What do we Fight in the Fight of Faith?

The true Christian is called to be a soldier, and must behave as such from the day of his conversion to the day of his death, he is not meant to live a life of religious ease, indolence, and security, He must never imagine for a moment that he can sleep and dose along the way to heaven, like one travelling in an easy carriage.  If he takes his standard of Christianity from the children of this world he may be content with such notions, but he will find no countenance for them in the Word of God.  If the Bible is the rule of his faith and practice, he will find his lines laid down very plainly in this matter.  He must “fight.”

With whom is the Christian soldier meant to fight? Not with other Christians.  Wretched indeed is that man’s idea of religion who fancies that it consists in perpetual controversy.  He who is never satisfied unless he is engaged in some strife between church and church, chapel and chapel, sect and sect, party and party, knows nothing yet as he ought to know.  Never is the cause of sin so helped as when Christians waste their strength in quarreling with one another, and spend their time in petty squabbles.

No, indeed!  The principal fight of the Christian is with the world, the flesh, and the devil.  These are his never-dying foes.  These are the three chief enemies against whom he must wage war.  Unless he gets the victory over these three, all other victories are useless and vain.  If he had a nature like an angel, and was not a fallen creature, the warfare would not be so essential.  But with a corrupt heart, a busy devil, and an ensnaring world, he must either “fight” or be lost.

He must fight the flesh.  Even after conversion he carries within him a nature prone to evil, and a heart weak and unstable as water.  To keep that heart from going astray, there is need of a daily struggle and a daily wrestling in prayer.  “I keep under my body,” cries St. Paul, “and bring it into subjection.”  “I see a law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity.”  “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  .… They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”  “Mortify your members which are upon the earth” (1 Cor. ix. 27; Rom. vii. 23, 24; Gal. v. 24; Coloss. iii. 5).

He must fight the world.  The subtle influence of that mighty enemy must be daily resisted, and without a daily battle can never be overcome.  The love of the world’s good things, the fear of the world’s laughter or blame, the secret desire to keep in with the world, the secret wish to do as others in the world do, and not to run into extremes—all these are spiritual foes which beset the Christian continually on his way to heaven, and must be conquered.  “The friendship of the world is enmity with God: whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God.”  “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  “The world is crucified unto Me, and I unto the world.”  “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.”  “Be not conformed to this world” (James iv. 4; 1 John ii. 15; Gal. vi. 4; 1 John v. 4; Rom. xii. 2).

He must fight the devil.  That old enemy of mankind is not dead.  Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve he has been going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it, and striving to compass one great end—the ruin of man’s soul.  Never slumbering and never sleeping, he is always going about as a lion seeking whom he may devour.  An unseen enemy, he is always near us, about our path and about our bed, and spying out ail our ways.  A murderer and a liar from the beginning, he labors night and day to cast us down to hell.  Sometimes by leading into superstition, sometimes by suggesting infidelity, sometimes by one kind of tactics and sometimes by another, he is always carrying on a campaign against our souls.  “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.”  This mighty adversary must be daily resisted if we wish to be saved.  But “this kind goeth not out” but by watching and praying, and putting on the whole armour of God.  The strong man armed will never be kept out of our hearts without a daily battle.  (Job i. 7; 1 Peter v. 8; John viii. 44; Luke xxii. 31; Ephes. vi. 11).

Reader, perhaps you think these statements too strong.  You fancy that I am going too far, and laying on the colours too thickly.  You are secretly saying to yourself, that men and women in England may surely get to heaven without all this trouble and warfare and fighting.  Listen to me for a few minutes, and I will show you that I have something to say on God’s behalf.  Remember the maxim of the wisest general that ever lived in England: “In time of war it is the worst mistake to underrate your enemy, and try to make a little war.”  This Christian warfare is no light matter.  Give me your attention and consider what I say.

What saith the Scripture? “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.  .… Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”  “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”  “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.”  “Labour for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life.”  “Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.”  “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”  “War a good warfare; holding faith, and a good conscience” (1 Tim. vi. 12; 2 Tim. ii. 8; Ephes. vi. 11-13; Luke xiii. 24; John vi. 27; Matt. x. 84; Luke xxii. 36; 1 Cor. xvi. 18; 1 Tim. i. 18, 19).  Words such as these appear to me clear, plain and unmistakable.  They all teach one and the same great lesson, if we are willing to receive it.  That lesson is, that true Christianity is a struggle, a fight, and a warfare.

-J.C. Ryle