In a world full of conflict and hostility, where news of wars and violence makes the headlines, it is very easy to think that Christian warfare also means physical battles using worldly weapons. Such a notion completely overlooks the deep spiritual dimensions of Christian warfare as taught in the Bible.
The Bible teaches us about Christian warfare as follows: " For we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."¹ Therefore, we Christians are not fighting against people, but our battle is against demonic forces. Ours is a spiritual war.
For this reason, the weapons of Christian warfare are not physical. Even though we live in this world, our war is not physical. Rather, "Though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,."² The battle of Christian faith is a struggle to destroy any baseless argument that stands against the true knowledge and understanding of God.
This perspective into spiritual warfare helps clarify three things. First, it does not matter what race, ethnicity, language, religion, or sect people belong to; they are not our enemies. Our enmity is not with humans. Spiritual warfare truly is spiritual.
Second, this type of spiritual warfare means inviting others to dialogue and discussion. One dimension of spiritual warfare is that it is dialogical. Even if opinions may be mistaken and sometimes demonic, we must use reasoned arguments to guide people's thoughts and imaginations towards a true understanding of God. Instead of using force or coercion, we should proceed in this spiritual warfare with reason, as Saadi says:
Strong and spiritual reasons must we wield, Not the straining neck veins in argument's field.³
Third, and interestingly, spiritual warfare is not solely an individual endeavour but inherently communal. While it might seem like a personal and individualistic battle, the communal aspect is significant. After listing the full armour of God, Paul emphasizes this by instructing, 'With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.'⁴ He underscores that spiritual warfare involves standing together, supporting one another through prayer. Spiritual Warfare is a collective effort, fundamentally communal in nature.
This is why we invite Afghans to engage in dialogue with us about the Word of God, the person of Jesus, and the kingdom of God. We view these Afghan Christian-Muslim theological dialogues as a battlefield where we can captivate thoughts for the sake of Jesus and bring people from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of our Lord.
In upcoming articles, we will explore additional tools of Christian spiritual warfare, as described in the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Ephesians 6:12
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Saadi, Bustan, Chapter Four on Humility, Section 6 - The Tale of the Scholar
Ephesians 6:18
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