One Unique Spiritual Weapon

This is the last of our series of messages concerning Spiritual Warfare. Many of us are not aware that God never created us to stand alone in our war against the Devil. We need one another because He wants us to fight in close ranks. For this reason God has not provided any item of equipment for the protection of our back. All the six items of equipment - the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, are for the protection of our front. If we put on and use the entire protective equipment that God has provided, we are totally protected from the crown of our head to the sole of our feet, except for one area. And the one area for which there is no protection is our back.

I believe there is a two-fold application of this fact. First, never turn your back on the Devil because if you do, you are giving him an opportunity to wound you in an unprotected area. In other words, never give up on doing the will of God or doing anything that God calls you to do, no matter how frustrating it may seem to be. Never turn around and say, "I've had enough. I can't stand this; I can't take anymore" and "throw in the towel". This is turning your unprotected back to the Devil, and you can be sure he will avail himself of the opportunity to to wound you.

Second, I believe God knows, in certain sense, that we are not always able to protect our own back. In Paul's days, the Roman foot soldiers fought in close ranks. The Greek word for such a close rank is a "phalanx". The soldiers were trained to fight this way and to never break ranks. Every soldier knew the soldier on his right and on his left so that if he is hard-pressed and could not protect his own back, there would be another soldier to do it for him. Those soldiers were trained to be loyal to one another.

I believe the same is true concerning Christians in Spiritual Warfare. We cannot, or at least are not wise to, go out as isolated individuals and take on the Devil's kingdom. We must come under discipline, find our place in the Body of Christ (the Army of Christ). We have to know who stands on our right and who stands on our left. We must be able able to trust our fellow soldiers. Then, when we are under pressure, we ought to know who will be there to protect our back when we cannot protect it.

For those who have been long enough in Christian ministry will realize that, the real tragedy of our Christian experience is that the very person who protects your back sometimes wounds you. How often we, as Christians, are wounded in the back by our fellow Christians. That is something that never ought to happen. Let us make up our minds to stand together, protect one another 's backs, and not wound one another.

One unique Spiritual Weapon

One unique Spiritual Weapon that is given by God to all believers is loyalty. I call loyalty a Spiritual Weapon because God is the Author of loyalty whereas Satan is the author of disloyalty. Satan hates loyalty and he cannot stand seeing Christians loyal to God and loyal to one another. We need loyalty when we encounter the situation that we need someone to protect our back.

Loyalty is akin to honesty and you cannot separate them if you are forced to choose. Neither of them (loyalty and honesty) can be betrayed, neglected, omitted or disregarded. They are the salt of the human personality. Without them corruption takes over. Loyalty calls for a commitment of one's total self and substance. It involves a decision of trust and faith unto the supreme sacrifice to a person or cause that is worthy of such. Loyalty calls for laying down our lives for our brethren.

John said, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16, NKJV).

Jesus made such a commitment to the Father and perishing souls. He never turned away from that commitment. He was faithful and loyal unto death. Jesus revealed that the very heart of Christianity is loyalty.


God is the Author of loyalty


Disloyalty started with Satan but God is the Author of loyalty. He never broke His covenant, even if Israel did.


Solomon blessed the assembly of Israeil: "Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses" (1 Kings 8:56, NKJV).


God keeps His covenants with those of all generations who love Him and keep His commandments.


"Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ..." (Deut. 7:9).


The writer of Hebrews said, "Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us" (Heb. 6:17, 18, NKJV, emphasis added).


God is endowed with immutable counsel and confirmed it by an oath, it is impossible for God to lie. It is impossible, therefore, for God to be disloyal. This, then , is the basis of loyalty.


The importance of loyalty


Every one of us is, or should be, responsible to someone else. Those who are in authority over us, whether in the Church, government or working relationship, have a right to expect our loyalty.


Loyalty in the government


Paul said, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God" (Romans 13:1).


Peter said, "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good" (1 Peter 2:13, 14).


Every leader of a nation wants loyalty. The president (or prime minister) is frustrated if he is surrounded by a cabinet that is not loyal. confidential leeks are evidence that there is disloyalty within. Disloyalty makes efficient work impossible.


Loyalty gives direction. We do not stumble when we are loyal. We know where we are going. It is like a compass to a ship. Loyalty provides a purpose and the drive to accomplish that purpose. A country knows that without loyalty it can never win a war. If there is no loyalty, there will be mass defection in time of battle and danger.


Loyalty in a marriage and family relationship


In the book of Deuteronomy, when the children of Israel were ready to enter into their promised inheritance in the land of Canaan, Moses reviewed for them the kind of lifestyle God has planned for them. If they would keep God's Law, they would be abundantly blessed in every area of their lives. In particular, their children would be blessed forever "like the days of the heavens above the earth" (Deut. 11:21).


God also pointed out through prophet Malachi that marriage is a covenant:


"It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the Lord, made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth" (Malachi 2:14, 15, NIV, emphasis added).


There are two reasons why God wants loyalty in a marriage and family relationship: One, your marriage is a covenant which cannot be broken. It is a covenant of loyalty unto death (Romans 7:3). Once this covenant is forgotten and ignored, marriage inevitably loses its sanctity. With the loss of the sanctity of marriage, it also loses loyalty, strength and stability. Second, God is seeking godly and loyal children. Godly husband and wife bring up godly and loyal children.


Loyalty in the Body of Christ


The basis of loyalty comes from the covenant relationship between God and the children of Israel:


"Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all the people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:5, 6, emphasis added).


From then on, Israel was set apart unto God as a special people, not by any intrinsic righteousness of their own, but by the covenant God made with them. God made them holy by entering into a covenant with them. They became His chosen people and He became their God. God expected them to be loyal to Him, faithful to Him, obedient to Him, trust Him and love Him.


The same principles concerning covenant relationship established in the Old Testament are carried over, unchanged, into the New Testament. When Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with His disciples He brought them into a covenant relationship with them.


After He had handed them the cup and told them all to drink of it, He said, "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26:28).


Notice that they not merely shared the cup of the covenant with Him; they also shared it with one another. The same solemn act that brought each of them into covenant with Jesus, at the same time brought them all into covenant with one another.


This is borne out in 1 Corinthians, where Paul was explaining the significance of the Lord's Supper to the believers:


"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the cmmunion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread" (1 Cor. 10:16, 17, NKJV).


Peter also declared that the new covenant in Christ has the same effect as God's previous covenant with the children of Israel. All believers were also called the special people of God:


"But you are chosen generation, a royal priest hood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who call you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy" (1 Peter 2:9, 10, NKJV, emphasis added).


After Jesus had shared the bread and wine of the new covenant with His desciples He prayed to the Father - John 17, His High Priestly Prayer:


Jesus prayed, "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one" (John 17:22).


This shows that the end purpose of the covenant is a union of the same nature and quality as that exists between the Father and the Son. Until we, as believers, have come into this unity, we have not fulfilled our covenant obligations - either to Christ or to one another. At the same time, believers should excercise the same loyalty toward one another as the Son has toward the Father. This loyalty is our unique spiritual weapon against the Devil when we need someone loyal to us to protect our back in spiritual warfare!