Fight Off & Fight On!
An Encouragement to Stay in the Battle

by Pastor Kerry Krissel

SYNOPSIS
INTRO: The armor of God empowers you to check and to charge. It’s for blocking and landing blows! It’s all defensive and all offensive. Either way, if you suit up, stay in the fight, and give it your all, it is a win. God will see to it. Never give up.

KEY VERSES: Ephesians 6:10-18; 2 Corinthians 6:7; 1 Corinthians 9:23–27, 15:58

PROGRESSION:
Offense Or Defense?
Offense And Defense!
Battle or Ball
Work for the Win
Falling Back is Winning
Charging Ahead is Winning
Staying in the Fight is Winning!

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Previously I urged readers to put on the whole armor of God if they want to stand firm against the enemy’s certain attacks. That was an attempt to counter the tendency to look at the various pieces of armor listed in Ephesians 6 individually. That goes against the double encouragement to see them as a unified whole. Each and every one is important for victory against Satan. Some of the armor is not enough of the armor! When you suit up, you need all of it.

Offense Or Defense?
Attached to this imagery is another common tendency that needs to be rethought. You may have been told, as I was, that the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is the only offensive piece of armament. This confusion also flows from the tendency to look at each piece individually and not to see them as a cohesive whole. When we see the armor as one weapon and not several (as the passage urges us to do), we discover that every piece is both offensive and defensive.

In the spirit of full disclosure, but unsurprisingly, I know nothing about going into battle. Surely nothing about doing so wearing heavy and cumbersome armor. The only thing I know about sword fighting, I learned from Inigo Montoya and the Dread Pirate Roberts.* “Learned” may be a stretch. But as you watch the brilliantly choreographed swordfight scene in “The Princess Bride,” you find that each one throws both offensive blows meant to wound and defensive blocks meant to keep themselves from being wounded. More deftly demonstrated when the secret (which wasn’t well-kept) that they were both right-handers not left-handers, was exposed.

In this digital age, you do not have to know how to fence to have seen an offensive lunge get defensively deflected by the other’s foil. The sword clearly serves a dual purpose. Still don’t quite get my point? Maybe you would prefer a reference to Star Wars, lightsaber battles, and your favorite Jedi. Maybe you “learned” from a Jedi instead of pirate!

Offense And Defense!
Now, consider the other pieces individually for a half-a-minute. How about the shield? Can anyone say “Captain America!” He used that shield both to block and wound. While it is a little ridiculous how much damage it does and how it always find its way back to him, it is not inconsistent with the use of a shield in real hand-to-hand combat. It deflects blows, stop arrows, and makes a decent battering ram when you get an opening.

How about the helmet? Anyone ever seen a head-butt? Imagine the damage you could do if you had a metal helmet on. And as for those shoes, they would allow you to kick your opponent where it counts the most if need be! An offense strike for sure. And body armor makes that kick, elbow thrust, or lowered shoulder all quite lethal when used collectively to push your way through enemy lines. My point is simply that you cannot offensively advance very well or very far without being suited up with ALL that armor.

Not incidentally, the Bible speaks of the weapon of righteousness, as both offensive and defensive.

2 Corinthians 6:7 We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. ◎

Battle or Ball
True, none of us in this modern age have personal experience with medieval warfare. We do know something about the concept through other means. I know something about going into battle because I do it a couple of times a week… on the racquetball court. Now, imagine I went into the court with a racquet but wore dress shoes and office attire. Yeah, I am not going to win and I am going to ruin my clothes. Racquetball is not just about the racquet or ball. It takes more to bring the game to my opponent and have a chance to win. I press my opponent with my racquet, my footwork, my court position, ball speed, angles, strategy, determination, and even a little stealth. I wear athletic attire that lets me move easily and quickly. It is all defensive when the “enemy” hits a passing shot and I have to react quickly to get to that little blue ball before the second bounce. It is all offensive when I rush to the front of the court and dink the ball low and into the corner for an unreturnable shot.

Pick your sport of choice. Whether your field of play (battle) is a track, court, pool, stadium, or gymnasium, winning requires the proper equipment. Nothing is just offensive or just defensive. Athletes do everything they can to get an edge over their opponents, both in their preparation and their choice of gear. Much of the modern sporting equipment is specifically designed and tested to make sure it is effective for both defense and attack.

Work for the Win!
The Bible uses the athletic arena as a metaphor for the life of a Christ-follower. And when Paul does it, he challenges us to do everything we can to win our competition!

1 Corinthians 9:23–27 23 I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings. 24 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. ◎

Falling Back is Winning
I have a bumper sticker in my workshop that reads, “Some days the dragon wins.” I am not celebrating it, and I hate to admit it, but it is the truth. Ignoring it is useless. Pretending is duplicitous. Some days you have all you can do to defend ourselves. You feel like you are on the floor, on your back, desperately trying to keep the enemy who is standing over you from lopping off a hand or head! The dragon is drawing a huge breath so he can belch out a massive blast of white-hot flames on our lives to burn it all to the ground. It is all defense as we work to make it through another day. But when you think about it, all that defensive effort means… you survive to fight another day. That, my friend, is a victory! Simply defending is simply attacking!

Charging Ahead is Winning
Now, on a better day, I use the truth that God rescued and saved me to deliver blow after powerful blow to the enemy. I use my mind and the truth to force him to back off and pick a fight elsewhere. I throw everything God has at him. Feet that declare I am at peace with God and thrusts of faith that knock him backward. All while bringing my sword of truth down, blow after jab after blow, forcing him to back off and leave me alone. That is a good day. I often wish I could string a few more of them together. Some days it takes all that, other days not. But every day we have to be prepared to stand and fight.

Staying in the Fight is Winning
Fight on. It matters not if my armor performs life-saving defensive blocks or offensive attacks against his infernal lies, accusations, and shaming. Either way, the armor that God gave me, imbued with the invincible power of truth, energized by God himself, has kept me alive and taking ground for the Kingdom of God. It is okay to have off days, weak days, and barely making it days. A lost battle or two won’t change the decisive end. A victory is a victory. Each day gives us another chance to make a difference in this world as God’s army of light. Soldier on, stay in the good fight (1Timothy 6:12, 2Timoty 4:7), discipline yourself so you have every piece of armor ready when needed, train yourself in that armor so it is familiar. Run with purpose, run to win, finish the race, remain faithful, do not disqualify yourself from the prize.

1 Corinthians 15:58
ΩWith all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.

⨍Therefore, my beloved brethren, be firm (steadfast), immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord [always being superior, excelling, doing more than enough in the service of the Lord], knowing and being continually aware that your labor in the Lord is not futile [it is never wasted or to no purpose].

Next Article: Satanic Methodologies: A Look into His (Not So) Secret Playbook
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* “The Princess Bride,” starring Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, and others; screenplay written by William Goldman; directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner; soundtrack written and recorded by Mark Knopfler; 1987.
◎ Tyndale House Publishers. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015.
Ω Peterson, Eugene H. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005.
⨍ The Amplified Bible. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1987.