The Biggest Battle Is with Ourselves  

Maybe you have seen the TV commercial where a man is walking across a busy street when he suddenly confronts another person right there in the middle of the crosswalk. The oddity of the encounter is that the other person is himself. These two identical individuals proceed to wrestle with each other for a few moments, although my wife suggests that at times it appears more like they are dancing rather than doing hand-to-hand combat. From what I can gather, the purpose of the advertisement seems to be to draw attention to the inner struggles veterans often face after their time of military service.

This striking picture of the battle that can take place within individuals reminds me of a reality concerning our own struggles with sin and evil in the world. On the one hand, we do need to keep in mind that there are external enemies who are seeking to do wrong and do us harm, whether spiritual foes or flesh-and-blood adversaries. However, we also shouldn’t lose sight of the enemy within. Sometimes the real struggle isn’t with the devil or those who take opposing views on politics, social issues, and religious matters. The most intense and dangerous foe to our spiritual well-being is often found right within our own skin. Too often the enemy is ourselves, with our pride, selfishness, ungodly desires, lack of self-control, envy, and other faults.

Those around us can only do so much to us. They are limited in the damage they can inflict upon us. They can certainly make life hard on us, can cause us pain, and can even go so far as to take our physical lives. However, they can’t destroy our relationship with the Lord unless we give in to the temptations that are offered to us. It is those battles with our own selves and the choices we make in those moments that determine whether there will be spiritual victory or defeat. If we falter, the blame doesn’t lie with whoever is President or some law Congress passed or a particular Supreme Court decision. It doesn’t fall on our difficult circumstances or on people around us who failed to support us or who maybe were even hostile toward us. It comes back to us, our struggles within, and the decisions we made. We are responsible.

We are living in a time when those who are seeking to stay true to the Lord and the teaching of His Word are facing growing hostilities from society and even from within sectors of the church. People who consider “evangelicals” or “Bible-believing Christians” to be the enemy seem to be growing in numbers. My concern is that in the current environment it is easy to get focused on the enemies without to the point that we lose sight of the enemy within. While we are battling with our culture over social, political, and religious issues, we are losing the war within us. Instead of handling these matters with a “Christian spirit”, we are sinking down to the world’s level. We are often standing for what is right and good, but doing it in ways that aren’t in line with the way the Bible says a follower of Jesus should act. While trying to win the war with the world, we may be losing our own souls.

Pay attention to those fighting the battles today, especially examining ourselves. Are we exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? Or are we losing the inner battle and manifesting the works of the flesh, such as hatred, outbursts of wrath, contentions, and selfish ambitions?  

There are battles to fight today, but in the process of doing so, let’s not lose the most important one.