The creator of the Pogo comic strip used a quote in a comic strip back in 1971, the quote read, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Unfortunately, that is often the case in the real battle we face as Christians. The apostle Peter, wrote “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11), and it is often our wicked flesh which causes us to lose many a battle in our spiritual lives.
There are three main enemies that we fight against daily. The world, the flesh, and the devil! However, remember – we are no longer part of this world. As Peter wrote in the above verse, we are sojourners and exiles in this world, we as Christians now belong to the Kingdom of God – Heaven is our home! And we MUST learn to fight against the things that once were in the process of destroying our lives.
Look at Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” You (meaning TRUE believers) WERE dead, you ONCE walked – following the course of the world, following the devil, following our flesh! However, that’s NOT how we’re supposed to walk now! Because, Paul continues… “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…” (Eph 2:4-5)
Two of the greatest words in the Bible “BUT GOD”! We were LOST and HOPELESS until HE made us alive with Christ. So We MUST STOP giving in to our enemies and letting them control our lives. We MUST do WHATEVER it takes to closely follow our COMMANDER and CHIEF – JESUS CHRIST! “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:10)
Paul told Timothy “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” (2 Timothy 2:4) We have spent WAY too much time and effort trying to be just like the world, only slapping the name “Christian” on our actions. We CAN’T do that! We have to “abstain from the passions of the flesh”, and STOP following the world and allowing the devil to pull us off course, if we want to have any victory at all in our Christian life! Realize what enemies we face and do WHATEVER is necessary to fight against them!