The Art of War

Sun Tzu, back in the 6th century, created one of the most fascinating treatise ever compiled... “The Art of War”. A complete and comprehensive collection of strategies for war, however it’s relevance goes far beyond war tactics. It completely exposes the human condition and how best to manipulate it for your own successes. It combines philosophy, emotions, logic and reason and, in doing so, explains human nature in one of the most literary purest forms.

As you may have guessed already…I admire the work quite a bit. There are numerous quotations we use even today that date back to this historical work. One of my favorites: “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” The basis for this wisdom is that you must keep tabs on those that want to do you harm, even more so than those you trust.

Ok, you knew it was coming sooner or later….the spiritual application. Of course Greg is going to use an analogy to get a point across….duh!

Actually this has more to do with a literal usage rather than something more abstract. Applying this concept to our daily lives means we must actually keep the enemy—the devil and his minions—closer to us than we may think. Now when I say “close”, I certainly don’t mean we should be entertaining evil in any way shape or form. But there really must be an awareness and sensitivity to the fact that evil is around us every day…and Christians are all the more likely to be affected. Paul stated two clear aspects of this:

Romans 7:22-24 (NIV)
For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

2 Corinthians 10:3,4 (NIV)
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

We all, from the time of man’s original sin, have an inner bent towards sin and must battle it within ourselves as Paul states in Romans. There is also an outer battle we must deal with as stated in Corinthians. Both are real, both must be dealt with. I believe that we should keep our enemy close, in the sense that we must not be in denial that it’s there; nor should we be complacent about the effect it can have in our lives.

God is, always has, and always will be the victor in our battles if we call on His name. This does not mean, however, that we get a pass on having our battles and, in some cases, dealing directly with evil forces. We need to be close enough to the enemy to know when it is present; when it is affecting our choices or behavior; when it is subtly encroaching into our daily lives. This is how I believe being close to your enemy is applicable. Not that we buddy up to evil, but rather to have a strong sensibility about when and where it is trying to attack. Sometimes the devil is so subtle that we don’t even think about calling on God’s power in Jesus’ name to come to our defense. Oh, the devil loves it when that happens. Between our human instinct to “do it ourselves” and the wily ways in which the devil works, we can overlook the obvious sometimes.

Keep this in mind…the devil wants to mess with you. Keep this fact close to you at all times. Also keep this in mind…the Lord Jehovah is master and ruler over all creation and His Spirit is there to intervene in a prayer’s notice.

Greg Morton
© August 20, 2009