant for using worldly weapons, will not all of the battles you supposedly fought with such weaponry go up in smoke when the world passes away? Does God really honor a battle that is fought with weapons He did not supply?
Now, while addressing "some" within the church, Paul announces the kind of battle he will wage against them, if the situation demands it. He will not engage in this battle of thoughts as a man, but as a child of God. He will not employ tactics that men use, but will be armed with a Divinely-supplied arsenal. He will not engage them with scholastic weaponry. He will not come to do battle with a carnal mind, excellency of speech, or the wisdom of this present evil world. He will not employ approaches developed by mere men, but will access the Divinely supplied arsenal.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, raise up godly men who will work to rid the church of the vestiges of flesh that remain in it, and are being cultured by it.