Tuesday; October 17

There are a couple of places where the Bible (or the word of God) is compared to a sword. Hebrews 4:12 states that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. Paul challenges believers to take up the sword of the Spirt, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). The essence of the illustration seems to be that we are in a battle between good and evil and we must be prepared to fight with effective weapons. Now, while this is a great analogy, we need to be careful how we use it. You see, when Paul was describing the opponent he writes, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:11-12). He is challenging us to do battle with satan and his minions, not turn the weapons on co-workers of faith. It has become too easy to take an aggressive stance and use arms designed to defend our faith to dismantle the faith of others. It is one thing to aggressively confront false teachings designed to lead us away from God, but there is danger when we try to use God’s Word to hack away at differences of opinions.

Let’s use the spiritual weapons we have been given to wage war with those who have an eye on destroying the righteousness of God. However, when it comes to settling matters with likeminded believers, let’s make sure we use the principles of brotherly love.

Think About It!

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