Our new life in Jesus has certainly brought us into a family but it has also brought us into an army. Jesus not only enables us to enjoy God’s peace but also calls us to engage in God’s war. You see we have been born into a battle! A battle against…

• …the world

We will have to live out our new lives as followers of Jesus in a world full of people whose basic outlook on life has no room for Jesus. When people choose to repent they decide to turn around from their old way of living and follow Jesus instead. And this turning around inevitably meets resistance from the world.

What pressure do we need to resist as Christians?

What must we do instead?

What do you think Jesus means here?

Now this pressure from the world works in various ways. Here are just three of them.

1. It works through open hostility. As a follower of Jesus your outlook is not only different, it’s a danger, a threat and a challenge to the people around you. And so they will often make it hard for you. They will find ways to make it rough for you, through verbal abuse, emotional abuse and sometimes even physical abuse.
2. It works through the fear of unpopularity. Most of us like to be part of the crowd, and the fear of being an odd-ball creates a further, different pressure to conform. It can be hard to resist – and people know it! But do resist with God’s help. Because we are not to conform but are to be transformed.
3. It works through sheer familiarity. This is the subtle drip by drip exposure to the world’s way of thinking.

• …the flesh

During the Spanish Civil War General Mola spoke about his fifth column. He said he had four columns encircling Madrid, and a fifth column working for him within the city. Of course this isn’t a new tactic in warfare but it is one of the most effective tactics that can be used in battle. And not just in physical battles but, as we will soon discover, in spiritual battles as well.

Where is the danger located?

Can you relate to Paul’s struggles?

Where does Paul’s trouble come from?

So although as Christians we have surrendered our lives to Jesus and made him the rightful king of our lives there are still pockets of resistance within us. The last ‘die-hards’ of the old order remain. The surviving traces of our former life before Jesus took over form the ‘fifth column’ of attack. Variously they are know as ‘the flesh’, ‘the sinful nature’, ‘the old self’, and so on. But whatever we call them we must be aware of our enemy.

Guerilla warfare isn’t easy to counter and this is the sort of threat we are up against here. A sort of urban terrorism taking place within the city of our own lives. But even though it is hard to counter we still need to get certain things clear in our thinking.

1. This warfare is going to be life-long! The guerilla and the urban terrorist are notoriously hard to track down and remove, and we’ll find the same in our new life under the reign of Jesus.
2. The attacks are invariably unexpected! This is the great strength of the urban terrorist, of course – he can strike suddenly and right out of the blue. The only answer is constant vigilance.
3. The effects are generally explosive! The guerilla targets his actions with a view to effecting maximum damage. Watch out for the sudden eruption of a bad temper, a rush of fierce jealousy, or whatever. Be vigilant!

• …and the devil

Here is the third front on which we need to battle as we live our new lives with Jesus. There is an enemy who is real, who hates God, who is absolutely evil, who is exceedingly clever and who wants to ruin our new relationship with Jesus.

Why do we need the armour of God?

What general guidelines does Paul give us for coping with the battle on this front?

So here are the three fronts on which the battle is taking place and the three enemies who are against us; the world, the flesh and the devil. But just before we get too discouraged let’s remind ourselves of who is fighting for us.

What encourages you from these verses?