Christian Warfare
Text: Ephesians 6:10-18; II Corinthians 10:2-5
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- Distinguish between external enemies (visible) and internal enemies (thoughts, bodily passions) and explain why internal enemies are harder to fight.
- Retell the story of Benaiah and the lion from II Sam. 23:20 and identify at least five characteristics of his conduct that apply directly to the Christian's fight against internal enemies.
- Explain what it means to be "armed with the mind of Christ" (I Pet. 4:1) and state what advantage this gives in the internal fight.
- Explain why no one can be made to fight the internal enemy — why the Christian's warfare requires voluntary engagement.
- State why beginning early in the Christian life matters for the development of spiritual fighting capacity.
Thesis
The Christian life is lived under the figure of warfare — not physical warfare against human enemies, but spiritual warfare against the enemies of the soul, supremely the internal enemies: undisciplined thoughts, bodily passions, the self that must be mastered and crucified daily. God cannot use a coward. The warfare requires courage, preparation, arms, and the settled determination that there will be a death at the end of the engagement — and that it will be the enemy's.
Burden
The Benaiah narrative (II Sam. 23:20) provides the sermon's controlling illustration: a man who tracked a lion to its pit in the snow, went down into the pit, and killed it. The seven characteristics of that engagement — tracking, descending, volunteering, refusing to skirmish, expecting a death, and determining whose death it would be — translate directly into the characteristics required for the Christian's fight against the enemies within. The burden is to move the hearer from the recognition that these enemies exist to the decision to fight them with the specificity and courage that Benaiah brought to the lion.
Introduction
David's mighty men were all brave. Jehovah cannot use a coward. This is the opening premise of a series of narratives in II Samuel 23 about the men who served David by doing what ordinary men would not attempt. Among them was Benaiah, who "went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day" (II Sam. 23:20). The story is brief and vivid, and its application to the Christian's spiritual warfare is exact.
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil" (Eph. 6:10-11). The figure of warfare runs through the New Testament's description of the Christian life from beginning to end. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "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" (II Cor. 10:3-4). The warfare is real; the enemies are real; the weapons are real; the outcome is not certain for the person who does not arm, train, and engage.
I. Two Classes of Enemies
The Christian faces enemies on two fronts, and the harder front is the internal one.
Enemies without — visible, external. The world, the devil operating through external pressure, the adversaries of the faith who oppose and persecute. These enemies can be seen. Their attacks are identifiable. Christians have generally prepared for them: they know the arguments against faith, they recognize overt temptations, they have learned to identify the external pressures that threaten their walk.
Enemies within — invisible, internal. "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" (II Cor. 10:5). The thought that goes where it should not. The imagination that rehearses what is wrong. The habit of mind that has been established over years and resists correction. These are the enemies that cannot be identified by outward inspection — they operate below the surface of visible behavior, in the territory of the mind where the most consequential battles of the Christian life are actually fought.
"But I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified" (I Cor. 9:27). The body — its appetites, its pull toward comfort and pleasure, its resistance to sacrifice — is an enemy within. "Put to death what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). The members of the body are the territory across which the internal war is fought. The Christian who has not engaged this enemy has not engaged the real war.
II. Benaiah: An Example (II Sam. 23:20)
"Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day" (II Sam. 23:20). Seven characteristics of this engagement translate directly.
He tracked the lion. He probably followed its tracks in the snow — he did not stumble onto the fight; he sought it. The fighter of internal enemies does not wait for the enemy to appear and then respond. They learn the patterns — the times and conditions under which specific enemies typically attack — and they pursue the engagement on terms they understand.
He went down into the pit. The lion was where it was; Benaiah went where the lion was. He did not wait for a more convenient battlefield. The internal enemy is where it is — in the thought patterns, in the habitual responses, in the conditions that have made certain failures regular. The fighter must go there.
He volunteered. No one assigned this fight; Benaiah chose it. The Christian cannot be compelled to fight the enemy within. No elder can force the discipline; no preacher can require the battle. The engagement is chosen or it does not happen.
He did not skirmish. He went down to kill, not to probe and retreat. The person who takes the internal enemy seriously does not play at the fight — does not make token gestures in the direction of discipline while allowing the enemy to retain its ground. The engagement must be total.
He knew there would be a death. In a fight with a lion, one of the two participants will not survive. Benaiah went in knowing this — and went in anyway. The Christian who fights the internal enemy must accept the same logic: the fight is to the death, and it is undertaken in the knowledge that it is.
He determined whose death it would be. He did not go in resigned to the possibility of his own defeat. He went in determined to be the one still standing at the end. The Christian who enters the fight with the internal enemy without the settled purpose to win has not yet made the decision that winning requires.
III. Benaiah Was Armed
Benaiah was prepared for the fight before he entered it. The Christian who fights the enemies within must also be armed.
The first enemy — undisciplined thoughts — requires the mind of Christ. "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose" (I Pet. 4:1). The "same purpose" is Christ's purpose of doing the Father's will whatever the cost. The person who has settled the question of purpose — who has decided whose will governs — has removed from the internal battle the uncertainty that makes it hardest to win.
No one can be made to arm. The decision to put on the armor of God (Eph. 6:13-17) is a decision the individual makes. No circumstance forces it; no authority compels it; no community can do it on the individual's behalf. The armor must be put on, and the putting on is a personal act.
There will be a death. "For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Rom. 8:13). The death of the enemy is required. The deeds of the body — the internal enemies that operate through the flesh — must be put to death. This is not metaphorical language for a mild reduction in sinful activity; it is the language of mortal combat applied to the spiritual life.
We are to decide whose death it shall be. The Christian who fights the internal enemy with the full armor of God, who tracks the enemy, goes where the enemy is, volunteers for the fight, refuses to skirmish, and is armed with the purpose of Christ — has made the decision. The death at the end of that fight will be the enemy's.
IV. Need to Begin Early
The pattern of II Tim. 2:3-4 is addressed to "Timothy, my son" — a young man being called to early discipline. The habits of mind and body that make spiritual warfare possible are not formed quickly. They are the product of years of practice, resistance, and repeated engagement with the enemies within.
The need to know how to fight. Competence in spiritual warfare is learned, not instinctive. The Christian who has never studied the patterns of their own besetting temptations, who has never analyzed the conditions under which they regularly fail, who has never developed a strategy for the specific enemies they face — is fighting blind.
The need for courage. Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the willingness to fight in the presence of it. The enemies within are frightening precisely because they are internal — the person who fights them is fighting a part of themselves. The courage required is the courage to treat the enemy as an enemy even when the enemy feels like a natural part of who one is.
The need for faith. "Above all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one" (Eph. 6:16). Faith is the confidence that the weapons God has provided are sufficient — that the outcome of the fight, if the Christian arms and engages, is not in doubt.
Put on the full armor of God — early, before the battles become desperate, while the habits of warfare can still be formed.
Application
The three questions that emerge from this sermon for personal examination:
Have I identified my internal enemies? Not in general — specifically. The thought patterns, the habitual temptations, the specific deeds of the body that Paul says must be put to death. Name them.
Have I volunteered to fight them? Not merely acknowledged them, not merely regretted them, but chosen to engage them with the settled purpose of Benaiah going into the pit — knowing there will be a death and deciding whose it will be.
Am I armed? Is the mind of Christ the operating principle of my thought life? Is the armor of God in place — belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, feet fitted with the gospel, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit?
Conclusion
God cannot use a coward. David's mighty men were all brave — they earned that description by doing what frightened men would not do. The Christian who fights the internal enemies with the courage of Benaiah, armed with the mind of Christ, is the soldier God can use. The fight is real, the enemy is real, the death at the end is real — and the victory is available to those who arm and engage.
Invitation
The person who is not yet in Christ has no armor for this fight. The resources that the Christian carries into spiritual warfare — the indwelling Spirit, the mind of Christ, the gospel as the word of the sword — belong to the person who has been born again through the water and the Spirit (John 3:5). Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Repent. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). And receive the arms that this warfare requires.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warfare / War | strateia | Military campaign, military service. | Used in II Cor. 10:4 for the Christian's warfare: "the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh." | Paul's use of military language for spiritual conflict is not decorative — it describes a real engagement against real enemies with real weapons and real stakes. The weapons are "divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses": they accomplish what military weapons accomplish, but in the spiritual domain. | II Cor. 10:3-4 |
| Taking captive | aichmalōtizō | To take as a prisoner of war — to capture and bring under one's control. | Used in II Cor. 10:5: "taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." | The thought that is not taken captive is the thought that becomes the enemy's weapon against the thinker. The warfare of the mind is not passive; it requires the active seizure of every thought and its submission to the standard of Christ's obedience. | II Cor. 10:5 |
| Full armor | panoplia | The complete equipment of a soldier — pan (all) + hoplon (weapon/armor). | Used in Eph. 6:11, 13 for what God provides and what the Christian must put on. | The panoplia is complete: no piece is optional, no enemy is left unaddressed. The Christian who wears part of the armor has left gaps that the enemy will exploit. The instruction to "put on the full armor" is the instruction to leave no territory undefended. | Eph. 6:11, 13 |
| Mind | nous | The faculty of understanding, reasoning, and deciding — the center of the self's direction. | Used in I Cor. 2:16: "we have the mind of Christ." | The mind is the battlefield on which the internal war is primarily fought. The person who has the mind of Christ has the governing principle of Christ's thought life as the operating standard for their own. This is the primary weapon against the internal enemy of disordered thought. | I Cor. 2:16; I Pet. 4:1 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| "Be strong in the Lord — put on the full armor" | Intro. | Eph. 6:10-11 |
| "Weapons not of the flesh — powerful for destruction of fortresses" | Intro. | II Cor. 10:3-4 |
| "Taking every thought captive to obedience of Christ" | I.2 | II Cor. 10:5 |
| "Discipline my body — lest I be disqualified" | I.2 | I Cor. 9:27 |
| "Put to death what is earthly in you" | I.2 | Col. 3:5 |
| Benaiah kills lion in the pit on a snowy day | II | II Sam. 23:20 |
| "Arm yourselves with the same purpose" — mind of Christ | III | I Pet. 4:1 |
| "If by the Spirit putting to death the deeds of the body" | III | Rom. 8:13 |
| "Shield of faith — extinguish all flaming arrows" | IV | Eph. 6:16 |
| Baptism for remission — receiving the arms of the new life | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 181. Primary texts: Eph. 6:10-18; II Cor. 10:2-5 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "Il Cor." → "II Cor."; "INTRODUCTlON" → "INTRODUCTION". Note: this sermon follows directly after 180 (Should Christians Go to War?) — the transition from refusing physical warfare to embracing spiritual warfare is intentional in Boles's ordering. The spiritual warfare of Eph. 6 and II Cor. 10 is carefully distinguished from physical warfare; the enemies are internal (thoughts, bodily passions) and external (the devil's schemes), not human combatants; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
