Don’t Shy Away from a Fighting Spirit 

One day recently I attended “Grandparents Day” at the Christian school where a couple of my grandsons are students. At one point during this gathering, the school used the occasion to premier its new fight song. Many educational institutions have such songs that are played to inspire loyalty to the school and to spur their sports teams to strive for victory. This particular song not only was appropriate for those purposes, but its words also pointed to the spiritual battles we face as followers of Jesus, encouraging us to strive against the enemies of our souls.

There is a place for a fighting spirit among believers. The church has recognized that over the years with its various fight songs. I won’t take the time to quote them all here, but you may be familiar with many of them. They are the songs with upbeat tunes whose lyrics speak in terms of battles, conquests, marching to war, and following our eternal King as He leads us to victory. While some people have contended that such songs are inappropriate and incompatible with the true spirit of Christianity, the Bible itself suggests otherwise. Many of those songs are making use of scriptural language and principles. God’s Word reminds us that we are fighting spiritual foes. Within its pages are found admonitions to “fight the good fight”, “wage the good warfare”, and “endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”.

While we need to sing those wonderful songs about grace, love, the goodness of God, peace, and joy, we also need to be motivated by these other songs to stand up and march forward as we do battle against evil. We aren’t just to roll over and let evil win the day. We are to resist the devil. We are to fight against sin, injustice, corruption, immorality, and other evils, both in our own lives and in the society in which we live. We need to stir up and maintain a fighting mentality.  

At the same time, we need to guard against letting such a spirit so overtake us that we lose the spirit of love that Jesus declared to be the main quality found in His followers. We need to keep the true enemy in mind, the unseen spiritual forces at work. The people who are being directed by those forces are often victims themselves, deceived and blinded to the truth. They are lost souls for whom Jesus died. We may need to stand against them too at times, but always with the hope of their coming to see the truth and with their potential salvation in mind. We can stand against our enemies and still fulfill Jesus’ command to love our enemies. Let’s not get so set on fighting that we forsake opportunities to pursue peace, love, mercy, and reconciliation.

I read a story about a little boy who was attacked by one of the family’s roosters. Afterwards, his father took the frightened child back out in the yard to confront his attacker. He told the boy to kick the rooster. The boy did what he was told. And because the father was standing there, the rooster ran off and never attacked the boy again. I am not advocating animal cruelty. However, there are times when we need to kick back. With our heavenly Father standing with us and empowering us, we need to strike back at the enemy. We need to kick back at the fear, the worry, the pride, the lust, or whatever the sin or temptation might be. We need to kick back at the immorality and injustices in our world.

Maybe some of us need to revisit some of those old Christian fight songs and get inspired to do battle with the unseen enemy attacking us and our world today.