A Call to all Christians

Being a Christian is a mean business. It demands a self-control which is unnatural, a way of life which enters into the exuberance of Christ, and thus rejects all sin. It is a life of all out confrontation with the false, the wicked and the blasphemous, proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord, the Holy Trinity, and standing by that in our minds, bodies and souls. It is about being at war.

And yet, so many followers of Christ complain about their imperfections, their failings and their inadequacies. But when I look at their lives, I see so little battle, so little fight, so little action against these foes. They moan and murmur, but the Lord has provided us with a manual to launch from, a springboard to face the enemy within the books of the Bible. The person of Jesus defines this assault on the powers of darkness, exemplified by the cross and the resurrection. When Satan tried to tempt Jesus in the desert into breaking his fast, did the Son give in to his human weakness of hunger? No! He fought back. When the devil tried to make Jesus prove his divinity by tempting him to throw himself off the temple roof, did the Messiah succumb to the human temptation of pride, extravagance and a limited view of divine authority? No. He held his ground. And when Lucifer offered all the kingdoms of the world to the Lord, if he but kneel at the Accuser's feet, did he for go his path of suffering for a life of luxury, wealth and honour among men? No. He broke the power of the enemy in two.

The point is, we Christians our to lead a life of violence, as demonstrated by our King. But with whom, or with what, are we to be violent to? Not other people. Not Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Atheists, Jews, Frenchmen, Republicans or any other fellow being. No, we are called to be violent to the violence we commit against others. We are to wrestle every urge in our soul to lust, covet, hate and any other sin against the Lord. Purging ourselves of sin is a dedication of our lives to God, and to often Christians forget this. We are to fight our own desires, putting them aside for Love and Truth, which proceed and reside in God alone. As St. Ignatius emphasised, imitation of Christ is in itself a union with Lord, something so special on cannot begin to describe it in a meaningful manner. Anything, which would make peace with sin, we are to rid ourselves of as best we can.

This means that all enslaving thoughts of food, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, pornography, clothes, material possessions, money, approval of others, prestige of man, power, fame, our a Christian's enemy. These our the things in ourselves we must fight, for they corrupt us from servitude from God alone. And the irony is, people just blame Satan for this. They pin all of these dark, dangerous demons of our live on his tempting ways. But in the book of Romans, a war on sin, Paul doesn't even confront Satan until chapter 16! Spiritual warfare is fought against Lucifer, and it is important to take on the dark power's principalities, but ultimately, no one goes to hell because of Satan. The only reason we go to hell is because of sin. And that is where he gets his foothold. Our biggest enemy is not the devil, but ourselves. My biggest enemy is not the fallen angel, but Nathan Hood. Fallen, flesh loving, selfish, hostile, jealous, mean, spiteful, power grabbing, sinful Nathan Hood. And he is the only reason why I would go to hell.

Take the temptations again. The devil had no power over Jesus' actions, he would only have gained momentum had Christ sinned. But Jesus did not sin. And we are called to follow his example. We are called to deny our selves in following him, picking up our cross and killing the old way of life you once lived. The Gospel is about a kingdom, and one cannot be half in and half out. You are either a child of God's or an antichrist, to use the language of St. John.

This can only be done by embracing and accepting God's grace. Jesus died for us so that we might be saved, and in doing so allowed us to trust in him and him alone. By his power, we are no free to fight our enemy, ourselves. And I call on all Christians to follow the Lord in waging a war upon our own, passivity and tackling head on our sinful nature.

On a side note, I wrote this article as a response to a growing passivity among Christians in their daily lives. If you are not Christian, this article will be of little relevance to you, and is not designed to help you learn.