A few years ago, the local university ended its wrestling program in favor of putting its resources into a new baseball program. I like baseball, but I like wrestling too. Not the kind of showboat fake wrestling you see on television now, but good old-fashioned wrestling with two people using their strength, leverage and smarts working to pin the other to the mat and render them unable to move.
Sunday, I was reminded that Christians in this world are called to wrestle also. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” [Ephesians 6:12 NKJV]
Some translations have substituted the word “struggle” for the word “wrestle.” Both words convey the idea of a battle. We need but follow the events of our day to understand that, yes, Christians are in a battle on many fronts. Evil is manifesting itself in our generation from every direction and there seems to be no limit to how low we can go as a nation.
We must take Paul’s warning in Ephesians 6 to heart. This is a struggle; we are to wrestle. The church seems to have forgotten this. Maybe we have grown too comfortable sitting in our nice padded chairs when we should be on our knees. We aren’t going to change the climate of our society by only changing which political party controls the governments and municipalities. We aren’t going to change the climate of our society by just carrying signs at rallies and protests.
Nothing will change until we go to the source (the rulers of the darkness of this age…the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places) and use the strength God has given us; the truth, wisdom and knowledge He has provided; and, the leverage of God’s Holy Spirit to pin them to the mat. Only then will we be able to reach the hearts of those who have been blinded to the truth.
