Spiritual warfare isn’t a cosmic battle between good and evil. Spiritual warfare is an overarching term for the way that the Kingdom of God is established.
Breaking Down Our Assumptions
This may not be a way of looking at spiritual warfare that you are used to or that even seems to make sense. However, there is a serious mistake at the heart of the way in which many people approach spiritual warfare. That mistake goes something like this:
An assumption is made that there is good and evil, and that God is in charge of everything good and the Devil is in charge of everything bad. God and the Devil are in a long-term kind of cosmic cold war where demons and angels battle over the souls of humans, with some people belonging to the kingdom of the Devil and others belonging to the Kingdom of God. Humans are the front line in this cold war, with God and the Devil moving them against each other.
This is quite a serious mistake. It incorporates elements which have, at various times, been declared heresy.
The Mistake
First, it makes the mistake of thinking that good and evil are some kind of spiritual forces or equally balanced minds of ‘things’ which exist. This is similar to what we find in Star Wars, or pretty much any fantasy film or book. But this is not what we find in the Bible or in the teachings of the historical church.
Scripture tells us that only God is good. There is no idea of goodness separate from God. What is good is determined by God, so that something is good when it is like God or is in relation to God. There is no spiritual force of ‘good’ which is in opposition to ‘evil’. We need to stop thinking of goodness as being anything other than how closely something fulfils it’s purpose and how properly it relates to God.
The same criticism is true for the idea of evil. We make the assumption that there is such a thing as ‘evil’ which must be fought. We might think of some kind of spiritual force of evil, or that there are ‘evil’ beings and spirits. Then we think that these evil things are fighting against good things. But the mistake is on thinking that evil is another kind of ‘thing’ in the world.
Evil is not a thing or a force independent of anything else. Evil is a kind of emptiness. A void, like a black hole, that sucks in a corrupts people. Evil does not exist on its own but is the corruption and emptying of something that already exists. When we consider that evil has substance and existence on its own, we dignify it too much and give it too much power. Evil is the void which turns the human heart in on itself, which comes from placing our trust in the wrong things, and which emerges as we worship things other than God.
Good and evil are not things and are not spiritual forces. Something is good when it fulfils the purpose God has for it. Something is evil when it has collapsed in on itself and become less than in was, like a shadow.
Second, and perhaps the biggest mistake out there amongst Christians, is the idea that God and the Devil are in any way equal or opposites.
God is utterly unique and radically sovereign. Nothing and no one can ever in any way he considered to be equal to God. God is the King of all creation and all of existence. There is not the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the Devil in a war. There is only the Kingdom of God, and places, people, and systems in opposition to God’s rule.
Lets be clear about this. Even if we accept the idea that the Devil is in some way a discrete and individual spiritual being of power and evil, (which I don’t) then the Devil is still not the opposite of God. The Devil is not ruler of Hell. That comes from Milton, not scripture. If you do believe in Hell, then the Devil is a prisoner there. Not it’s ruler. To be handed over to the Devil does not mean that the Devil is in charge of you. It is more about where you are placing your alleigience.
But the idea of a personal spiritual evil power called the Devil is basically non-existent in the Bible. Individual demons and evil spiritual powers almost never occur and when they do, it is almost always as part of a set-piece narrative sequence. In almost every case, the discussion of dark spiritual powers, of demons or devils, is not to do with the kind of being we tend to assume. Our thinking in this matter has too often been influenced by medieval and renaissance images or literature, or by popular culture, and not by what is actually in scripture or in Christian teaching.
Instead, when we see dark or demonic spiritual forces in the Bible, they tend to be either the kind of behind the scenes powers and principalities of Paul, or the strange and shadowy tempter of the Gospels, or the results of idolatry in the Old Testament. Even if we were to start to deal with the incredible imagery of Revelation or Ezekiel, (and we would need to account for it’s very specific prophetic context) we would not find the kind of evil that we might assume is there.
Third, is the assumption that spiritual warfare is about contending with external dark spiritual forces. That is part of it to be sure, but a very minor part. Which brings us nicely onto starting to describe what spiritual warfare actually is.
The Kingdom Breaking In
As I said at the start, spiritual warfare is what happens when the Kingdom of God manifests in the world. It’s like when we turn on a light in a dark room. But the starting point for spiritual warfare is not in going toe to toe with demons. Spiritual warfare begins in our own heart.
More than anything else in the Bible, dark spiritual forces are shown as being linked to temptation. Not that there are these strange evil creatures that tempt us. But that temptation, and the self accusations that go with it, are in some way part of those powers and principalities which are the corrupted and fallen emptiness that pervades this world and our lives.
Our first spiritual battles are against temptation. We see this again and again in the lives of the early Christians as well as in the writing of the New Testament. The first monks and nuns went into the wilderness to learn to overcome temptation. For over a thousand years the life of a disciple was learning to be disciplined in thought, word, and deed, to confront and overcome temptation in our lives. Central to this is the role of ‘the accuser’ sometimes also called Satan. Not a personal being called Satan, but the representation of the idea of accusation.
Temptation begins with ‘maybe’ or ‘but’ or ‘really?’ but ends with ‘why did I do that?’ and ‘I’m not worth anything.’ Temptation is not just about wanting to do things we shouldn’t, it’s also about seeing ourselves as other than we are.
Spiritual warfare starts with overcoming temptation, and it is about learning to know ourselves as being in Christ. Developing our sense of belonging to Jesus will also help us overcome temptation. If we cannot win these battles, then we are not in a position to fight any others.
Confronting The Powers
To be clear, spiritual warfare is not only about spiritual realities as if they were separate to physical realities. The powers and principalities that Paul says we at war with are part of the oppressive systems and structures within which we live.
Dark spiritual powers exist behind the reasons why people go hungry, behind abuse and violence, and behind all kinds of cruelty and oppression. Not as a cause, so we can let humans off then hook, but as in some way being created and sustained by human behaviour and activity. Spiritual warfare in this case looks like feeding the hungry as well as praying for deliverance.
Spiritual warfare includes praying for people, situations, places, and ourselves. Dedicating time and attention to praying that God would set people free, would bring light into darkness, healing to brokenness, and protection from danger. This is what we might most commonly think of as spiritual warfare. Contending directly with dark spiritual powers through prayer and by calling on Jesus to intercede on our behalf.
Love and Justice Go Together
But spiritual warfare also includes feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, befriending the friendless, loving the unloved, visiting prisoners, advocating for justice, and standing in solidarity with the poor and oppressed. All of those actions directly attack the kinds of powers which underpin and empower the systems and structures of oppression and destruction with which we contend.
These actions also demonstrate the love and light of God for people who think such things don’t exist anymore. It is a way of showing that God is at work in the world. These actions are footholds for the Kingdom of God, creating beachheads in people’s lives for the power of God to work.
Spiritual warfare can be going on a protest, or writing a letter on behalf of someone being ignored by the benefits system. Spiritual warfare can be the church challenging the government over it’s policies. Spiritual warfare can be running a community space for the lonely, running a night shelter, or starting a lunch club. Spiritual warfare can be prayer walking around a sex club to pray for its clients and staff, or around an estate with lots of violence, or near a company that makes weapons.
What makes these things a form of spiritual warfare is because we do them as part of establishing the Kingdom of God in this world and opposing the kinds of dark and demonic forces which underpin and is in some way sustained and created by human behaviour that destroys and corrupts humans and systems.
When we start to understand spiritual warfare in these ways. As the personal battle to overcome temptation and know ourselves in Christ, and as the external battle to establish the Kingdom of God here and now, then we are freed from our false assumptions. Instead, we can approach spiritual warfare from a more scriptural position and actually engage in the work of the Gospel and not retell a fantasy novel or TV show.
But first, before everything else, we have to remember that spiritual warfare starts with us. To know ourselves as loved and saved by God. To resist and overcome temptation. To learn to love our neighbour. These are the battles we all must face.
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