There are myriad ways that we dishonor the Word of God. First, we don’t read it. Too many of us somehow think that we have mastered the content of the Bible, and now that we are spiritually mature, all we have left to do is wrestle over difficult theological issues. Then we dishonor the Bible this way- we read it, but we don’t believe it. We discard this injunction or that as culturally bound, so that we can happily continue to be culturally bound.
Then there is this choice way we dishonor the Word- we read it, we believe it, but we miss how shocking it is. We turn what we believe into something safe and reasonable. We, for instance, take Jesus’ wisdom that if we would gain our life we first must lose it, and turn it into a safe, reasonable moral aphorism. We think Jesus is simply saying in His flowery way, “Don’t be selfish.” We take God’s wisdom, and turn it into something even the serpent could live with.
The battle between the seed and the serpent runs deep. Most of our wars do not. World War II pit the allies who embraced the welfare state, against the axis powers who embraced pure socialism. It was a battle between those who think the government owns half of all we produce, and those who think the government owns it all. With the truly Great War we have good versus evil. We have carnal weapons versus spiritual weapons. We have soldiers on the one hand who will spend eternity in paradise fighting soldiers most of whom will spend eternity in torment (thank God and His grace that some of our enemies will be brought in by His Spirit before they die.)
The difference, however, runs down to the respective economies as well. God’s economy and the devil’s are polar opposites. With the devil, everything is a zero-sum game. He can only divide up an already existing pie. Our King, however, speaks not just pies but universes into existence. His is an economy of abundance. But it also an upside down one. With the devil you gain by taking. With our Lord you gain by giving; you live by dying.
The differences in weapons and in economy come together when we consider what may be our most powerful weapon of war- peace. The devil feeds on strife. The seed of the woman, on the other hand, our meat and our drink is peace. When we are able to love one another, when we rest in the sweet and mystic communion of the saints, then we win great victories for the kingdom. I do not mean merely that after we rest we are better able to fight. Instead, in God’s glorious economy, in our rest we are fighting.
This is true first in ourselves. That is, when each of us keeps Sabbath, that is, when we rest in the finished work of the Lord of the Sabbath, when we live in the peace we have with our Father through His Son, mortar shells bombard the bunker of the evil one. When we cease from our labor to win His approval, we win grand victories, and not coincidentally, His approval.
But this is true of us corporately as well. That is, our peace with each other, inside the kingdom of God, carpet bombs the enemy. The Bible says that by this will all men know that we are His disciples, if we have love one for another” (John 13:35). Our love for each other does indeed have apologetical pop. But that’s not all. Our love for one another is our blowing trumpet, our unfurled banner, the sign that the soldiers of the most high have arrived to do battle. The weapons of our warfare are love, our love for one another.
While there is unimaginable potency of this reality in our homes (which is one reason why our children are likened to arrows in a quiver) it reaches its greatest power in His home, among the family of God, the church. This is nowhere more evident than when we, in our love for one another, gather together to feast on our Lord, at His table. For us it is glory-
“Behold how good and pleasant it is when brother dwell together in unity! It is like precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down the collars of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore” (Psalm 133).
For them, it is the stench of death. For us, it is the very table that He prepares for us in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23). While we feast, we rest. But while we rest, we are at war. Tearing down strongholds, laying siege to the foundations of the wicked one, storming the very gates of hell. Remember that when we come together at the table we do not, one by one, commune with our Lord. Instead, we all together commune with our Lord, and with each other. And the world, our flesh, and the devil all quake in fear.
This is the thirty-sixth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday March 23 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 112811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.