Spiritual warfare is when the devil attacks Christians in order to steal what God has gifted them and put into their spiritual bank accounts. It is like when a scammer constantly calls you to try to steal your money, identity, personal information, or passwords for your bank account.

Today’s passages tell us, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,” (meaning visible), “but against the power of this dark world and against the spiritual forces” (which are invisible). For me, these passages sound so much like a scammer’s deception tactics. Scammers never reveal themselves but are always hiding somewhere and say, “I will help you,” but their underlying motivation is so that they can steal your money. Likewise, Satan offers us what is desirable and valuable in order to lead us to compromise our faith.

If some Christians say, “It is the 21st century. Why should we talk about the devil or spiritual warfare?” I would say it is because they exist. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” If you ignore the devil, it’s like ignoring a scammer who steals your personal information.

C.S. Lewis said, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils.
1. One is to disbelieve in their existence.
2. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”

Compromise of the Truth

Most of the common strategies that Satan employs include omitting the words of God or distorting their meanings. For example, everyone knows how Satan manipulated Eve in the garden. When Eve saw the fruit, she saw it was good to eat, pleasing to her eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom. At that time, Satan used his favorite tactics saying, “adding or subtracting a single word in God’s instructions will be fine.” God said, “You will surely die,” but with one word, Eve changed the sentence to “you will surely not die.” After that, she was trapped and hid from God in the woods because she lost her purpose and meaning.

Omission could even mean removing just one stroke in a letter, which can change the entire meaning of the sentence. In Hebrew, if you omit a stroke that looks like an apostrophe from the words “the man of God,” it becomes “the fire of God.” With small changes like that, meanings can become totally different and can affect people’s lives.

I am working on my camper-building project. It is a lot of fun to do, but at the same time, it is really hard to set every frame at the right angle. If I put the frame a quarter of an inch off from the reference line, after ten feet, it could be a foot off. It could ruin my project that I’ve worked on for months.

God’s Solutions

God’s perfect solution is to wear the armor of God. I want to share with you about the first piece of armor today. The first piece of armor is called “the belt of truth.” A belt is the first piece that Roman soldiers put on, which holds all of the weapons, and specifically, the belt supports the scabbard, which holds the sword. In the same way, the truth of Jesus Christ is the first piece of spiritual armor we should put on in the Christian life. The truth of Christ holds our spiritual sword, which is the word of God. Therefore, the truth of Jesus Christ is the foundational spiritual value which holds up the words of God without dropping any of it. In a spiritual sense, truth means gripping the words of God. It prevents you from missing a single word of God and plays a role in how you hold on to it.

In my definition, whatever is never changed by anything is truth. In 1925, a British archaeologist named Howard Carter discovered the mask of Tutankhamen. The mask is one of the best known works of art made of gold. It was made around 1323 BC. It was in the tomb for 3248 years, but it never rusted because it was pure and genuine gold. Genuine gold never loses its value. In the same way, genuine Gospel never loses its value.

Who is the one that is never changing under the sun? He is God and His promises. God is the unmoved mover and is unchanged by anything else. Therefore, believing in God who is “self- sufficient” and “self-existent” through Jesus Christ is Christian truth. God became flesh in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus Christ is Emmanuel which means “God is with us.” God came down from the heavenly throne to save us and make us free from the slavery of sin and death. Jesus Christ said, “I am the truth.” In John 8:32, it says, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

In Roman 8:38-39, it says, “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus Christ and his words are our truth. If you stay in Jesus Christ and stand on his teaching, the evil one can not touch you.

“The belt of truth” leads us not into temptation but delivers us from evil. Temptation brought Adam and Eve to shame. Why? Because Adam was tempted and compromised God’s words, changing them from “you surely die” to “you will surely not die.” After that, Adam and Eve felt shame before God and made coverings for themselves. In Hebrew, “covering” means a belt. They made a belt to cover their shame. If Christians wear “the belt of truth” buckled around our waists, we will not be ashamed before God.

Conclusion

Buckling the belt of truth means being a counter-cultural Christian. Being counter-cultural means being of “a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ from those of mainstream society”1 and its manners and customs. Christians should not compromise truth with anything else in the world. In Romans 12:2, it says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

To be truth means holding and standing on the genuine faith of Jesus that was revealed in the Bible. When I was a young adult part-time pastor in a Korean Church in Madison Heights, I gave a man a ride to church every Friday. One day, he gave me a bottle of something to drink. I saw the bottle while I was driving, and it said on it that it had 100% lime. It looked good to drink, so I drank it. After that, I almost jumped out of my seat because it burned my mouth. I realized that he gave me the wrong drink. 100% lime juice was strong enough to almost burn my mouth. I never forgot that. Genuine Christian faith is like that. If we taste spiritual mana and water from Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, it will burn your heart.

Practical Applications

Truth means fastening your faith on the unmovable and unchanging truth of God and not trying to add and subtract anything just because you want to. Christians should put off falsehood and speak truthfully to God and other people.

2022.07.10. Pastor Cloud Poy

@ Photo on Unsplash