The Bible says that God’s people do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but a great number of professing Christians are doing just that. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Ephesians 6:12-13). The apostle Paul, who wrote this under divine inspiration, modeled obedience to it. He lived in an empire filled with flesh and blood wickedness, corrupt emperors, scandalous governors, crooked businessmen, disreputable politicians, nefarious military leaders. Paul could have stayed very busy indeed wrestling against flesh and blood corruption and conspiracies, but he didn’t. This was not because he was ignorant of what was happening or that he didn’t care about such things. He understood that the real enemies are not flesh and blood. He had more important things to do in God’s business: preaching the gospel, the only message of salvation, discipling the saints, building New Testament churches as the pillar and ground of the truth in a dark world, building godly families as a bulwark against evil. Unlike Paul, political conservatives in America most definitely wrestle against flesh and blood. Their enemies currently are Biden, Harris, Fauci, Pelosi, Soros, Gates, Newsom, liberal Supreme Court justices, Wokists, the CIA, the FBI, the CDC, Xi, Putin, and a bunch of others. Political conservatives wrestle against flesh and blood because they don’t have Paul’s knowledge of spiritual realities or his divine calling or his weapons. But born again Bible-believing Christians do know what Paul knew and do have the weapons Paul wielded and do have the calling to Christ’s Great Commission that Paul had. Why, then, are so many of them aping political conservatism?
(Friday Church News Notes, September 17, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)