Spiritual Warfare

At various times throughout the New Testament, our duty as Christians is compared to that of a soldier in battle. The Ephesians were told to “put on the full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:11). The evangelist Timothy was told to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12) and “suffer hardship…as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3). Later, Paul said he had “fought the good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7). As Christians, we are involved in this conflict here on earth.

This is a theme that is continuously emphasized in the New Testament. Another passage that speaks of this is found in Paul’s second letter to Corinth:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

For this article, we will focus on what this passage teaches us about the war in which we are engaged.

What is the nature of this conflict? Are we fighting physical, to-the-death battles? No. Paul plainly said, “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh” (2 Corinthians 10:3). By implication, we understand then that the nature of our war is spiritual. Some have tried to make the spiritual battle a physical one. The religion of Islam reflects this idea. Islam teaches the concept of “jihad” or holy war. This is a physical war with a spiritual cause. Fortunately, few Muslims take their religion this far. We can also look to history and notice the Crusades. These were wars in the name of Christianity. But this verse shows us that there is no physical battle connected with our spiritual war. Our warfare is spiritual in its nature.

What do we use to fight this war? This passage speaks of “the weapons of our warfare” (2 Corinthians 10:4). What did Paul mean by this? Part of the Christians equipment for battle is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). To the Corinthians, Paul mentioned “weapons,” but the word of God is the only weapon we read of in the New Testament. The word of God is a versatile weapon that can be used for a number of things. Since it does many things, Paul referred to it in the plural. The word of God can be used to convince the skeptic, strengthen the doubtful, persuade the unbeliever, nourish the new convert, and edify the mature Christian. The word of God is a powerful weapon – we can put our full confidence in it.

One of the things the word of God is capable of doing is “destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). The New International Version translates the first part as “we demolish arguments.” The idea is that the word of God can be used to utterly destroy error, expose its fallacy, and reduce it to absurdity. We need to train ourselves to accurately handle the word of God (2 Timothy 2:15) so we will be able to use it for this purpose. Many brethren do not like debates or controversies and shy away from them. Some preachers are unwilling to engage in an open examination of a subject in which disagreement exists. Perhaps this is because they themselves are false teachers. Maybe it is because they are unable to refute false doctrine. Or it is possible they are simply unwilling to get involved in controversy and so they let error go unhindered. Whatever the reason, they are not using the sword of the Spirit as they should. God has given us what we need to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5, NIV). We need to train ourselves to use it in this way.

One of the things we are to be doing in this spiritual warfare is “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). In war, captives are taken. When one army captures soldiers from the enemy, they have to keep them imprisoned and guarded to keep them in line and in captivity. In this spiritual battle, we are not taking physical captives. Instead we are “taking every thought captive.” This means we are changing people’s minds – changing the way they think – to be conformed to the will of God. By doing this, physical bonds and prisons are unnecessary. If we can change the way people think, we do not have to force them to be obedient to God. The religion of Christ is not about forcing people to serve Him. Those who serve Him must do so voluntarily. So to accomplish this, we must change their minds to think in terms of doing what God would have them to do instead of what they desire to do.

We are in the midst of this spiritual war. We need to be actively serving as soldiers in the Lord’s army. We must prepare ourselves mentally, train ourselves in handling the word of God, and affect people’s thinking to bring them to obedience to Christ. If we fight the “good fight,” we can be confident of the “crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:7-8) that awaits us. Let us continue serving Christ and do all we can for His cause.


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