Being at war changes things. It changes our plans, our priorities and our prayers. It changes how we view our freedoms. War suspends certain privileges and makes us re-evaluate life. War brings an urgency and a reorienting of all of our resources around stopping whatever it is we are at war with. It’s no surprise then, that the Bible uses the imagery of war when talking about good and evil in our world. We can say we don’t like certain things, or something is bad or messed up. But when we are really serious about stopping it, we declare war on those things that need to be stopped. Over the last few decades our country has declared war on drugs, on poverty and on terror. But somehow when we begin speaking in terms of a war with evil we as good sensible Americans begin to get uncomfortable. So what do we do with all of this war and battle imagery in the Bible? Should we try to find kinder, gentler ways to communicate Biblical truths? Or is it one of the keys to understanding our messed up world? Today we are in the last week of our series going through the book of Ephesians. And we end with one of the most famous passages of Scripture on the spiritual battle that we face in this world.
