The result of yielding to Satan’s temptation is always destruction. But wielding the sword of the Spirit fends off the thoughts and impulses that the enemy plants in our minds to lead us into death. The Word of God brings life.
Author, David Jeremiah observes,
The biblical context for viewing all of life’s events is called spiritual warfare—the age-old conflict between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light….Biblically and practically speaking, we are in a spiritual war. The Christian’s spiritual enemy is not in uniform, and he doesn’t meet us on an identifiable battlefield. He uses ruthless and unconventional tactics such as deceit, deflection, and disguise…. The church of Jesus Christ needs to know its enemies and his strategies. Above all, Christians need to know how to gain victory over this enemy.
(The Spiritual Warfare Answer Book).
In this episode, we take a practical look at HOW YO USE the sword of the Spirit to resist thoughts and temptations that seek to entice us off of the path of life and onto the road of destruction. As we continue the series, Winning Spiritual Battles Because We Use Our Spiritual Weapons, we come today to Paul’s admonition to take up… the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph 6:17). One of the best things about this weapon is that unlike the others, we actually get to see Jesus using it in Scripture. We’ll dig into a study of Jesus’ combat with Satan, in a moment but lets first get to know a bit about this weapon.
This weapon is the Word of God, which is so powerful for transforming human minds and hearts that it is called “living.” For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb 4:12-13). As we will see, even Jesus did not battle Satan with his own thoughts but only by quoting Scripture.
The Greek word for sword, MACHAIRA does not describe the swash buckling kind of sword used by Zoro. Rather, it was quite short, more like a dagger. It was used by the Romans in close hand-to-hand combat. This weapon is for personal attacks. This truth is underscored by the Greek word Paul chooses for Word (of God). It is not LOGOS, which connotes broad, general principles. Rather, Paul chooses RHEMA, which refers to specific “utterings.” NT scholar W. E. Vine writes,
The significance of RHEMA as distinct from LOGOS is exemplified in the injunction to “take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” Here the reference is not to the whole Bible as such, but to the individual Scripture passages, which the Spirit brings to our remembrance for use in time of need, a prerequisite being the regular storing of the mind with Scripture (An Expository dictionary of NT Words).
Identifying the word of God as the sword of the Spirit is consistent with what we know about the work of the Holy Spirit. Not only does He indwell Christ-followers so they have the presence of Christ with them at all times (abiding in Christ), the Holy Spirit’s work is to help us overcome our sinful nature and transform our hearts into Christ-like attitudes—love, Joy, peace, patience…etc. So, the Holy Spirit is right inside us to help us when thoughts come into our minds, designed by Satan to lead us away from Christ and his righteous path. He is there to help us recall the right truth in Scripture to combat Satan’s lies. But of course, we can’t recall, what we have never read or committed to memory. Let’s zoom in to the wilderness of Judea and watch Jesus wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
First Temptation: Use your power to command these stones to be bread.
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ (Matthew 4:1-4).
Satan begins the temptation by appealing to Jesus’ power, If you are the son of God use that power to turn stones into bread. What many don’t realize is that Jesus’ hunger after a long fast meant that he was close to death. Those who have practiced long fasts point out that after 6 or 7 days, hunger pains go away. If they have water, a human can fast about 40 days, but when his hunger pangs return, he must eat soon, or he will die. Jesus was being tempted not to have to depend upon his heavenly father, but to use his spiritual power to take care of his own needs. The passage he cites is Deut 8:3. The verse before it provides important context.
And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:2-3).
Dependency upon God for your daily bread reflects the humility that is vital for depending upon God’s moral law every day. Jesus refused the temptation to stop depending in humility upon his heavenly father. The first Adam refused to depend upon God to satisfy his hunger for food, failing to trust God’s instruction not to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. Instead, he allowed the delicious fruit to entice him into rebellion against God. He violated God’s restriction and ate. The first Adam put his physical appetite ahead of obedience to God. The Second Adam, though at the point of dying because of his need for food—refused to take matters into his own hands. He humbled himself depending on God. In quoting Deut 8:3, man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord, Jesus is saying real life comes not just through physical sustenance but also by obedience to God. That is the lesson God wanted to teach the Israelites in the wilderness.