2 August 2026
THE THREE ENEMIES WE FACE
(Spiritual Warfare: SW 15)
There are three enemies the Christian faces daily: the flesh, the world and the devil. These three constantly trap the believer in their clutches and cause them to be ineffective and undermine their witness for Christ. They also cause the believer to lose his love for Christ and to hinder his spiritual life and prowess by compromising his convictions and spiritual standards. Many believers are in bondage to these three enemies and may not even realize it. Or, they may have been dulled or deceived for so long that they do not know how deeply entrenched they are in their sins and bondage.
We will deal with each of these three enemies more thoroughly and in more details in subsequent issues of the Bulletin. However, the following summary will suffice for now.
- The Flesh
is sometimes referred to as “the sinful nature” in the NIV. It is actually the old Adamic nature we inherited and were born in. It involves the five senses of the natural man: touch, smell, sight, taste and hearing. Often our moral and spiritual life and values are influenced by these. Or the devil uses these to keep us in bondage. The Bible also speaks quite a bit about the “weakness of the flesh” due to the fallen nature of man. This weakness causes us to sin and fall into evil habits that we cannot free ourselves.
- The World
is the system in the world under the control of the devil (1 John 5:19). The “world” is the glitter that challenges our love for God. It seeks to draw us away from God by luring us with its counterfeit values, and blinds us to the reality of the divine life and purpose. Its superficial “attractions” lure us to give up our higher spiritual and eternal values and divine calling in exchange for the temporal things of this world. Hence the Bible exhorts us thus: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, then the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
- The Devil
is the archenemy of God and the Christian. He hates God and the Christian and wages war against the Church and all God’s people. He is doomed to destruction in due time and he knows it. But before that he wants to drag as many as possible to destruction with him. He seeks to destroy the Church and Christian by every foul mean he can use or invent. He is real and he is powerful and the Christian cannot fight him in his own strength. He goes around “like a roaring lion” seeking to devour us (1 Pet.5:8). Hence we are exhorted to resist him and he will flee from us (James 4:7).
These three enemies
are constantly on the prowl to destroy our faith and weaken our resolve to love and serve God. We need the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to strengthen our spiritual life so that we can
“fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim.6:12).
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