The Primary Battleground
This is a guest post by Prof. Lawrence Bodley, Buffalo, Wyoming
As we move forward into the New Year and its challenges, we need to be always aware that in the spiritual formation of a Christian the battlegrounds are clearly discernible:
- The Battleground of the Mind:This involves the realm of thoughts emanating from ourselves, from God or from the enemy. This battle is fought in the mind because the mind is the nerve center of all our activity and therefore becomes “a target for the powers of darkness” (Dean Sherman, 44). This, then, is where the battle begins – the area where, in military terms, we take enemy fire.
- The Battleground of “Attitudes and Emotions” (Sherman, 46):As a Christian, I may well be able to control my actions, but my emotions are another matter. My feelings are involuntary. They come upon me – I do not choose them.
- The Battleground of the Tongue:Words have enormous power. With words we can speak “life or death” into situations and people. As Dean Sherman explains:
Our words can be vehicles of the Holy Spirit for truth, righteousness and life, or vehicles of Satan for deception, accusation and death (51).
Yes, how true all of this is. However, there is another battleground that for some reason it seems we sometimes fail to recognize or perhaps choose to ignore. It is in reality the primary battleground where our attitudes / emotions and our tongues are most severely tested. That battleground is not out there in the work-a-day world, but at home. Many of us look good in church, but at home it is a different story. At times, as a pastor visiting a believer’s home, I have found a hurting spouse, rebellious children and a marriage that is unstable. I have seen both the bitter, unsubmissive, controlling wife and the husband who is either ineffective in leading his family or who is a domineering, controlling tyrant who has no conception of what Paul meant when he said, “husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies” (Eph. 5:28).
The hard fact is that in today’s church it is all too often the church leader who fails so miserably in this respect. Paul, writing to Timothy, focuses on the home life of both the bishop (επισκοπος / episkopos[1]) and the deacon (διακονος / diakonos[2]). Of a bishop Paul writes that he is “one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household how will he take care of the church of God?)” [1 Tim. 3:4,5]. Likewise, deacons must be “good managers of their children and their own households” (1 Tim. 3:12). A pastor is in no way exempt from this requirement.
A church can never be any stronger than the families of which it consists. So often it seems that a Christian father is strangely absent in that he is not “hands-on” in his relationship with his children. Hence Paul writes, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord’ (Eph. 6:4). What this in essence can mean is that a father who is not “there” for his children is in fact a provocation because his neglect of them can result in a deep-rooted resentment, particularly during adolescence. But what does it mean to be “there” for both your girls and your boys? Get involved! Get involved in their sports activities. If they have not developed in this area, try and encourage them to do so – better still, try running, swimming or playing tennis with them. Take them hunting and fishing (yes, girls can get interested in that too!). But whatever you do, do not leave them to the sole mercy of video games, television, etc. If you do that, then someone else will be raising your children for you through that screen.
The primary battleground, then, is at home. Like it or not, your children are watching you and your spouse. What they see in you will affect them – they will emulate the good and probably much of the bad in you as well. If you allow your home to be dysfunctional, it will produce rotten fruit in your children. Husbands, if you love your wife (as much as you love yourself); if she sees and knows that you really are laying down your life for her, she will learn to trust your judgment and thus be willing to submit to your leadership when the need arises. Children have the chance to be secure and well-adjusted in a loving, disciplined home run by parents who love each other and submit their lives to the ethical demands of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible is always the supreme and ultimate authority for life in the Christian home.
We have all seen wild, disobedient children in stores and supermarkets, distraught mothers repeatedly yelling, “Stop that!” and finally losing their tempers – but generally the buck must stop with Dad. You see, prophetically speaking, these are the times of Elijah, the prophet who will appear “before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5,6).
But who is this biblical father who is spoken of here in the Scripture? He is the man who is “joined to his wife” so that “the two shall become one flesh” (Eph. 6:3). Adam understood this for he said of his wife, Eve, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” It is “for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:23-24). Is this your understanding of Christian marriage? It took me many years as a pastor to come to the realization that the Lord wanted my wife and me to work together as a team in ministry. When I served as pastor of my first American church, I made it clear to the congregation from the start that Sue and I would work together. Sue was then appointed as the church secretary, and we often visited and prayed for the sick together. Although busy raising our family of five, she quickly became known as the one who kept me on the tracks in my pastoral duties. At Zion Bible College again we worked together, she as my administrative assistant. In the classroom, we worked as a team, with Sue tutoring struggling students. Yes for me, Sue is “bone of my bone” and “flesh of my flesh.” But for us both there is a price to be paid. I have had to learn to ask her each day what her priorities and needs are and I am learning to discipline my own life so that she, whose help I am constantly in need of, will have time each day to do the things that are important to her. Husbands, remember that when you married that young woman, as your wife God meant her to be first and foremost your friend and the only one in the world who could ever be “bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh.”
Yes, father or mother, the primary battleground is at home because it is here that the most sacrifice is required of you. It is here where your love and patience will be stretched to the uttermost and it is here where everybody in the house (your children and your spouse) sees you as you really are – with all pretence stripped away. It is firstly at home where we must concentrate on getting it right. It is the primary battleground.
God be with you,
Lawrence
[1] επισκοπος / episkopos can also be translated ‘overseer’ (N.I. Dict. of N.T. Theol.,1:188).
[2] διακονος / diakonos in its NT usage can be translated as “one identified for special ministerial service in a Christian community” (BDAG, 231).
Bibliography
A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. (BDAG). Rev. & ed. by Frederick William Danker. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 2000.
New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Vol. 1. Gen. Ed. Colin Brown. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986.
Sherman, Dean. Spiritual Warfare. Seattle, WA: Frontline Communication / YWAM, 1990), 44.
Lawrence,
Thanks for your concise piece on “Home as a battleground.” It is very useful and I hope other ministers of God like us will make the most optimal use of it in their ministrations.