Articles
"The Enemy Within"
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
In January 1838, the then young Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln gave his Lyceum Address entitled “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” addressing the rising concerns over mob violence in the Union. Americans were taking the law into their own hands, often with deadly results. Just the year before, Elijah Lovejoy, the editor of an abolitionist newspaper, was lynched by a pro-slavery mob. In his speech, Lincoln warned about the dangers of lawlessness and argued that it threatened the very foundations of American democracy. He said that the endurance of the nation depended on each citizen’s reverence for the law. He argued that America’s greatest enemy came not from foreign powers but from within—from those who disregarded the law in favor of personal vengeance.
“Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.”
When we consider the current state of the Union, with our political divisiveness and lawlessness, Lincoln’s warning sounds prescient. But what is true politically, in this case, is also true spiritually. The church certainly faces pressure from the outside in the form of false teachers who insinuate themselves into the body (Jd. 4) and oppressors who attempt to trample the saints (Jn. 15:18-20; Mt. 5:10-12; Acts 5:40-41; 8:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:12; Heb. 10:32-34; 1 Pet. 4:12-16; Rev. 2:10, etc.), but often the most devious threats to Christian unity come from within the body itself.
The Corinthians faced all sorts of internal problems that weakened their unity and public witness. Paul appealed for them to “agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” (1 Cor. 1:10) Paul labored for unity in Ephesus (Eph. 4:3-6), perhaps especially because he prophesied that some of the leadership would speak twisted things, “to draw away the disciples after them.” (Acts 20:30) The Galatian churches were in danger of consuming one another due to a lack of love (Gal. 5:15). The Christians James addressed were in danger of imploding due to attitudes of jealousy and selfish ambition (Jas. 3:16).
Threats to the church from within are by no means isolated and peculiar. They are widespread and common, as Scripture attests. Even a church as unified as Philippi saw hints of division, contained for the moment to a two individuals (Phil. 4:2-3). Our adversary can apply pressure from the outside and we must resist it, firm in our faith. But he is often happier to work from the inside.
Let’s consider some of the tactics of the enemy to forearm ourselves against threats to our unity. We will state four of them negatively:
- Don’t marginalize what is central — We must fight the tendency to allow secondary things to crowd out primary things. Many important concerns vie for our attention in the church, but we must keep Christ as our foundation (Col. 2:6-7) and love as our greatest command (Jn. 13:34). If we do not abide in love, God does not abide in us (1 Jn. 4:16).
- Don’t compromise what is lawful — In our quest to abide in love, we must also continue to abide in truth (Jn. 8:31; 2 Jn. 9). Truth cannot be upheld without love nor can love be expressed without the truth. Neither can be compromised for the sake of the other and remain. When we keep Christ’s commandments we are abiding in his love (Jn. 15:10).
- Don’t complicate what is simple — We protect the simplicity of God’s design for the local church from human invention (Mt. 15:1ff) by carrying out God’s commands in the ways he authorizes in Scripture. Deviation from God’s design is presumptuous (1 Sam. 15:23). We demonstrate our faith and our appreciation to God by doing things according to the pattern he has laid out for us in his word (Rom. 6:15-18).
- Don’t prioritize what is emotional — While emotions are important, they are often untrustworthy guides (Prov. 14:12). Our faith must be informed by what God says not by how we feel (1 Jn. 3:19-22). Often what God says and how we feel are opposed to one another. While we never want to violate our conscience (Rom. 14:23), our conscience can be misinformed (Acts 26:9). We must seek to further train our conscience by God’s word and continue to trust in that word over our feelings.
You could no doubt come up with more ways to defend against the enemy’s efforts to frustrate our unity. But if we hold God’s Son, his word and his love as our principle concerns, we remove much of the devil’s ammunition against us. God has sufficiently equipped his people (Eph. 4:16; 6:10ff). Are we willing to work to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”? (Eph. 4:3)
