A Call to Arms

Raphael's Vision of a Knight, depicting the ideal qualities of a knight.

Some time ago someone sent me a link to the video Virtue Makes You Beautiful. I remember thinking, “Wow, that’s really encouraging. I really am amazed at these young men.” Then I thought, “I bet they’re Mormon,” the underlying expectation being that teenage guys in the Christian church wouldn’t speak up in such a big way to their sisters.

So I find out a little later that they ARE Mormon, and I was a little shocked to realize that I had such low expectations for my brothers in Christ.

I’m tired of low expectations. I’m sure you are too. I don’t want to write yet another post verbally flogging young men for their shortcomings – real or perceived – and I don’t want to write yet another long, whiny rant about how there’s no more real men anywhere. The former is useless for edifying others (well, both are) and the latter is untrue.

Instead, this is a call to arms.

The Christian faith and practice may be rather soft and fluffy in this day and age, or at least in North America, but there’s plenty of blunt, martial imagery in the Bible about what it is to follow Christ. Now is the time to wake from slumber. “The night is far gone, the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light,” as Paul says in Romans.

Ephesians 6 describes in more detail our struggle:

“Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the Devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

As Christians, we are part of a great spiritual war. Did you notice there are no retreats? Look again: “stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” The war doesn’t go on only during the times someone makes fun of you for being a Christian; it’s not only when you go on a mission trip to a third-world country nor when you disagree with someone in your church. Every day is a battle, not only against our enemy’s schemes, but also against our own sin. Peter urges us believers to “abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” Indeed! “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”

“But mark this,” Paul writes to Timothy. “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”

Have nothing to do with them. Don’t be a part of their group. “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

It doesn’t take a fighter to give in to sin and selfishness. What does require a fighter is rising above ourselves to serve God in faith. The Lord’s army of saints needs you to join in battle against the devil and his schemes. Show yourself a workman of God, who correctly handles the word of truth; pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests; walk as children of light and find out what pleases the Lord.

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. Prepare for battle!