THE BATTLE WITHIN

We don’t fight against ‘flesh and blood’(12), but that doesn’t mean our battle is not with the world. The proponents of spiritual warfare see us constantly under attack from demons and evil spiritual forces (12), which we must confront. We must locate the demonic strongholds in institutions and individuals and defeat them by prayer. However, as CS Lewis pointed out, we can become too obsessed with the satanic (The Screwtape Letters, 1941, p3). Destructive forces are often much closer to home. Evil assails us from without, but it also arises within ourselves – one of Scripture’s most difficult paradoxes. Satan tempted Eve, but the prophets speak of evil within our own hearts (Gen 3:1–4; Jer 17:9). Satan tempted Jesus, but Jesus taught us that our own hearts make us unclean (Matt 15:18). This very letter stresses that evil is a choice. People ‘have given themselves over’ to immorality and greed; the battleground is in our own hearts and minds (Eph 4:19,23).

That is why we need armor. Some we have already. The helmet of salvation is the absolute prerequisite. God gives us salvation through Jesus and with it the breastplate of righteousness, the confidence that we are right with God. Our weapon is the word of God, not words to shout at Satan like magic spells but rather its sure promises and teachings which encourage our hope in God’s protection. Other components of the armor we fashion ourselves. We need to cultivate good positive virtues deep within ourselves: the belt of truth and shoes of peace. We must use faith to shield us from harm. The flaming arrows of the ‘evil one’ do not come to me from remote heavenly realms: they come from my TV set, the internet, and the shopping mall. If I do not block them, the evil within me rises to meet them.

‘Be thou my armor, my sword for the fight, / be thou my dignity, thou my delight, / thou my soul’s shelter and thou my high tower, / raise thou me heavenward, / O Power of my power’ (EH Hull, 1860–1935, from Old Irish, ‘Be thou my vision’).