RESISTANCE!
SIN AND OUR SPIRITUAL IMMUNE SYSTEM
© Hubert Krause  Dec 16, 2000
The Church of God in Williamstown
WEB SITE: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~sanhub/index.htm

IMMUNE SYSTEM BREAKDOWN
One of the numerous threats to humanity today, and on an increasingly widespread basis, it seems, is the breakdown of the human body's natural immune system. Its ability to resist and destroy harmful antigens is being dangerously weakened by the diseases and afflictions of our twenty-first century society: pollution, deficient diet, drugs, overuse of antibiotics, poor sanitation, and the like. Most people affected seem powerless to resist this disintegration, although for some it's a result of apathy about the state of their body's health, and a failure to act. As a consequence, in place of a healthy immune system, more and more people are succumbing to illness, disease and death. It's a great cause for concern, to be sure.

However, for the saints of God, concern about the state of our spiritual immune system is even more imperative. How strong is our spiritual immunity, our resistance level, when temptations and trials beset us? Do we really understand the nature of the forces that are constantly at work to attempt to weaken us? How seriously do we take the command to resist temptation and overcome sin? God has also made available to us a powerful set of tools to help us to strengthen our spiritual immune system. Do we know what they are, and are we using them?

Let us examine the nature of the Christian's resistance to evil.

THE NEED FOR RESISTANCE
In all our diverse temptations and trials, as we all understand, the biblical instruction is the same:

Now, would God ask us to do something that was impossible: to resist the Devil? For this is the apostolic promise: the Devil can be successfully resisted—but the condition is submission to God. Our resistance to the adversary must be a direct resistance, using the spiritual weapons made available to us by God, as we will see. If we stand up to Satan and resist him we have God's guarantee that he will flee. Are we experiencing this?

The apostle Peter likewise urges resistance to the efforts of the Devil, depicted as the enraged lion, ravenous for prey, seeking to intimidate, overpower and devour the Church, in this case, as the context reveals, through the activities of persecutors.

So not only in temptations, but also in the sufferings that trials bring, the Devil is to be resisted. This is a call for discipline, for self-control, for patience, for faith. How well are we resisting?

ATTITUDES AND PERSPECTIVES
How do we individually regard the temptations, the occasions for sin to dominate, that periodically come our way? Do we view them as being of serious concern, as needing to be resisted, or are we dismissive of them?

Do we genuinely accept this—that we are always culpable in such cases—or is there still a tendency within us to make excuses for sin, to treat it lightly, to consider that there are occasional mitigating circumstances for the sins to which we continue to default? Is ours perhaps a "I'm not that bad really, when you consider some other people I could mention?" mentality? Or a "My background's to blame" mentality? Could elements of the question the apostle Paul raised to the Romans—solely in order to refute the false reasoning behind it—ever be in our thinking? Are some of us perhaps of the opinion that because God will always extend grace, we need not be all that diligent in resisting sin, that we can continue in the practice or habit of sin without incurring a penalty? A powerful condemnation indeed!

How seriously do we take that well-known scripture?

If we are in any way still excusing sin, how will we ever successfully resist its relentless advance into our lives? God tells us that it is the evil heart, swayed by the Devil, which is the true source of temptation. So Christ instructs us to pray: Yet would God ever "lead us into temptation", the temptation of sin, since He Himself "tempts no one"? A better rendering is: This should be our prayer, even as it was Christ's prayer for believers: Yes, Jas 1:13 informs us that it is our fault when we succumb to temptations. We fail to resist as we ought to. Yet God also tests us, using Satan as the tester, and allows trials to also purify us. When the time comes for us to pass through these tests, we are to ask God for deliverance in them. In the first part of Jas 1, the apostle discusses these outward trials, as opposed to inward trials, or temptations (although "temptation" and "trial" represent the same Greek word, which strictly speaking means "test"), in which Satan is also to be resisted: We do not of course court trials but when we "fall into" them (the same Greek word is used in Lk 10:30 of the man who "fell into" the hands of robbers)—and sometimes we fall into them through our own stupidity!—we are to regard them as unreserved joy! Have you ever met such a Christian? Yet what was David's perspective in his trials? Shouldn't this also be our attitude? Yet there are people who seem to learn little or nothing from their trials and tribulations—who do not resist as they ought to in them—and who instead simply sit them out.

Resisting the Devil in temptations and in the sufferings of trials can seem a lonely road. How can we be encouraged in the process? The apostle Peter continues in the latter part of the verse we previously read:

It's easy to think that our brand of suffering and trial is unique. Do we allow the knowledge that we are never alone in our temptations and trials to strengthen us, even though we are not witnesses to the sufferings and tribulations of Christians elsewhere in the world? We are admonished to find consolation in the reality that suffering righteously is the Christian's lot, a fellowship shared by Jesus Christ, and by the saints of old, all of whom suffered yet successfully resisted and overcame temptation and sin: We are admonished to consider Jesus Christ's example of resistance in His trials: And it's true, isn't it? Who among us has struggled against temptation and trial to the extent of having to suffer martyrdom? There's really no comparison when it's considered in this light. So it's also often a matter of perspective.

The apostle Paul, addressing the trials besetting the Corinthian Church—in this case temptations to sin through idolatry—likewise confirms the fact that the struggle to resist sin is common one, and offers us further encouragement:

Again, it is comforting to know that our trials and temptations are not unique: they are common to all mankind. Paul then continues by offering us the assurance of God's promise of strength and deliverance: God's purpose is not to take from us every trial, for we are instructed to resist the intentions of the Devil as we go through them, but rather to provide the strength for us to endure them. Paul says that God can be trusted to ensure that they are bearable. How?—by providing a way through them and out of them. Every trial has its own particular God-given way of escape (as opposed to our human efforts to circumvent problems). With the temptation or trial is given the ability to endure. Can we view our temptations in this way and be further encouraged to strengthen our resolve to resist and endure? God promises us help to successfully wage war against the evil one: How is it that He can offer us such a sure promise? Through the example and intercession of His Son. Our High Priest is both sympathetic and powerful. He suffered in temptation as we do, in the same manner, and so can sympathetically understand what we go through, appreciate our weaknesses, and offer us help. His example—He who, with the help of His Father, consciously resolved to prevail against temptation and sin—is an incentive for us to persevere.

However, while God strengthens us to resist temptation and to stand in times of trial and testing, we have our part to play as well in building up our spiritual immunity. There is much we need to do for ourselves to ensure that we can successfully resist evil, temptation, sin, and overcome the Devil. Let's now focus on some of these.

ALERT TO EVIL
Sin, we are informed, can deceive and harden us, if we are not actively resisting its attempted inroads into our lives:

If the presence of sin in our lives can harden us against God, it would seem logical and appropriate to do all we can to resist the onslaught such a force. And the battle begins in the mind, doesn't it? So what is our attitude to sin and evil?

If we say we love God, then we must by definition hate evil. How passionately do we do so?

And, in addition, we must love what God defines as good: —for or we can never love, delight in and cleave to what is good unless we hate evil as God tells us to. To abhor what God's law defines as evil requires a constant state of alertness, doesn't it? After all, our own human reasoning can easily convince us that it's really not that bad. It's only a small problem… Yet the Scriptures repeatedly re-emphasise: God demands of us a powerful, passionate emotional response when it comes to evil. Yet when the evil involves the accommodation of our sinful flesh, we don't always see it that way, do we? We are not always as alert to sin as we should be. It may therefore involve some reprogramming of our minds. How aware are we of the impact of sin? Is it continuing to wear down our immune system because we are not resisting it as we should be? Are we choosing to not to apply the law of God in some area of our lives so we can hold on to our own self-will? We noted in 1Pe 5:8 this call for watchfulness, soberness, a state of alertness if we are to resist the temptations to sin the Devil would throw our way. It too is a constant theme of the Scriptures. But we must do yet more as part of a successful resistance strategy.

RECOGNISING SIN'S POWER AND PITFALLS
People who are concerned about their health will usually go out of their way to avoid illness, aware of the risk of infection. How really attuned are we to the dangers posed to our spiritual welfare by sin? Do we understand the dynamic power of sin as we ought to? If we do not, then we will not be as vigilant as we should be in avoiding and resisting it.

Let's recall the words of Jesus Christ to Cain, about to murder his brother Abel:

Sin is personified as a ravenous beast, a wild animal lying in wait, ready to pounce on its prey, "a demon at the door", as one translator renders it.
Christ also spoke of being mastered by sin: It is indeed a master-slave relationship. Do we see it that way? Do we understand the force that is sin and appreciate the danger in failing to resist it? Paul expands upon the nature of the master-slave relationship that is sin: To fail to resist sin is to give ourselves over fully to its pulls, to obey it, whatever the consequences might be. The end result of the process can be bondage, tragedy and ruin. We may well begin by yielding ourselves 'voluntarily' to sin, but over time it can become an absolute master. The imagery here used is that of servitude which, whether it was voluntary or involuntary, was rigid in ancient times, with the master having absolute control over his slaves. So it is with sin.

Paul said he didn't understand his own actions: the dynamic power wielded by sin could propel him to do the very thing he did not want to do (Ro 7:15), could override his will (v18), was a law unto itself (v 21) that—unless it was resisted—would bring him again into captivity (v 23). Is this our view, our perspective, as well? If it is, will we not be moved to redouble our efforts to leave it as far behind us as possible?

Are we attuned to the snares—these "cords"—of sin? Both Peter and James, in the very scriptures we noted urging resistance to the Devil, alert us to two of them. Let's go back to the apostle Peter's admonition to resist the Devil, and this time notice the preceding verses:

Among Satan's many traps is the pitfall of anxiety. Satan would love to entangle us in excessive anxieties. Have you ever been so overwhelmed by anxiety that you are literally debilitated, paralysed? Such a high level of anxiety can cause us to lose control, to cast off restraint, and so fail to be concerned about sin as we ought to be. It is for this reason that Peter instructs us to give our anxieties over to God and to always be self-controlled and vigilant. As difficult as it is for us, we must do this. Anxiety can erode our will to resist evil.

James, in urging resistance to Devil, as we read in Jas 4:7, prefaces this injunction with a warning about friendship with the world, in verse 4:

and follows it with a warning against double-mindedness, in verse 8: To be in tune with the spirit, the tone and the values of this world, of this society, is to have the wrong kind of love, a rival love that, if not brought under control, will crush our love for God and our resistance to evil. Such is a conformation to the evil in the world, rather than a resistance to it. How can we be fully submissive to God and wholly resistant to the Devil if we are double-minded, with one foot in God's camp and the other in the world?

SUFFERING: CIRCUMCISION AND CRUCIFIXION
To resist sin, to suppress sin, is to suffer, and this is the imagery variously presented to us in the New Testament when the subject of resisting evil is addressed. Let's briefly note two examples of this. Notice what Peter tells us:

What does it mean to "suffer in the flesh" and so be done with sin?

In Colossians, Paul uses the imagery of spiritual circumcision to depict the putting away of sin:

Sin is to be so resisted—figuratively cut off—even if it's as painful as the literal physical act! Are we willing to go through the pain?
Similarly, apostle Paul uses the imagery of crucifixion of the self to depict this painful removal of the old and the walking in the new: Are we therefore crucifying—putting to death—our corrupt nature by effectively resisting sin? You know, crucifixion was an agonising, torturing process, and death in this manner was most lingering and distressing. Does this imagery figure in our thinking when we are called upon to practise resistance? We are to crucify our sinful desires, our propensity to sin. It is a painful, anguishing and protracted struggle to constantly subdue sin's magnetic pulls. Are we learning to resist our natural love for sin, learning to put to death the forces of sin that want to constantly assert themselves? We must fight to enfeeble and disable sin, to break its mastery over us.
Paul continues: Let's then look at the direct action demanded of us in accordance with the correct, godly emotional response to sin.

AVOIDING EVIL, "FLEEING SIN", PURSUING RIGHTEOUSNESS
We earlier noted some verses telling us that if we love God we will hate—abhor-evil. Of course, if this is all that is required of us, we will have a poor spiritual immune system indeed. Attitudes must translate into actions.

We are then required to make a decision and to take a clear path of action. There is no skirting around evil. Satan is to be withstood face to face! The fear of God requires that we oppose and reject the evil we say we hate—every time! It is our degree of success or failure in this area that will determine our resistance level when it comes to sin. Heb 5:14 talks about training our senses through constant practice to distinguish good from evil. What practice?—The practice of recognising and of resisting evil!
And notice yet again: —because the forsaking of evil cannot be achieved in a vacuum.
The apostle Paul gives us a similar instruction: A simple injunction, and the degree we apply, or fail to apply it will determine the strength of our spiritual immune system. To avoid evil is to stay clear of it in the first place as part of a policy of opposition, of resistance, and to depart from it is to consciously turn our backs on evil about to confront us, in the knowledge that it can contaminate and weaken us.

Yet God asks even more of us when it comes to the issue of the potential damage evil can do if we do not tackle it head-on:

If we fail to expose evil even in others, when God would have us do so, we are accomplices to it. Yet it's so often easier to say or do nothing, even when we know better, so as not to "rock the boat", isn't it? But, as the apostle Paul put it: If we continue to run with the crowd, tolerating what ought not to be tolerated, it will take its toll on our system in due time.

Still more is demanded of us.

There are some sins and temptations too powerful to be simply opposed, and in these safety comes only in full flight. Joseph practised just this (Ge 39:12).

Notice what else we are commanded to flee:

How do we read this? Is this instruction limited to the idol feasts Paul was directly referencing (vs 16-17)? It is a covetous, materialistic age, and it can so easily affect us. The apostle Paul several times in his epistles warns against the love of money (1Ti 3:3,8; 2Ti 3:2; Ti 1:7). Notice one such warning: And the wisdom of Solomon on the subject: Christ spoke of the dangers of "…. covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses" (Lk 12:15), and of laying up treasures for self, instead of being "rich toward God" (Lk 12:21). As with immorality, flight is the only way of escape if the temptation towards covetousness is our problem. Do we actively resist, willingly flee, from anything idolatrous?

And it's not simply a matter of fleeing these evil temptations, but also of positively pursuing true godly virtues in their place.

How effectively do we flee these? We are to be unswerving in our resistance to evil and in our pursuit of godliness. There is no place for even thinking about how we might fulfill the natural, illegal cravings of the flesh we all have: Yet don't we so often 'provide' for the flesh when we put ourselves into temptation's direct path by failing to control the mind, the thought processes in which the temptation originates?
Let us notice the words of Christ in this regard: Sins and temptations are awful to God! Are they so to us? If our spiritual resistance levels are frightfully low, perhaps we are not getting to the very core of what is causing us to continue to succumb to temptation and sin, in which case we are called upon to take drastic action: remove the obstacle, remove ourselves from the obstacle—physically and in the mind!
Interestingly, Christ gives this instruction twice in the same book: The situations, the occasions that we well know are stumbling-blocks for us, that allure us, that cause us to sin, are to be avoided, and their enticements to sin purged from our mind—promptly, regularly, regardless of the pain involved.

And God has provided a powerful set of tools to help us in our battle to resist sin.

THE ARMOUR OF GOD
We previously read Paul's instructions in Ro 6:13:

We are to utilise all our facilities—our bodily members—not as weapons of sin but rather as tools of righteousness, at the disposal of God. But Paul now introduces us to additional instruments or weapons of righteousness to help us resist evil. How do we fight our spiritual battle against sin and temptation? In a worldly manner—a policy of non-resistance perhaps?—or in a godly fashion? What reasonings of our mind, what devilish arguments, still hold us captive to sin, render us susceptible to temptation, so weakening our spiritual immune system? What have we yet to demolish, and how do we do so? Weapons in the right hand are offensive weapons, such as a sword, whereas those in the left are defensive, like a shield. So these weapons of righteousness are both defensive and offensive. So let us then note the individual components that make up this suit of armour. Before a Roman soldier put on his armour, he put a belt around his waist. This held his garments together and served as a place on which to hang his armour. The truth of God is a mighty tool against temptation and sin. The imagery here employed by Paul is taken from the large oblong or oval shield of the Roman soldier, approximately four feet high by two feet wide and overlaid with linen and leather, to absorb fiery arrows. This shield must always be carried. This is the only offensive weapon here mentioned. The Word of God is the only legitimate weapon of attack—but what a weapon! Do we recall how effectively Christ used it to counter the temptations of the Devil (Mt 4:1-11)? Do we allow the Word of God to judge the intents of our hearts? Paul tells us that Scripture thoroughly equips us for every good work (2Ti 3:16). The more the Word of God is internalised the more will be our awareness of sin, and the greater our ability to resist it. Is the Word—the law—of God permanently deposited in our hearts? Do we consider the consequences of pursuing what is sinful, as opposed to resisting it? Then there is an auxiliary weapon: Prayer is a powerful tool to help us resist temptation. The armour of God is to be worn with prayer, hearkening back to the model prayer, "do not lead us into temptation (Mt 6:13), for "...the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Mt 26:41).

We notice too that there is no armour specified for the back, for we are never to turn our backs on our enemy. Our only safety lies in constantly resisting the attack head-on (Jas 4:7).
Such is the "armour of light" to resist the forces of darkness:

This is the essential Christian armour, and we are "soldiers of the light", as the NEB includes in verse 12. Are we fighting our war of resistance fully equipped with this set of tools from God? We are instructed to wear the full armour of God. Are we doing so, at all times?

CONCLUSION
So what is the state of our spiritual immune system? Is our attitude towards evil being matched by an increasingly successful record of resistance to it? Are we practising the restraint God expects of us (Ps 119:101)? We are commanded to resist the Devil, armed with the tools given us by God. As painful as it is at times, it is not impossible. Paul said he could do "all things through Christ" who strengthened him (Php 4:13), and so can we—including mounting a successful stand against the evil one and the stratagems he employs to try to cause us to stumble.

Let us conclude with God's promise to all who successfully resist in temptation and trial:

May the vision of that promised crown of glory motivate us to strive ever more diligently to win our war of resistance!

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