War Is Here ...

We are at war with a virus.  It sounds rather one-sided, as we are complex creatures who think and feel, and our enemy is a rather simplistic, non-thinking, non-feeling enemy.  But what our enemy does well, is reproduce, spread, and kill us.  Covid-19 is still a mystery after months of battle with it.  And as much as we might wish that were our only war, it is not.  We are also at war with drug addiction.  Drug overdose is yet another killer, another enemy of our own making.  It is conceptual.  Drug addiction is an affliction, not a person, but like covid-19, it inhabits a person, overwhelms a person, and then defines a person.  You have it, or you don’t.  And for those who have it, it can be very fatal.  In both instances, we want to reclaim the person, and get rid of the affliction that inhabits them.  But in the case of drug addiction, it can drive an otherwise “good” person to commit horrible offenses against us.  To get that next fix, the addict will gladly steal, harm, or even kill on occasion.  Under “normal” circumstances these deeds would have been abhorrent to them, but under the influence of addiction, their desire for the next fix, overwhelms all sense of morality.

And in the church, we are at war with sin.  But much like covid-19 sin spreads far and wide until we all become afflicted with it in some form or fashion.  And much like drug addiction, sin drives us to do deeds that should be abhorrent to us, but for some reason we consider them normal.  It is a constant struggle between a war of love-of-self, vs a love-of-others.  And the side Jesus is on, the complete and absolute love-of-others, is hard to understand by the side afflicted with sin (the love-of-self).  So it becomes more than just a war within us, it becomes a war waged outside of us as well.  The wicked, that is, those who care little for how they sin, or why, or what damage it causes – pretty much hate those who look to Jesus to lose their own sin.  And behind their wicked forces stands Satan himself, always looking to inspire them to ever darker and darker deeds, and deeper and deeper levels of apathy and hate.  The war is here.  It will not end, until Jesus returns.  There can be no peace until then.  For the war is real.  It began in heaven and will not end until heaven returns to earth and fire rains down from the sky, until all that remains of evil is consumed, until even death itself is consumed forever.  Not eternal flames, but eternal consequences.  Not forever torture, but forever non-existence, forever separation from the source of Love, by the choice of evil.  For now though, the war is here.

Jesus was not unaware of this.  He shared some thoughts and ideas on it back in the gospel letter of Luke in the 12^th chapter.  Picking up in verse 41 He begins … “Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? [verse 42] And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? [verse 43] Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. [verse 44] Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.”  To set some context, Jesus has just been talking about selling all that you have, giving to the poor, and then becoming a servant by choice.  Peter is then asking, does this advice, and analogy of the servant or goodman-of-the-house apply to just the disciples, or to everyone?  Jesus continues that anyone who considers themselves a leader, is also a servant of all, and to be a ruler, is to be found a servant of the many.  This is the battlefield.  It is within us as the war rages between our selfishness and His commission.  It is present in both regular believers just as much as it is leaders.  But Jesus points out it is a blessing to be found in service.

Jesus continues in verse 44 saying … “But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; [verse 46] The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”  This is not a war of good excuses.  This is not a war that can be delayed.  It is here and it is now.  And it is only winnable through personal complete submission to Jesus Christ.  Those of us who search for the loopholes in contracts, and determine we can delay our service and our gifts, until right before Jesus returns, do not just play a dangerous game, they play a losing one.  Because the heart remains unchanged, having never submitted it to Jesus Christ.  The vision remains blinded, because Jesus has never had the chance to open your eyes, and change how you think, or how you love.  And even in the church, where we know conceptually about Jesus Christ, we never meet Him personally, or learn what it means to truly obey, or to truly serve.  We play a game of words.  And when Jesus actually does return, these Christians in name only, find themselves cut off from the body, and apportioned with those who never believed at all.  For the difference is indistinguishable.

Jesus continues in verse 47 saying … “And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. [verse 48] But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”  Here is where Jesus describes the nature of sin itself.  Sin is the punishment.  Sin is the problem.  You do not need to wait for God to punish you for your sins, it is you who are already punishing yourself and others because of your sins.  Sin is the punishment.  Sin is the pain, it brings a desire for death to escape it.  But there is a different way of escape, it is Jesus who longs to free us from our sins so that we beat ourselves less.  So that we punish ourselves less.  When you “know” you should not be committing some sin, and you do it anyway, your guilt and foreknowledge adds to your punishment.  When you see those who you claim to love, suffer at the hand of your sin, your punishment is increased.  Not by God, but by your own knowledge that all this suffering could have been avoided, if you just submitted yourselves to Jesus and let Jesus bring you the victory.  This guilt is even worse when you are in a position of leadership, and those who look to you to help point them to Christ, find you pointing only to yourself, and your weakness.  For if you remain bound in sin, when you know the way out, how will they (the weaker) ever find true salvation from their own sins.  And so your failures are made worse by your fore-knowledge, and continued to refusal to submit, as you become the stumbling block to others.

For the non-believer, they suffer too, but they do not understand why they suffer.  They refuse to accept the responsibility that it is their own actions that bring the pain and suffering.  They are forever blaming someone else for their own pain and suffering.  In this they suffer less, but they still suffer.  And while they themselves may blame others (like Satan does), those they claim to love also suffer regardless of blame.  For the pain of sin causes suffering no matter what.  Sin is the punishment, never the “fun” as Satan would have us believe.  So Jesus points out to us here, how it really works.  When we know we should not have done the sin, we feel worse.  But worse than that, when we know that Jesus could have beaten the sin in the first place, literally handing us the benefits of His victory, but we chose not to humble ourselves, but instead make the claim we could beat the sin ourselves, we feel even worse than that.  For our continued failures in the war with sin, make us lifelong failures in this war.  Lifelong wounded soldiers.  Soldiers we were never intended to be, but followers, followers of Jesus who fights the war for us.

Jesus knew the war was here.  He continues picking back up in verse 49 saying … “I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? [verse 50] But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! [verse 51] Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:”  Jesus comes to send His fire throughout the earth.  He intends for His love to purge the sin from us, if we will but let it.  But how can His fire infect us, if we believe we already have another way to purge the sin from ourselves?  Instead of accepting His gift in our war, we refuse it, clinging to our own ideas about how we can win the war with sin, in our own strength of will.  And we do not win.  Nor do our motives that created the desire for sin change.  We remain drug addicts, bound in chains to the desire of our sin, because the fire of the Love of Jesus is strange to us.  We having made His fire strange to us.

Jesus brings a baptism of the Spirit with Him to win this war.  How can He pull back or stop those efforts until the war is won?  Until all are saved the war rages on, and baptism of the Spirit remains for any who would claim it, or seek it.  How can we believe peace would exist in this world, while Satan remains in this world?  That war started in heaven, and Jesus did not come here to surrender but to win it, once and for all.  To save you however, does not mean the war ends around you.  Instead it intensifies.  Plan on it.  It is what Jesus foretells.  He picks back up in verse 52 saying … “For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. [verse 53] The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.”  Where you would expect family to respect the bonds of family and let family love keep peace in a home.  But selfish love does not respect unselfish love, it abuses it, and tries to bring harm to it.  For it cannot reconcile with it.  So even the bonds of family disintegrate in this war of sin within us all.  Our weapon will be prayer, submission to Jesus, and love for those who would call themselves our enemies.  But make no mistake, they will be our enemies while Satan’s version of self-love remains within them.  For it is self-love that is the root of all sin, of all evil.

Jesus continues in verse 54 saying … “And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. [verse 55] And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. [verse 56] Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?”  Jesus reminds His own followers and all those listening then or reading now, if we are able to discern the sky, or read the times and know what it about to occur – why are we so blind to the war with sin that rages all around us, and within us?  Have we become hypocrites, talking a good Jesus game, but still loving self, and telling everyone around us, that you have to love yourself before you can love others?  There is a whole mantra of books and philosophy based on self-first thinking.  And all of it at war with Jesus Christ in you.  Let us not be deceived, nor drawn to what our carnal nature craves, but instead to find submission to Jesus as our way out.  Jesus was right there in front of their faces, and yet many still denied the Son of God.  Has anything changed?  Jesus is right there in front of you and I, dare we deny Him, in favor of ourselves?

Jesus concludes beginning in verse 57 saying … “Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? [verse 58] When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. [verse 59] I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.”  If you wish to know where you are in the war, examine your heart and see if you have found true forgiveness for someone who has wronged you.  Our cries for justice have a boomerang effect, for as we demand justice against others, it always has a way to return back to ourselves.  Better to forgive, to learn to let go, to learn to trust in God for what we need.  The war over sin within us does not end because we declare it so.  It ends when we love like Jesus loves.  That kind of Love forgave us everything, every slight, every wrongdoing, everything we even knew we were doing wrong as we did it.  If His love is able to forgive us like that, should we not strive to find His love in us, and look for the forgiveness His love will bring.  While we look to get even, we remain entrenched in the pain we embrace.

Your war is here.  It will be raged within you.  It will be raged all around you.  The allies you hoped to have, you may find become the enemies you never expected.  The main enemy is beyond your abilities to defeat.  But that enemy has already been defeated by the Champion who wants to fight your war in your place.  If you can submit to different leadership in your life, you have a chance at following in His footsteps and finding the victories He earns on your behalf.  You need not fight this war.  You need only allow Jesus to fight it for you, within you, and all around you.  For only Jesus has the power to change the heart, and it is the heart that must be changed if ever you hope to see His victory.  You are not meant to carry the scars of this war.  You are not meant to have to declare yourself bound to sin forever.  When Jesus brings you a victory over sin, it is not meant to be only a temporary victory, but a victory that lasts forever.  When Jesus heals your motives, desires, and weaknesses, He does not aim only for today.  He aims for forever.  To cleanse you, to wash you white as snow, not so you can go back outside and fight again, and lose again.  But instead to remain behind Jesus, following His lead, looking to see His strength, not trying to demonstrate your own strength to Him.  He is strong.  You are not.  But if you become strong in dependence upon Jesus, He reveals just what a Warrior He will be on your behalf.  Let Him.  And watch Him win your war forever.  Always behind, and grateful to be there, to be part of the flock Jesus leads, looking not at men, but at the only Shepherd who knows you by name, and knows how you think and feel.