War

War. Again. People never cease warring with one another. War is a horrifying thing, as some of you reading this can testify from direct experience. All the suffering, the death, the destruction. Why do people keep doing it?

There are countless “small” wars going on every moment—not small to those affected, of course. But now a big war has been launched, and it commands the world’s attention.

We know that wars are among the signs of what we often call the “last days”. We’re told all nations will war against Israel, for example, and then “his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives”. (Zechariah 14:2-4, among others) Jesus foretold the same in his Olivet prophesy (Luke 21:20), and also spoke of “wars and tumults” among nations all over (verses 9-10). These wars are evil, the works of men. Not anything to celebrate, and certainly not to become involved in. But they are signs which we are commanded to be alert to.

There’s also another sort of warfare believers are told to pay attention to. Famously in Romans chapter 7, Paul describes the war within him, between what his flesh wants, and what he understands and embraces in his mind (Rom 7:21-27). In another passage, Paul writes, “For 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 Corinthians 10:3-5)

Who is the enemy in these conflicts? It is ourselves. It’s our own arguments and our own lofty opinions that we are to attack, our own thoughts to be taken captive. It’s not only Paul; Peter makes the same case in 1 Peter 2:11. The point is, we are supposed to think of it as a war! The flesh is killing us, and we are called on to kill it instead! (Romans 8:13, Colossians 3:5, Galatians 5:24, etc)

But to return to the question at the beginning, why do people keep warring? James tells us why: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” (James 4:1-2) People wage war out of greed—there’s something they want. They call it “protecting their interests”. They call it defending against those who attack them. But it all boils down to wanting something so badly that they are willing to kill thousands or millions of people, for what they want.

But James wasn’t really talking about the wars of this world, was he? “What causes fights among you,” he asks. We have no excuse for joining in the wars of this world. And equally, we have no excuse for warring within the body. James goes on, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.“ (verse 4) The clear teaching is that making war—either literal or fighting among ourselves—makes us enemies of God.

War having been forcibly brought to our immediate attention, I believe we can be reminded of these lessons: First, keep our eyes open and watch—there will be wars, among other signs of our Lord’s return. Second, do not participate in war, either in the world or in the body of Christ. And finally, seriously take to heart that we have enlisted to fight in the war against the pull of the flesh. One of the little parables Paul sent to Timothy is, “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” (2 Timothy 2:4) For us, there is only one war, one enemy, one cause, one commander.

Love, Paul