There are two great passages in the New Testament, both of which deal
with the Christian life under this metaphor of warfare. One of these is
the detailed description of the Christian armour in the Epistle to the
Ephesians. There we have described the equipment for that phase of the
fight of the Christian life which has to do mainly with the perfecting
of the individual character. But somewhat different is the armour which
is to be worn, when the Christian man goes out into the world to labour
and to wage war there for Jesus Christ. We may turn, then, rather to
the other of the two passages in question for the descriptions of the
equipment, armour, and weapons of the Christian in his warfare for the
spread of truth and goodness in the world. The passage to which I refer
is in 2 Cor. vi. What are the weapons that Paul specifies in that
place? I venture to alter their order, because he seems to have put
them down just as they came into his mind, and we can put some kind of
logical sequence into them. 'By the Word of God'--that is the first
one. 'By the Holy Ghost,' which is otherwise given as 'by the power of
God,' is the next. Get your minds and hearts filled with the truth of
the Gospel, and dwell in fellowship with God, baptized with His Holy
Spirit; and then you will be clothed 'as with a vesture down to your
heels' with the power of God. These are the divine side, the weapons
given us from above--'the Word of God' which is 'the sword of the
Spirit,' and the indwelling Holy Ghost manifesting Himself in power.
Then follow a series of human qualities which, though they are 'the
fruit of the Spirit,' are yet not produced in us without our own
co-operation. We have to forge and sharpen these weapons, though the
fire in which they are forged is from above, and the metal of which
they are made is given from heaven, like meteoric iron. These are
'kindness, long-suffering, love unfeigned.' We have to dismiss from our
minds the ordinary characteristics of warfare in thinking of that which
Christians are to wage. Like the old Knights Templars, we must carry a
sword which has a cross for its hilt, and must be clad in gentleness,
and long-suffering, and unfeigned love. 'The wrath of men worketh not
the righteousness of God.' You cannot bully people into Christianity,
you cannot scold them into goodness. There must be sweetness in order
to attract, and he imperfectly echoes the music of the voice that came
from 'the lips into which grace was poured,' whose words are harsh and
rough, and who preaches the Gospel as if he were thundering damnation
into people's ears.
Brethren, whatever be our warfare against sin, we must never lose our
tempers. Harsh words break no bones indeed, but neither do they break
hearts. A character like Jesus Christ--that is the victorious weapon.
Let a man go and live in the world with these weapons that I have been
naming, the truth of God in his heart, the Holy Spirit in his spirit,
the power that comes therefrom animating his deadness and strengthening
his weakness, and himself an emblem and an embodiment of the redeeming
love of Christ--and though he spoke no word he would be sure to preach
Christ; and though he struck no blow he would be a formidable
antagonist to the hosts of evil, and the icebergs of sin and
godlessness would run down into water before his silent and omnipotent
shining. These are the weapons.