Of Sword & Sheath & Spiritual Warfare

I can remember sitting in the Student Center at seminary and asking a friend, "Where does it say in the Bible that I have to read the Bible every day?" Since then, God has taught me that certain basic disciplines, like daily Bible reading, prayer, and Scripture memory are essential to walking with Him, and that my walking with Him is, and always has been, the essence of His desire for me and for everyone. Almost everything He does is done so that you and I can walk with Him.

Now I have become the one exhorting and imploring people to engage in these disciplines daily with a view toward walking with God. It should not be surprising to me, therefore, that I encounter the same type of resistance as I prod people on in their discipleship. Of all the basic disciplines related to walking with God, perhaps none is more resisted than Scripture memory.

One common response is, "Some people are really good at memorizing things, but not me. I just can't memorize Scripture." This is usually remedied by helping them get started and learning that, while it may take some work, they really can memorize Scripture. Others challenge the Scriptural basis for exhorting people to memorize Scripture, arguing that there are no explicit passages commanding memorization, with some even going so far as to say that such exhortation is legalistic.

A major problem with this argument is that it makes the same mistake that I made that day in the Student Center. I challenged the discipline of daily reading because I was focused on the practice and didn't see the spiritual issue behind it. I saw activities and did not understand that what God wants with each of us is to walk with Him in a living, growing, real relationship. Such a relationship requires meaningful communication where He talks to me and I respond to Him.

I now understand that this occurs as He speaks to me through His Word, and I respond back to what He said in prayer. Likewise, I have come to have a strong conviction that there is a very urgent spiritual need behind Scripture memory that we must understand because the primary spiritual issue behind Scripture memory is spiritual warfare.
A Spiritual Issue

In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Paul says, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ" (NASB). Speculation, knowledge, and thought all reveal that the objective of spiritual warfare is control of our minds. In Ephesians 6:10-17, Paul addresses this warfare again:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 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.

"Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (NASB).

While there is a lot to ponder in this passage, for our current discussion I want to focus on "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Remember that in 2 Corinthians 10:4 Paul said that our weapons are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful. To understand how this weapon—which is the only offensive weapon in the panoply—is used, let us first consider the nature of the warfare.
Satan's Tactics

We begin by considering these schemes of the devil (verse 10) against which we are to stand. Throughout Scripture, Satan is presented first and foremost as a deceiver. In John 8:44, Jesus calls him a liar and the father of lies. In Revelation 20, where Satan is bound for 1000 years, and then released for a short while, his activities are summed up as "deceiving the nations." In fact, lies and deceit seem to be the only real weapons he has against believers. Both 2 Corinthians 11:3 and 1 Timothy 2:14 indicate that this was the weapon he used to defeat Eve.
Satan and Eve

Let's take a minute to observe the interaction between Eve and Satan, and see spiritual warfare lived out. In Genesis 3:1-6, we find that Satan's point of attack was the Word of God, questioning what God had said. Note that Eve has a generally accurate knowledge of God's command, though she doesn't seem to know it precisely.

(By the way, I have found that in thinking about various passages with which I am somewhat familiar, I will draw certain conclusions based on such general knowledge, even to the point of feeling like I have arrived at a new understanding of spiritual truth. However, when I go back and look at the text of that passage, I find that my recollection of the specifics is faulty, and that the conclusions I have drawn have no support in the text).

When Satan saw that Eve did not have a precise knowledge of the Word, he denied it altogether and Eve succumbed to all three areas of temptation: "lust of the flesh (she saw it was good for food), lust of the eyes (it was a delight to the eyes), pride of life (it was desirable to make one wise)" (Genesis 3:6), and through this, was utterly defeated on the spiritual battlefield. Satan had prevailed and had gained control of her mind. These three areas of temptation sum up all of the areas in which Satan attacks us. A general knowledge of God's truth alone leaves us alarmingly vulnerable to these attacks.
Satan and Jesus

Fortunately, this is not the only account of spiritual warfare that we have. Jesus, like Eve was involved in direct, open warfare with Satan. Like Eve, Jesus was tempted in all three areas: lust of the flesh (Luke 4:3-4), lust of the eyes (Luke 4:5-8), and pride of life (Luke 4:9-12). However, unlike Eve, Jesus went beyond a general knowledge of God's Word, to respond with an accurate, quotable knowledge of Scripture. The result was that He was victorious, so that the devil "left him until an opportune time" (which, by the way, highlights that though we may win a battle, the war is never over in this life). Note in this passage that Satan knows Scripture well enough to quote it, and that he will twist it to suit his purposes.
Satan and Us

Now, let's consider the idea of taking up the sword of the Spirit, and let me proceed by asking you a question. If I were to give you a sword and send you out to fight in a sword fight, how would you do? Back in my college days I was a security guard, and as a part of the job, we carried .357 Magnum revolvers. During my time on this job, we had a few situations that made me begin to think that I needed a back-up weapon.

I couldn't afford a gun, so I bought a knife called the "Boot Fighter." It was actually a dagger that was about eight inches long overall. Now the problem was, that I didn't know the first thing about knife fighting. If I had ever had to use my "back-up weapon" in a real situation, I would have been in real trouble, because while I had it, I did not have the familiarity with it to use it with any effectiveness.

It would have been even worse if I would have had to use it against an accomplished knife fighter. It is my observation that many people have the "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" in the same way I had a back-up weapon; it is in their possession, but they don't know the first thing about using it in battle.

At the root of the problem is a misconception about what the "sword of the Spirit" is. All of the teaching I can remember hearing on this passage identifies this item as the Bible—that is, a collection of leather bound pages with the verbally inspired Word of God communicated to us through drops of ink organized into recognizable forms that communicate meaning to us.

I know that this is a rather awkward way of saying this, but I want you to understand that it is not the leather, paper, and ink that form the sword. We wouldn't go up and whack someone on the head with the Bible and call that spiritual warfare. No, it merely functions like the sheath for the knife in our illustration; it is the scabbard in which the Word, that is the sword of the Spirit, is carried. But to be effective in battle, you must be able to get the sword out of the scabbard quickly in the heat of battle and use it with instinctive proficiency.

Remember that the essence of the conflict in which we will need to use the sword is temptation: Satan seeking to control our minds through deceit so that we will be held captive by him to do his will (2 Timopthy 2:26). In those situations we don't have time to thumb through pages, looking up references in a concordance. If our response is not instinctive, we are usually defeated spiritually. Most of the time, we never get our hand on the hilt, much less the sword out of the sheath.

Let me give you a concrete example. When I see an attractive woman, and thoughts that I should not be having start to develop in my mind, I am probably not going to get out my Bible and look up "lust," assuming that I am even in a situation where that would be possible. I might think, "I shouldn't be thinking this," as I linger just a little longer with those thoughts.

But because I have memorized Psalm 101:3-4, the Spirit (remember, "sword of the Spirit") brings to my mind these words: "I will set no worthless thing before my eyes, I hate the work of those who fall away, it shall not fasten its grip on me. A perverse heart will depart from me; I will know no evil." Through this, conviction and strength come that allow me be victorious in that battle.

You see, it is Scripture memory that has given me the familiarity with Scripture that allows me to respond to the attack instinctively and win the battle. Now consider that Satan is not unskilled in spiritual warfare, nor is he just an average sword fighter; we have already seen that he is skilled in the use, or rather, misuse of the Word.
Accurate, Quotable Knowledge of Scripture

To settle for less than an accurate, quotable knowledge of Scripture is to willingly grant significant advantage to Satan in our spiritual battle with him.