Author: spartanchristianity

War

No man has passively become more spiritual. No one trips and falls into religion and holiness.

Trying to shift human behavior demands work, and the Bible teaches that it demands warfare of a spiritual nature.

We live in a Culture where people wallow in sin.

And the problem is that it doesn’t stop with the secular world. People even within religion, even within the church are not standing up against and fighting their own sins.

It’s as if no one wants to put up a fight anymore.

We just act how we want, sin at will, and hope the grace of God will cover us for what we are doing.

This is not how we are supposed to act. We are at total war. And it’s high time we started acting like it.

I. The Nature of the Battle

A. Understanding The Difficulty

People give in because sin is fun and easy.

Not all fun is sin but all sin is fun.

It doesn’t take any special effort to do what is wrong.

Sin has immediate rewards, pleasures, and enjoyment.

Just because it is easy to give in, does not mean it is impossible to resist.

Don’t mistake difficulty for weakness.

Often we have to strain against our very nature to the limits of our ability to overcome sin. This is not a weakness, it is simply the reality of being a human being.

B. The Struggle

When going to war against sin, there are inevitable tide shifts in the battle. One moment can seem like our victory is at hand and in the very next minute we fall on our faces.

The tables turn from moment to moment.

The war is a never-ending one. It begins the moment sin enters the mind of man at the age of accountability and it will continue on to the day of his death.

This is a frightening reality about our daily spiritual walk. There is no rest, no reprieve, no freedom from evil until that day when we finally leave this earth.

However the battle turns out, there is a chance to improve ourselves and get better. In every defeat there is a chance to learn what we need to be doing. we can strategize better and improve ourselves.

From the knowledge we gain from our daily battles, we should be making spiritual progress. Many of us don’t do this because it is difficult and requires the work of reflection. But that reflection and studying of our failures should be a regular part of our lives.

II. Progression Over Perfection

A. Incremental Victories

Don’t focus on winning the war all at once. You will get discouraged.

Instead, focus on incremental victories and progress.

Study and plan how you can make changes in your life even on the smallest level. Don’t just stay where you are, improve who and what you are. But be willing and humble enough to accept small results for a while.

Real progress is made by continuing to course correct despite setbacks and failures.

Do not let the failure bring you to the point of quitting. That is what the enemy wants you to do, but you have to resist.

You have to continue to push despite wanting to quit.

People believe that religious individuals are full of blind, unwavering faith. But the reality is that religious people struggle with their faith very often.

The walk of faith looks like smooth sailing from the outside, but on the inside it is a raging storm of spiritual warfare.

But the good thing about spiritual warfare is that if you fight and win enough battles, you can create greater peace in your life.

While we’ll never be completely free from spiritual war, we can make our situation better while we are here.

B. Perseverance

There is more to the Biblical narrative than massive overarching victories. One of the key Proverbs teaches us that righteousness is found in continuing to try to overcome our imperfections.

“The Righteous man falls seven times yet rises again” ~

Proverbs 24:16

In fighting sin, there will be just as many defeats as there will be victories. In fact, there may be more defeats for a long time until we begin to shift the tide. Do not worry about how long it takes to win the war. Focus on fighting and rising again when you fall.

III. Strategic Warfare Against Sin

A. Identify Weaknesses

You have to know yourself if you are going to overcome weaknesses. Introspect and study your character flaws.

What causes you to fail?

What are the things that lead up to failure?

What types of environments trigger failure?

Answering these questions start to let you understand the state of your own weakness.

Not everyone is tempted in the same way.
Not everyone struggles with the same sin.

Learn your specific weak points and mitigate them.

B. Warfighting

Once your weaknesses are identified, you now have to strategically plan how you are going to go to war. Plan what environments you are going to war against. What are you going to cut out of your life?

If you know a certain set of behaviors, triggers or beliefs leads you straight to failure, plan what you are going to do instead.

Sometimes a change in the behavior or self actions if all you need to short-circuit the sin.

The goals have to be actionable and practical. No vagaries.

C. Warlike Intensity

Take on an aggressive mindset against your sin. So many religious people today wallow in brokenness and soft emotions. Reject the soft emotions and take on hard emotions.

You were given the emotions of anger and hatred for a reason. Concentrate those emotions on the battle when it matters. Learn to hate your sin.

When you encounter failure, use that positive aggression and anger to propel yourself back forward into fight.

Don’t give yourself time to become sad or depressed between failures. The moment you fail, repent and get back on the horse.

Don’t lose that war-momentum.

IV. Execution and Persistence

A. Resisting the Temptation to Give Up

The biggest mistake people make when fighting sin is giving up too quickly. You didn’t fall headlong into sin in one day. It took time for it to fully root in your character and behavior. It is going to take a long time to undo those tendencies as well.

Therefore, you have to build momentum and plant into your mind that you won’t quit despite many many failures.

V. Finding Strength

A. Seek the Divine

Don’t go to war alone. Ask for God’s help when waging war against your person sin.

But do not fall into the trap of believing that just because you prayed that God will do all the heavy lifting .

He has never operated that way, and He is not starting now. You still have to draw your sword and fight.

VI. Victory

Actively fight sin, don’t give into it. Stay committed to the war despite repeated failures.

If you encounter difficulty, know you are on the right path.

With strategic planning, persistence, and faith, victory over sin is possible. You can win. But continue to struggle until the day you die.

Conduct yourselves like men.

The Biblical teachings and examples of anger are plethora.

From examples of man’s anger used poorly as with Cain murdering his brother Abel, to God’s righteous anger against sin and Israel, to Christ’s anger as He overturned money changing tables in the temples – the Bible is littered with examples of these natural emotions. And along with those examples are lessons on how we should use and avoid using anger.

Negative Anger

Proverbs 14:29: “He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.”

Proverbs 15:18: “A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger allays contention.”

Notice in these passages the key word is “wrath”. Wrath goes beyond simply feeling the emotion of anger (which is not a problem). Wrath is the outward, uncontrolled expression of the natural emotion of anger. And we are instructed to control that wrath. Do not let it express itself.

We also see instruction to be slow to anger.

We aren’t told “don’t be angry at all”, just to slow our anger.

Delay the reaction.

This ancient advice is built into modern advice like “Count to 10 before responding when you are angry”.

Some valuable principles for anger management are located in these passages.

The key is anger “management”, not anger “avoidance”. We have emotions for a reason, including the emotion of anger. Let’s learn to use it practically.

Positive Anger

Ephesians 4:26: “Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath.”

Mark 3:5: “And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts…”

We are told in Ephesians to manage our anger. We are told that we are allowed to be angry, but to avoid using that anger to do what’s wrong.

The second passage teaches us about Christ’s response to human attitude. Deity is angered by poor attitudes as well as poor actions.

Divine emotions are different from human emotions. God’s emotions are legal, rather than reactive, and sensational.

But beyond these teachings, there are more examples of positive uses of anger in the text.

Anger Replacements

James 1:19-20: “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

Ecclesiastes 7:9: “Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools.”

We are again told to be slow to wrath. It’s not that we cannot have wrath at all, but it should be slow and controlled.

Do not be in a hurry to be angry. Have you ever known someone who could go from 0 to 100 in an instant?

Some people have the incredible ability to be angry at everything in the world. Everything is an upset. Even positive things make them angry because “the old days were so much better”.

This is a common attitude among the older generations. Many people fixate on the negative as they age until it is all they see. And that negative fixation clouds their thinking and causes them to become angry at the smallest of things.

We have to be aware of this tendency of human nature to decay into uncontrolled anger or we will be that old generation ourselves.

Controlling Anger

Proverbs 16:32: “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.”

Colossians 3:8: “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.”

Another Key verse about why it is critical to be slow to anger. Have your anger, but don’t let it be your first response.

Rule your own spirit. If you cannot control your emotions, you cannot rule a city. It is a law that is demonstrated by this proverb.

Poor leaders are unable to control their emotions and focus on what matters.

Discretionary Anger

Proverbs 19:11: “The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression.”

Ephesians 4:31: “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.”

Just because a man overlooks a transgression does not mean it does not anger him that the transgression exists.

But despite his anger, a man controls it, looks beyond the present moment and makes a better decision.

The Influence of Anger

Proverbs 29:22: “An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man abounds in transgression.”

Proverbs 22:24-25: “Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul.”

Want to control yourself, be more disciplined, and avoid bad habits? Control your environment.

Control your influences and friendships.

Don’t waste time forming relationships with people you don’t want to be like.

Do not make relationships with people if you do not want their character traits rubbing off on you.

These verses teach that anger spreads like disease. And recall that anger is not the problem, but uncontrolled anger. When a man is angered by everything, he can be manipulated by anything.

The Cause of Anger Matters

Matthew 5:22: “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment…”

Note that we are going to be angry with one another. What we are encouraged to avoid here is anger without a cause.

Christ warns us that being angry with one another for no reason is a punishable offense.

Christ is attempting to set a safety net here, an intellectual trigger that makes us think first before getting angry.

We are going to get angry at one another from time to time. But why we get angry matters.

Damaging Effects of Anger

Psalm 37:8: “Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret—it only causes harm.”

How many good decisions were made in anger? Very few. Anger should be used to fuel a logical decision that has already been made in advance. But it should never be used as a tool for making that decision.

Despite the value of anger as a fuel, when used as a reason or in the decision-making process it causes nothing but unnecessary damage.

Hold Back Your Anger

Proverbs 14:17: “A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a man of wicked intentions is hated.”

Proverbs 29:11: “A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back.”

Have your anger but hold it in.

Restrain it.

There is great value in stoic control of emotions.

Not everything that is felt has to be expressed.

Spiritual Benefit of Emotional Control

James 1:20: “For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

Ephesians 4:32: “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

The Ephesians passage contains things that could be done despite anger. No matter what we are feeling, we have a responsibility to act with discipline.

Notice again this term “wrath”. that’s the mindless anger we are wanted against having and expressing.

Become a practitioner of mindful anger.

The Speed of Anger

Colossians 3:21: “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.”

Proverbs 12:16: “A fool’s wrath is known at once, but a prudent man covers shame.”

Don’t let anger be your first option. Control it or it will control you.

Fathers can rule with an iron fist and anger their children. This anger turns to rebellion.

This emotional control starts with the parents and trickles down

We have to learn how to use anger. It is a gift and tool. But if uncontrolled, can cause substantial damage.